美国国家公共电台 NPR Grad Student Discovers A Lost Novel Written By Walt Whitman

 

ARI SHAPIRO, HOST:

Now a story of discovery, a buried literary treasure. The great poet Walt Whitman wrote a novel in 1852 called "The Life And Adventures Of Jack¹ Engle." That text was forgotten for more than a century until a graduate student at the University of Houston uncovered it. Zachary Turpin is that graduate student.

Congratulations on your discovery.

ZACHARY TURPIN: Oh, thank you very much.

SHAPIRO: So this began as you were looking over old notebooks from Walt Whitman, and you found to a reference to a story that had never been published. You started digging and found an item in The New York Times from 1852. What did it say?

TURPIN: That's right. It promises a rich revelation. It says, tomorrow in the Sunday Dispatch, which is an old New York newspaper, "Life And Adventures Of Jack Engle," an autobiography². And that name, Jack Engle, is what stuck with me.

SHAPIRO: Because it had been in Whitman's notes.

TURPIN: That's right.

SHAPIRO: So you had to get in touch with the Library of Congress in order to get the Sunday Dispatch in which it was published. They sent you the first page. What was it like when you received that and saw this undiscovered Walt Whitman novel?

TURPIN: It was wild. So the literary research that I do isn't as glamorous³ as you might think.

SHAPIRO: You're not Indiana Jones in like...

TURPIN: Not it's not...

SHAPIRO: ...Snake-filed pits?

TURPIN: Much as I appreciate the comparison, I'm not Indiana Jones (laughter). I was actually in a guest bedroom and my in-laws putting together Pack 'n Play, and I got an email and of course had to drop everything and open it. And what I'm looking for are these very unique character names that Whitman had written out - Wigglesworth, Smytthe spelled S-M-Y-T-T-H-E. And the first thing that I see on the page are those names. So it was a real shock.

SHAPIRO: I mean I can't imagine what that must have felt like.

TURPIN: It was it was surreal. It is still surreal. It's - you know, I've been holding this secret inside me, and so have quite a few people. I probably told too many people. And it's been a very, very wonderful and bizarre experience ever since.

SHAPIRO: This book, "The Life And Adventures Of Jack Engle," is now being posted online and also published in book form. We're going to tweet a link to it from the NPR ATC Twitter account. But will you just give us a snapshot of the plot? It sounds very sort of Dickensian.

TURPIN: It is Dickensian, among other things. It's also a sentimental⁴ novel. It's also a city-mystery novel. It's multifaceted. Let's put it that way. The main character's an orphan⁵ who has been adopted, and he's now grown to a young man. He's entering the study of law. And his boss essentially⁶ is this sort of scheming villain⁷ named Mr. Covert⁸ who's scheming after the inheritance of his adopted daughter, Martha. And from the very first time he meets her, Jack Engle, the titular⁹ character, feels these feelings toward Martha. He swears that he has met her before. Though, his eyes are also drawn¹⁰ to Inez, the Spanish dancing girl.

SHAPIRO: It is a thickly layered plot (laughter).

TURPIN: It is. He packs a lot into 22 chapters.

SHAPIRO: Do you like the book? Is it something that you would enjoy reading?

TURPIN: I'm really blown away by this book. What I can say about this book is that it's all things to all men. It's weird¹¹. It's wild. It's beautiful and hilarious¹². (Laughter) And it's truly phenomenal and I think something that everyone would enjoy picking up.

SHAPIRO: Sounds like you're saying it contains multitudes.

TURPIN: It contains multitudes - well said.

SHAPIRO: (Laughter) Whitman said later in his life that he was not proud of his early writings. At one point he said he wished to have all those crude and boyish pieces quietly dropped in oblivion. Should we respect that wish?

TURPIN: That's a very good and pointed¹³ question. I'll say two things. Number one, are there things that you wrote in youth that you would wish quietly dropped in oblivion?

SHAPIRO: Of course (laughter).

TURPIN: I think there are for me, too. So on the one hand, I understand where he's coming from. On the other hand, Whitman's greatest wish was to be the greatest and most famous poet in America. And I think the testament¹⁴ to that fact is that he now has two new books coming out more than a hundred years after his death.

SHAPIRO: Well, Zachary Turpin, thanks a lot for sharing your discovery with us.

