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5Mar

For the Dear Love of Comrades

Hosted by LSE Library
LSE Library, 10 Portugal Street, London WC2A 2HD
Thursday 5 March 2026 12.30pm - 1.30pm

For the Dear Love of Comrades: Emily Wilding Davison Takes Walt Whitman to the Grave

Join Karen Karbiener for this lunchtime presentation on the extraordinary life and death of radical suffragette Emily Wilding Davison (1872-1913) and her fierce admiration of the revolutionary American poet Walt Whitman (1819-1892). This event is part of the series celebrating the 100th anniversary of The Women’s Library.

Whitman's support of the nascent women's rights movement, inclusive poetry, and embrace of "robust American love" in all forms made him a favorite of female activists on both sides of the Atlantic. After her tragic end at the Epsom Derby, where she stepped onto the race course in support of the WSPU's 'deeds, not words' slogan, Davison was buried with a copy of Whitman's poems in hand. Her annotated Pearls From Walt Whitman was presented to her close friend Mary Leigh shortly before Davison's death, and will be on display along with photos, manuscripts, and objects from the LSE Women's Library.

About our speaker

Karen Karbiener is an internationally recognized Whitman scholar and a Distinguished Teaching Award-winning professor at New York University. She has published widely and curated several exhibitions on the poet; she is also president of the Walt Whitman Initiative, a non-profit organization serving as an organizing center for cultural activism and poetry-related events. Karen is currently at work on American Kosmos: The Lives, Loves, and Worlds of Walt Whitman (HarperCollins, 2027).

Further information

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