During his lifetime, Whitman continued to refine the volume, publishing several more editions of the book. Whitman released a second edition of the book in 1856, containing thirty-two poems, a letter from Emerson praising the first edition, and a long open letter by Whitman in response. He published the volume himself, and sent a copy to Emerson in July of 1855. In 1855, Whitman took out a copyright on the first edition of Leaves of Grass, which consisted of twelve untitled poems and a preface. In Brooklyn, Whitman continued to develop the unique style of poetry that later so astonished Ralph Waldo Emerson. Whitman’s attitudes about race have been described as “ unstable and inconsistent.” He did not always side with the abolitionists, yet he celebrated human dignity. After witnessing the auctions of enslaved individuals in New Orleans, he returned to Brooklyn in the fall of 1848 and co-founded a “free soil” newspaper, the Brooklyn Freeman, which he edited through the next fall.
In 1848, Whitman left the Brooklyn Daily Eagle to become editor of the New Orleans Crescent for three months. He founded a weekly newspaper, The Long-Islander, and later edited a number of Brooklyn and New York papers, including the Brooklyn Daily Eagle. He continued to teach until 1841, when he turned to journalism as a full-time career. In 1836, at the age of seventeen, he began his career as teacher in the one-room schoolhouses of Long Island. Whitman worked as a printer in New York City until a devastating fire in the printing district demolished the industry.
Largely self-taught, he read voraciously, becoming acquainted with the works of Homer, Dante, Shakespeare, and the Bible. In the 1820s and 1830s, the family, which consisted of nine children, lived in Long Island and Brooklyn, where Whitman attended the Brooklyn public schools.Īt the age of twelve, Whitman began to learn the printer’s trade and fell in love with the written word.
He was the second son of Walter Whitman, a house-builder, and Louisa Van Velsor. Walt Whitman was born on May 31, 1819, in West Hills, on Long Island, New York.
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