TURPIN: Many thanks. Thanks for having me on.

SHAPIRO: Zachary Turpin is a graduate student at the University of Houston. He discovered the last Walt Whitman novel "The Life And Adventures Of Jack Engle."

(SOUNDBITE OF MR. GREEN AND MALIK B SONG, "WHAT CAN I SAY")

1 jack   

n.插座，千斤顶，男人；v.抬起，提醒，扛举；n.（Jake）杰克

参考例句：

• I am looking for the headphone jack.我正在找寻头戴式耳机插孔。
• He lifted the car with a jack to change the flat tyre.他用千斤顶把车顶起来换下瘪轮胎。

2 autobiography   

n.自传

参考例句：

• He published his autobiography last autumn.他去年秋天出版了自己的自传。
• His life story is recounted in two fascinating volumes of autobiography.这两卷引人入胜的自传小说详述了他的生平。

3 glamorous   

adj.富有魅力的；美丽动人的；令人向往的

参考例句：

• The south coast is less glamorous but full of clean and attractive hotels.南海岸魅力稍逊，但却有很多干净漂亮的宾馆。
• It is hard work and not a glamorous job as portrayed by the media.这是份苦差，并非像媒体描绘的那般令人向往。

4 sentimental   

adj.多愁善感的，感伤的

参考例句：

• She's a sentimental woman who believes marriage comes by destiny.她是多愁善感的人，她相信姻缘命中注定。
• We were deeply touched by the sentimental movie.我们深深被那感伤的电影所感动。

5 orphan   

n.孤儿；adj.无父母的

参考例句：

• He brought up the orphan and passed onto him his knowledge of medicine.他把一个孤儿养大，并且把自己的医术传给了他。
• The orphan had been reared in a convent by some good sisters.这个孤儿在一所修道院里被几个好心的修女带大。

6 essentially   

adv.本质上，实质上，基本上

参考例句：

• Really great men are essentially modest.真正的伟人大都很谦虚。
• She is an essentially selfish person.她本质上是个自私自利的人。

7 villain   

n.反派演员，反面人物；恶棍；问题的起因

参考例句：

• He was cast as the villain in the play.他在戏里扮演反面角色。
• The man who played the villain acted very well.扮演恶棍的那个男演员演得很好。

8 covert   

adj.隐藏的；暗地里的

参考例句：

• We should learn to fight with enemy in an overt and covert way.我们应学会同敌人做公开和隐蔽的斗争。
• The army carried out covert surveillance of the building for several months.军队对这座建筑物进行了数月的秘密监视。

9 titular   

adj.名义上的，有名无实的；n.只有名义（或头衔）的人

参考例句：

• The Queen is titular head of the Church of England.英国女王是英国国教名义上的领袖。
• He is titular head,and merely signs laws occasionally.他是名义上的首脑，不过偶尔签字批准法律法规。

10 drawn   

v.拖，拉，拔出；adj.憔悴的，紧张的

参考例句：

• All the characters in the story are drawn from life.故事中的所有人物都取材于生活。
• Her gaze was drawn irresistibly to the scene outside.她的目光禁不住被外面的风景所吸引。

11 weird   

adj.古怪的，离奇的；怪诞的，神秘而可怕的

参考例句：

• From his weird behaviour,he seems a bit of an oddity.从他不寻常的行为看来，他好像有点怪。
• His weird clothes really gas me.他的怪衣裳简直笑死人。

12 hilarious   

adj.充满笑声的，欢闹的；[反]depressed

参考例句：

• The party got quite hilarious after they brought more wine.在他们又拿来更多的酒之后，派对变得更加热闹起来。
• We stop laughing because the show was so hilarious.我们笑个不停，因为那个节目太搞笑了。

13 pointed   

adj.尖的，直截了当的

参考例句：

• He gave me a very sharp pointed pencil.他给我一支削得非常尖的铅笔。
• She wished to show Mrs.John Dashwood by this pointed invitation to her brother.她想通过对达茨伍德夫人提出直截了当的邀请向她的哥哥表示出来。

14 testament   

n.遗嘱；证明

参考例句：

• This is his last will and testament.这是他的遗愿和遗嘱。
• It is a testament to the power of political mythology.这说明，编造政治神话可以产生多大的威力。