Walt Whitman - (1819-1892)
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I. Biography Walt Whitman was born near Huntington New York, on May 31, 1819, and died on March 26 1892. He was the second of nine children. His father was a carpenter.
When Whitman was four, his family moved to Brooklyn New York where he attended public schools for six years then became an apprentice to a printer. He returned to Long Island a few years later in 1835. He
taught in country schools and in 1838 and 1839 he edited the Long Islander, a newspaper. He then returned to New York City to work as a printer and journalist.
Whitman made political speeches and wrote poems and stories for popular magazines. Whitman lost his job of editing the Brooklyn Eagle for supporting the Free-Soil party. After
years of various jobs, Whitman stopped working and started writing poetry of a different kind. Ministering to the wounded soldiers during the Civil War, Whitman worked in the Union
army hospitals in Washington D.C. where he stayed, working as a government clerk until 1873. He moved in with his brother after suffering from a stroke that left him partially
paralyzed. He stayed with his brother until 1884, when he bought his own house. He stayed there, revising Leaves of Grass and writing some new things until his death in 1892. II. Regional Influences
Walt Whitman started his writing in New York City as a journalist, he also wrote poems and stories for popular magazines. He then moved to Brooklyn, but continued to write for newspapers and wrote stories and poems.
III. List of Works Walt Whitman spent his whole life writing and redoing his book "Leaves of Grass". IV. Related Sites
1855-published his first edition of "Leaves of Grass."
1856-published his second edition of "Leaves of Grass."
1876-published his sixth edition of "Leaves of Grass" (two volumes)
1891-published his ninth and final edition of "Leaves of Grass."
http://www.liglobal.com/walt/waltbio.html
V. Contact author
Walt Whitman died in 1892, but you can still visit the house where he was born. The address is
246 Old Walt Whitman Road, Huntington Station NY, 11746. For more information call the
historical site at (516) 427-5240 or visit them
VI. Bibliography Allen, Gay Wilson. About Walt Whitman
(online)
http://www.liglobal.com/walt/waltbio.html
This essay was submitted by a student of Marylin Dykens, a teacher at Rome Free Academy in Rome, New York.