Distinguished Service Award to Martin Murray

Presented by former GLAA President Craig Howell

GLAA 38th Anniversary Reception
Washington Plaza Hotel
Wednesday, April 22, 2009

Once upon a time, few knew (or at least, just about everybody pretended not to know) that Walt Whitman, commonly known as the Great Gray Poet, was also our Great Gay Poet. So, for example, no eyebrows were raised and no snickers were muffled when a new high school was named in his honor in Bethesda, Maryland in the fall of 1962. And once upon a time, few knew that Walt Whitman had spent 10 of the most crucial years of his life right here in Washington, DC. Our fair city is not only where he wrote some of his most significant poems and essays, but it’s also where he lovingly volunteered to help thousands of soldiers hospitalized from wounds suffered during the Civil War.

Now, however, such lamentable ignorance about Whitman’s life is rare indeed. Knowledge of Whitman’s homosexuality has filtered down into the very bowels of our nation. And when you think of the very bowels of our nation, your thoughts naturally turn to: the Phelps Family! Yes, America’s Favorite Fulminating Fundamentalist Fanatics will be picketing that same Walt Whitman High in Bethesda this Friday, in high dudgeon that a taxpayer-funded institution should continue to be named in honor of such a notorious reprobate. So, if the Phelps Family knows Whitman was gay, EVERYBODY in America must know he was gay! Mission Accomplished!

Indeed, we in GLAA were tempted to extend a Special Invitation to the Phelpses to grace our own affair this evening with their presence, since they were going to be in the neighborhood anyway, so the whole freakish family could fuss and fume futilely at both us AND Walt Whitman. But wiser heads prevailed and they have not been invited. Pity.

Much of the credit for spreading the word about Whitman in general, and especially about his activities in Washington during the Civil War and the years thereafter, belongs to tonight’s first Distinguished Service Award recipient, Martin Murray. Together with another longtime GLAA friend Morgan McDonald, Martin founded the Washington Friends of Walt Whitman more than 20 years ago. The Friends describe themselves as “a group of scholars, researchers, historians, and just plain lovers of poetry.” As a veteran Friend myself, I would add that many of us Friends, gays and non-gays alike, are at least as much fascinated by how he lived his life as by the poetry he wrote.

Perhaps Martin’s single most valuable accomplishment to date was the leadership that he provided in spearheading a year-long celebration in 2005 to mark the 150th anniversary of the publication of the first edition of Leaves of Grass. The publicity surrounding the many events connected with that observance really penetrated all things Whitman into the local public consciousness like nothing before.

Martin’s role as an independent researcher also merits attention. In particular, he has written what remains today as the definitive scholarly monograph on the life of Walt’s longtime companion Peter Doyle.

In the course of his preparation for this monograph, Martin was able, amazingly enough, to track down Peter’s closest living relative, a grandniece still living right here in our nation’s capital. Martin called her up and breathlessly asked her, “Just what is the family tradition about Peter Doyle, anyway?” To which the distinctly unimpressed grandniece told Martin with great disdain: “You mean that damn homosexual?!” With that refreshingly pithy remark, the once-dominant hypothesis that Peter and Walt were “just friends,” as they used to say, has been firmly and finally laid to rest.

It is my distinct honor, privilege and joy to present GLAA’s 2009 Distinguished Service Award to Martin Murray.