1. WALT WHITMAN

2. Walt Whitman, Leaves of Grass (first edition)
Walt Whitman, Leaves of Grass (first edition). Frontispiece: Samuel Hollyer engraving based on a Gabriel Harrison daguerreotype. Brooklyn: 1855 Rare Book & Special Collections Division, Library of Congress.

3. Walt Whitman, Leaves of Grass (fifth edition). Frontispiece: W. J
Walt Whitman, Leaves of Grass (fifth edition). Frontispiece: W.J. Hennessey engraving. Washington: 1872 Rare Book & Special Collections Division

4. Walt Whitman, Leaves of Grass (first edition)
Walt Whitman, Leaves of Grass (first edition). Brooklyn: 1855 Rare Book & Special Collections Division, Library of Congress. Cover Art.

5. Editions of Leaves of Grass Brooklyn: 1855; Brooklyn: 1856; Boston: ; New York: 1869; Washington: 1871; Camden, New Jersey: 1876; Boston: ; Philadelphia: 1888, Philadelphia: Library of Congress.

6. Recommended Website: http://www. loc

7. Walt Whitman: Biography (based on: Steven Olsen-Smith, “Walt Whitman
Walt Whitman: Biography (based on: Steven Olsen-Smith, “Walt Whitman.” Writers of the American Renaissance: An A-Z Guide. Ed. Denise D. Knight. Westport, CT: Greenwood Press, )
Son of Walter and Louisa Velso Whitman, working-class parents
Father:
outspoken supporter of democratic ideals and the rights of common Americans
Opponent of religious orthodoxy
Failed repeatedly as a businessman
Reported to have been emotionally volatile

8. Walt Whitman: Biography
Mother:
Quaker heritage
Suffused warm maternal affection and maintained cohesiveness within the family before and after the death of Walter Sr. in 1855
Walter Jr. was their second child

9. Walt Whitman: Biography
Walter Whitman Jr. was born May 31, 1819, in West Hills, Long Island
Parents had nine children; last child, Edward, was mentally retarded and physically disabled
Walt loved Edward and made him the main beneficiary of his will in 1892

10. Walt Whitman: Biography
Family moved to Brooklyn, NY, when Walt was 4 years old
Here, Walt attended public school until he was 11
He became a printer’s apprentice for a local newspaper when he was 12 or 13 (Ben Franklin, anybody?)
Begins publishing his writing in popular New York magazine Mirror
Family moves back to the country

11. Walt Whitman: Biography
Walt joins them later and teaches school, works as printer, and briefly establishes his own newspaper, The Long-Islander
Walt rarely holds down a job for a long time; he disliked systematic labor and tended to roam
Impressions from his long walks through countryside, towns, and cities (esp. New York) would leave a profound impression on his work

12. Walt Whitman: Biography
He moves to Manhattan in 1841; first works for the fashionable World and editing (in 1842) the New York Aurora
He writes conventional literature with little resemblance to his later works.
Journalism of the 1840s: impressions of his explorations of New York life

13. Walt Whitman: Biography
“research”: strolling Broadway, the Battery, and other lively places in Manhattan
Dressed as dandified man-about-town, with hat, cane and boutonniere
Observing and mingling with “people of all classes and stages of rank” (Aurora, “Our City”)
These excursions inspired Leaves of Grass

14. Walt Whitman: Biography
1848: Whitman is dismissed after two years as editor of the Brooklyn Daily Eagle (newspaper), because of his support of the “Wilmot Provisio” of 1846, which sought to outlaw slavery in all new US territories
Travels to New Orleans and takes a job at the Crescent
Uses his travel observations as material for regional depictions in Leaves of Grass
He stays in New Orleans for only 3 months and returns to Brooklyn

15. Walt Whitman: Biography
1855: Publication of Whitman’s first volume of poetry:
Leaves of Grass
Strongly influenced by Emerson’s 1844 essay “The Poet”
This essay welded Whitman’s enthusiasm for America as a nation with his rising literary aspirations
Leaves of Grass was unprecedented in both FORM and CONTENT when it appeared in 1855, but it became archetypal for later poetic traditions

16. Walt Whitman: Biography
Whitman sent Emerson a copy of Leaves of Grass
Emerson responded with a letter, greeting him “at the beginning of a great career”
Whitman used the letter to promote himself, publishing it in the New York Tribune and including it in the second edition (1856) of Leaves of Grass, which even had this greeting printed on the book’s spine!

17. Walt Whitman: Biography
Critics slammed Whitman for including this praise
Whitman further annoyed the critics by publishing in his 1856 edition his response to Emerson’s letter, a prose manifesto extending Emerson’s views and foretelling a national literature that would promote
Political and cultural destiny of America
Sexuality of humanity
Nature

18. Walt Whitman: Biography
Poetic triumph accompanied by personal crises
Father dies in 1855
Poem “Live Oak, with Moss,” seems to document a failed homosexual relationship
1860: publishes a greatly expanded edition of Leaves of Grass
1861: Civil War begins
1862: Whitman travels to Virginia in search of his wounded brother George

19. Walt Whitman: Biography
Whitman is overwhelmed by the carnage of the Civil War and volunteers as a nurse, without pay, at military hospitals in Washington, D.C.
Under impression of the Civil War, he writes collection of poems, Drum-Taps
Whitman delays publication of the collection to include elegy composed to honor Abraham Lincoln (“When Lilacs Last in the Dooryard Bloom’d”)

20. Walt Whitman: Biography
He briefly holds a government job in the Bureau of Indian Affairs; is fired because Secretary of Interior James Hartland objected to sexual imagery in Leaves of Grass
He receives another government job in U.S. Attorney General’s Office through the help of friends
William Douglas O’Connor lauded his character in a pamphlet entitled The Good Gray Poet and John Burroughs published Notes on Walt Whitman as Poet and Person
Thus: increased critical and social acclaim

21. Walt Whitman: Biography
1873: Whitman has first in a series of paralytic strokes
He moves to Camden, NJ, to be close to his brother George
His mother dies that year in Camden
Leads a rather lonely life in the 1870s, while continuing to work on poetry and prose
1875: second stroke
Later 1870s: increasing visits from literary admirers

22. Walt Whitman: Biography
1880s: literary fame rises while his health declines
1881: Boston firm printed a new authorized edition of his writings
1882: publisher suppresses the book after the Massachusetts District Attorney threatens to prosecute on the basis of obscenity laws (thus: Leaves of Grass one of a long list of banned or challenged books)

23. Walt Whitman: Biography
Publication resumed by a Philadelphia publisher and sales multiplied as a result of the publicity
1884: Whitman purchased his first home in Camden
Continues to receive visitors and is supported in his daily needs by a series of young male friends; last: Horace Traubel, who published the 11-volume With Walt Whitman in Camden based on his conversations with Whitman

24. Walt Whitman: Biography
Weakened by strokes and tuberculosis, Whitman dies of pneumonia on march 26, 1892.
His wake and funeral were attended by thousands, many of whom knew Whitman not from his poetry but his familiar presence on Camden’s streets, wharves, and ferries