Tupperware? More like Tupper War.

Martin Farquhar Tupper. You've got to love the name Farquhar. He should've just dropped the Martin and gone by his middle name, maybe he would've lasted with a name like that. Though sadly, Tupper seems to be one of those poets that will only be mentioned in slight passing, having a page or two among a thousand in an anthology somewhere. When researching a poet and reading something like "His blank verse is just prose cut up into suitable lengths" you can assume that they aren't the most talented or memorable poet. Nonetheless, Tupper was still popular in Britain, and though he failed miserably at first in America he managed to sell about one million copies of his Proverbial Philosophy in America in 1867. This year stuck out to me and after scratching my head for a few moments I had realized why. What was the reason I was looking up Tupper in the first place? Oh yeah... WALTY!

Old Walt put out an edition of Leaves of Grass in 1867. His sales would have been in competition with Tupper! Not only had these two authors been compared and reviewed alongside each other, they were now selling against each other. From what I read, this wasn't a great edition as far as selling goes for Walt either. Looks like he may have lost that battle, but isn't always the war that matters? Tupper probably isn't taught too often in school, and his books probably aren't flying off of the shelves anymore (it actually might take some searching to actually find one). On the other hand, Whitman is taught frequently and people still purchase his poetry for the sake of a good read. One had his time, the other is timeless. Looks like Walt has won the war. Sorry, M. Farquhar Tupper (See, what did I say? Has much more of a ring to it).