Walt Whitman Biography

Born in Huntington on Long Island, Whitman worked as a journalist, a teacher, a government clerk, and—in addition to publishing his poetry—was a volunteer nurse during the American Civil War. Early in his career, he also produced a temperance novel, "Franklin Evans" (1842). Whitman's major work, "Leaves of Grass", was first published in 1855 with his own money. The work was an attempt at reaching out to the common person with an American epic. He continued expanding and revising it until his death in 1892. After a stroke towards the end of his life, he moved to Camden, New Jersey, where his health further declined. When he died at age 72, his funeral became a public spectacle.

Works:

• Franklin Evans (1842)
• Leaves of Grass (1855, the first of seven editions through 1891)
• Manly Health and Training (1858)
• Drum-Taps (1865)
• Democratic Vistas (1871)
• Memoranda During the War (1876)
• Specimen Days (1882)