WALT WHITMAN

EARLY LIFE

• Lived 1819-1892
• Born in Huntington on Long Island
• Had a limited formal education
• Was employed as a printer, school teacher, reporter, editor, and nurse during the Civil War

http://youtu.be/HG8tqEUTlvs

WORKS

• Franklin Evans (1842)
• Leaves of Grass (1855-91)
• Drum-Taps (1865)
• Democratic Vistas (1871)
• Memoranda During the War (1876)
• Specimen Days (1882)

Released seven different times from its original publishing in 1855 till 1891

PUBLIC RECEPTION

• Received little public acclaim for his poetry while he was alive because of his openness regarding sex, his self proclamation as a rough working man, and his divergent style of writing
• He was well liked in England where British writers celebrated his work

PERSONAL LIFE

• It is often speculated that Whitman was bisexual or homosexual
• Was a participant in the temperance movement with his novel Franklin Evans
• Denied that any one faith as being more important than another and was influenced by deism

Whitman and Peter Doyle