Sailor, the first book in the Kelson of the Creation trilogy, immerses readers in a lost world: Walt Whitman’s mast-hemmed Manhattan. There, with the gusto of Pepé Le Pew, Walt pursues Gotham’s omnibus drivers. But the youth he most wants — Fred Vaughan — is locked “in the dark confinement” behind “a secret silent loathing and despair,” and distrusts the cocky, gregarious journalist. Once Walt conquers his heart, Fred discovers he’s in love with a charismatic Mad Hatter. Sailor provides a vivid backstory behind the 20th century's most important discovery in Walt Whitman Studies: a small cache of Fred's surviving letters. It leads up to the epic sequel, Lover, in which Walt's ecstasy over Fred Vaughan’s love, and his grief over his father’s imminent death, rips his heart open — open to the very kelson of the Creation.