Walt Whitman was born in 1819 on Long Island (the Paumanok
of many of his poems). During his early years he trained as a printer,
then became a teacher, and finally a journalist and editor. He was
less than successful; his stridently radical views made him unpopular
with readers. After an 1848 sojourn in the South, which introduced
him to some of the variety of his country, he returned to New York
and began to write poetry.
In 1855 he self-published the first edition of Leaves
of Grass, which at the time consisted of only twelve poems.
The volume was widely ignored, with one significant exception. Ralph
Waldo Emerson wrote him a congratulatory letter, in which he offered
his “greet[ings]... at the beginning of a great career.” Whitman promptly
published another edition of Leaves of Grass, expanding
it by some twenty poems and appending the letter from Emerson, much
to the latter’s discomfort. 1860 saw another edition of a now much
larger Leaves—containing some 156 poems—which was
issued by a trade publisher.
At the outset of the Civil War Whitman volunteered as
a nurse in army hospitals; he also wrote dispatches as a correspondent
for the New York Times. The war inspired a great
deal of poetry, which was published in 1865 as Drum Taps.Drum
Taps was then incorporated into an 1867 edition of Leaves
of Grass, as was another volume of wartime poetry, Sequel, which
included the poems written on Lincoln’s assassination.
Whitman’s wartime work led to a job with the Department
of the Interior, but he was soon fired when his supervisor learned
that he had written the racy poems of Leaves of Grass. The
failure of Reconstruction led him to write the best known of his
prose works, Democratic Vistas, which, as its title
implies, argues for the maintenance of democratic ideals. This volume
came out in 1871, as did yet another edition of Leaves of
Grass, expanded to include more poems. The 1871 edition
was reprinted in 1876 for the centennial. Several other prose works
followed, then a further expanded version of Leaves of Grass, in
1881.
Whitman’s health had been shaky since the mid-1870s, and
by 1891 it was clear he was dying. He therefore prepared his so-called
“Deathbed” edition of Leaves of Grass, which contained
two appendices of old-age poems as well as a review essay in which
he tries to justify his life and work. The “Deathbed Edition” came out
in 1892; Whitman died that year.
Whitman’s lifetime saw both the Civil War and the rise
of the United States as a commercial and political power. He witnessed
both the apex and the abolition of slavery. His poetry is thus centered
on ideas of democracy, equality, and brotherhood. In response to
America’s new position in the world, Whitman also tried to develop
a poetry that was uniquely American, that both surpassed and broke
the mold of its predecessors. Leaves of Grass, with
its multiple editions and public controversies, set the pattern
for the modern, public artist, and Whitman, with his journalistic
endeavors on the side, made the most of his role as celebrity and
artist.
