LEAVES OF GRASS

by Walt Whitman

Overview

Walter "Walt" Whitman Bibliography Timeline
(; May 31, 1819 – March 26, 1892) was an American poet, essayist, and journalist. A humanist, he was a part of the transition between transcendentalism and realism, incorporating both views in his works. Whitman is among the most influential poets in the American canon, often called the father of free verse. His work was very controversial in its time, particularly his poetry collection Leaves of Grass, which was described as obscene for its overt sexuality.

Product Details

BN ID:	2940162075455
Publisher:	Steinbeck Publishers
Publication date:	06/03/2018
Sold by:	Barnes & Noble
Format:	eBook
File size:	4 MB

About the Author

Walter "Walt" Whitman Bibliography Timeline
(; May 31, 1819 – March 26, 1892) was an American poet, essayist, and journalist. A humanist, he was a part of the transition between transcendentalism and realism, incorporating both views in his works. Whitman is among the most influential poets in the American canon, often called the father of free verse. His work was very controversial in its time, particularly his poetry collection Leaves of Grass, which was described as obscene for its overt sexuality.

May 31, 1819 -Walter Whitman Jr. is born in West Hills, New York. He is the second of eight surviving children born to Walter Whitman Sr. and Louisa Van Velsor Whitman.

May 27, 1823 - The Whitman family moves to Brooklyn, beginning Walt's love affair with New York City. They move frequently around the borough, and Walt Whitman attends public schools.

1831 - Whitman gets a job as an apprentice for the Long Island Patriot newspaper. He immediately takes to the profession, and is soon freelancing on his own as a printer and typesetter for local publications.

Aug 12, 1836 - Whitman's newspaper trade comes to a halt after a fire destroys the printing district in New York. He rejoins his parents and siblings in Long Island and gets a job as a schoolteacher.


1842 - Whitman publishes his first novel, Franklin Evans; or The Inebriate. The pro-temperance novel is commercially popular, even though Whitman himself later comes to describe it as "rot."
Mar 1846

May 12, 1855 - Whitman publishes the first edition of Leaves of Grass, a collection of twelve poems written in a bold new style. Readers are shocked and awed by the poems' raw subject material and striking style. Ralph Waldo Emerson sends Whitman a letter praising the book and congratulating him on "the beginning of a great career."


Sep 1856 - The second edition of Leaves of Grass is published, now with 32 poems. He also reprints Emerson's congratulatory letter without permission, angering the elder poet. Whitman makes a career out of revising and updating the book, with more than half a dozen editions in his lifetime.