word of the day: raglan

word of the day: raglan

 context:

“[During an] 1895 interview, [Peter] Doyle brought out a raglan of [Walt] Whitman’s and explained, ‘I now and then put it on, lay down, think I am in the old times. Then he is with me again. … When I get it on and stretched out on the old sofa I am very well contented. It is like Aladdin’s lamp. I do not ever for a minute lose the old man. He is always near by.’” [ellipsis in the original]

definition (Merriam-Webster): a loose overcoat with raglan sleeves; raglan sleeves are sleeves that extend to the neckline with slanted seams from the underarm to the neck

Peter Doyle was one of Walt Whitman’s lovers. Whitman only had a few with whom he was together long enough that one could see the two as a couple. Whitman loved getting his portrait taken but he was typically solo. There’s a well-known photograph of Peter and Walt facing each other, clearly gazing into each other’s eyes. 

They parted ways, but not acrimoniously. Peter Doyle came to Walt Whitman’s graveside service. It seems he “almost was not admitted.” There were, however, at least two close friends of Whitman who remembered Doyle and made sure he could stay. One of them, Horace Traubel, conducted the 1895 interview three years after Whitman’s death. 

source:

Calamus Lovers: Walt Whitman’s working class camerados

edited by Charley Snively

1987. Gay Sunshine Press, San Francisco, CA