the temperance movement and Franklin Evans are in a context of non-state political association. Warner argues that hardly any bad situations follow directly after the consumption of alcohol in the plot of the story. The disasters of marriage, impulse, and a creole slave becoming homicidal do not have to do with alcohol. Alcohol had so little to do with the story that Whitman had to change the title twice. The theme of the novel seems to be addiction, not alcoholism. It is not hard to hear some reference to the same-sex subculture of New York City in many passages. When talking about drunk men, Whitman focuses on the description of the men, not the alcohol they have consumed. Such sexuality is the main focus of many of Whitman's poems, too. The Walt Whitman Encyclopedia: In this book, William Lulloff states that, at first, Walt Whitman disguised his authorship of the novel by using the pseudonym J.R.S. This may have been because Whitman claimed to have completed the novel in three days. Whitman even included short stories that he had previously written to shorten the amount of actual writing he had to do. Some of these short stories may have been used in the sections about the Indian in chapter 2, "Little Jane" in chapter 14, and the allegorical dream in chapter 21. Lulloff states that Whitman had called his novel "damned rot—rot of the worst sort, and many people agree with this assessment. Lulloff also notes that this novel was meant to be published in newspapers, so it does not flow as a book should. This should not surprise anyone, because Whitman states in the introduction that this novel "is not written for the critics but for the people." Notes References Lulloff, William G. "Franklin Evans; or The Inebriate." The Walt Whitman Archive. Web. November 30, 2010. <http://www.whitmanarchive.org/criticism/current/encyclopedia/entry_81.html>. Warner, Michael. "Whitman Drunk." Breaking Bounds. New York: Oxford UP, 1996. 30–43. Print. Christopher Castiglia and Glenn Hendler, editors and authors of "Introduction" to Walt Whitman, Franklin Evans, or The Inebriate: A Tale of the Times. Durham: Duke UP, 2007. External links 1842 American novels Temperance movement Works by Walt Whitman Novels set in New York (state) 1842 debut novels