 "The dirtiest book of all is the expurgated book." -
Walt Whitman
Walter Whitman (1819-1892) was born in Long Island, New York
where his father worked as a carpenter and farmer. He
was educated in Brooklyn until the age of 12, after which he
left school to work as an office boy, and soon after as a
printer's assistant. During the next few years he
contributed articles to newspapers (including some of the
earliest coverage of baseball games) and taught in various
schools. In 1838 he founded, and was the first editor
of, the Huntington based
Long Islander newspaper (which still exists today).
He continued to educate himself by attending the opera,
theatre and through copious reading, and also found time to
edit a couple of other newspapers including the Brooklyn
Eagle, from which he was dismissed in 1848 because of
his outspoken views on slavery.
By 1848 he was writing poetry in earnest. He self
published his first volume of twelve poems in 1855 in
Leaves of Grass. It was not well received - his
free-flowing style, personal subject-matter and sexual
allusions being a little much for the tastes of the time!
For any self-published authors reading this who feel their
work is under appreciated, you might be comforted to know
that I found a 'first edition' copy of Leaves of Grass
for sale for $12,500 - and from the publication date I
don't believe it is even the very first edition but instead
an edition published some 20 years later!
In 1862 he went to Virginia to find his brother who had been
wounded during the Civil War, and then went on to Washington
DC where he nursed wounded soldiers. He took a job in
the Department of the Interior but was dismissed when it was
learned that he was the author of Leaves of Grass.
However, the attorney general's office were less fastidious
and he was able to find employment there for almost 10 years
until he suffered a paralytic stroke.
His second book of poems, Drum Taps (1865) was better
received. In 1877 he published his first work of prose
Democratic Vistas, followed by Specimen Days
in 1882. Although he was revered by a few in the USA
as the 'Good Gray Poet', it was not until many decades after
his death that he received wide recognition.
It avails not, time nor place--distance
avails not,
I am with you, you men and women of a generation, or ever so
many generations hence,
Just as you feel when you look on the river and sky, so I
felt,
Just as any of you is one of a living crowd, I was one of a
crowd,
Just as you are refresh'd by the gladness of the river and
the bright flow, I was refresh'd,
Just as you stand and lean on the rail, yet hurry with the
swift current, I stood yet was hurried,
Just as you look on the numberless masts of ships and the
thick-stemm'd pipes of steamboats, I look'd.
From Crossing Brooklyn Ferry (Leaves of Grass)
Whitman's poetry and prose can be browsed for free at
Project Gutenberg.
See also Michael Cunningham's
Specimen Days.
Image: Walt Whitman photographed by Mathew Brady, undated
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