Biography on Walt Whitman
Walt Whitman's work has now become legendary. Although he has that accomplishment for his poetry, he had a rough beginning. Whitman was born on May 31, 1819 in Long Island, New York. He was the second of nine children. He attended school in Brooklyn after his family moved there. From 1830-1835, Whitman learned the printing trade. Then, in 1836 he taught school in Long Island. It was then that he founded the weekly Long Island periodical, the Long Islander. There he worked on the newspaper until 1841, then moved to New York City and became deeply interested in journalism. He furthered his writing and wrote his first novel, Franklin Evans in 1842. Within the next few years he edited several newspapers and contributed to several others. He was dismissed from the Brooklyn Eagle because of political diff
"The sheer physical beauty of the new nation made a vivid impression on him, and he was to draw on this experience in his later poetry. " (Zweig 27) There were four editions of Leaves of Grass and one last edition after his death. The Civil War greatly influenced him and his writing. He drew his vocabulary from commerce and industry. After getting better and earning a job as a clerk in the Indian Bureau of the Department of the Interior, he published Drum-Taps. After having moved back to Brooklyn, he edited a newspaper, worked as a carpenter, operated a printing office, and did free-lance journalism, built houses, and speculated real estate. His brief stay in New Orleans also led his early biographers to suggest an early romance with a Creole woman, for which there is no evidence. He was discharged from his clerk position after the secretary found sexual references in Leaves of Grass. He died on March 26, 1892 in Camden, but legacy still lives on. Emerson replied, "I find it the most extraordinary piece of whit and wisdom that America has yet contributed. His poetry was characterized by using slang expressions and writing in free verse. Whitman sent Ralph Waldo Emerson a copy of Leaves of Grass.
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Acceptance Essays
