The following summer Whitman worked for another printer, Erastus Worthington, in Brooklyn. Clements left the Patriot shortly after, possibly as a result of the controversy. Clements aroused controversy when he and two friends attempted to dig up the corpse of Elias Hicks to create a plaster mold of his head. He may have written "sentimental bits" of filler material for occasional issues. There, Whitman learned about the printing press and typesetting. He then sought employment for further income for his family he was an office boy for two lawyers and later was an apprentice and printer's devil for the weekly Long Island newspaper the Patriot, edited by Samuel E. One happy moment that he later recalled was when he was lifted in the air and kissed on the cheek by the Marquis de Lafayette during a celebration in Brooklyn on July 4, 1825.Īt age eleven Whitman concluded formal schooling. Whitman looked back on his childhood as generally restless and unhappy, given his family's difficult economic status. At age four, Whitman moved with his family from West Hills to Brooklyn, living in a series of homes, in part due to bad investments. The couple's sixth son, the youngest, was named Edward. The oldest was named Jesse and another boy died unnamed at the age of six months. named three of his seven sons after American leaders: Andrew Jackson, George Washington, and Thomas Jefferson. The second of nine children, he was immediately nicknamed "Walt" to distinguish him from his father. Walter Whitman was born on May 31, 1819, in West Hills, Town of Huntington, Long Island, to parents with interests in Quaker thought, Walter and Louisa Van Velsor Whitman. His poetry presented an egalitarian view of the races, and at one point he called for the abolition of slavery, but later he saw the abolitionist movement as a threat to democracy. He supported the Wilmot Proviso and opposed the extension of slavery generally. Whitman was concerned with politics throughout his life. However, there is disagreement among biographers as to whether Whitman had actual sexual experiences with men. Though biographers continue to debate his sexuality, he is usually described as either homosexual or bisexual in his feelings and attractions. Whitman's sexuality is often discussed alongside his poetry. He died at age 72 and his funeral became a public spectacle. After a stroke towards the end of his life, he moved to Camden, New Jersey, where his health further declined. He continued expanding and revising it until his death in 1892. The work was an attempt at reaching out to the common person with an American epic. Whitman's major work, Leaves of Grass, was first published in 1855 with his own money. Early in his career, he also produced a temperance novel, Franklin Evans (1842). His work was very controversial in its time, particularly his poetry collection Leaves of Grass, which was described as obscene for its overt sexuality.īorn on Long Island, Whitman worked as a journalist, a teacher, a government clerk, and – in addition to publishing his poetry – was a volunteer nurse during the American Civil War. Whitman is among the most influential poets in the American canon, often called the father of free verse. A humanist, he was a part of the transition between transcendentalism and realism, incorporating both views in his works. Walter "Walt" was an American poet, essayist and journalist.
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