Franklin Evans

Franklin Evans, or The Inebriate: A Tale of the Times

Title page, Reprint edition
Author	Walt Whitman
Genre	Temperance
Publication date	1842

Franklin Evans; or The Inebriate, is a temperance novel by Walt Whitman first published in 1842.

Franklin Evans or The Inebriate: A Tale of the Times, the first novel written by Walt Whitman, is the rag-to-riches story of Franklin Evans. Franklin Evans starts as an innocent young man, leaving Long Island to come to New York City for the opportunity to better himself. Being young and naïve, he is easily influenced by someone whom he befriended (Colby) and eventually becomes a drunkard. He tries many times to abstain from alcohol but does not succeed until after the death of his two wives. Franklin Evans takes you through a journey of a young man living and learning through his mistakes, picking up life lessons along the way.

An introduction to a modern reprint of Franklin Evans, written by Christopher Castiglia and Glenn Hendler, serves as a detailed preface to the novel. It incorporates a section about Walt Whitman's early life to give readers an understanding about why he took up writing in the first place. After his childhood, he operated a hand press for both the Long Island Patriot and the Star until his family returned to rural Long Island. He soon began a journalistic career until becoming a teacher in 1836. He earned a very small wage with which he was not satisfied, so he began his own weekly paper. From here, a concrete writing career began, and influential authors began to target Whitman's work, including Park Benjamin, who published Franklin Evans in his own paper.

The authors also touch on Whitman's journalism of the 1840s. They believe it represents the state of New York in a time of transition. Referencing one of Whitman's pieces of literature, they write one of his statements regarding Chatham Square: "In the middle are dray carts, coaches, and cabs: on the right, loom up small hills of furniture, of every quality, with here and there an auctioneer, standing on a table or barrel top, and crying out to the crowd around him, the merits of the articles, and the bids made for them." This statement contains a great deal of nostalgia from past times, which alludes to change in social mobility from a changing economy.