Walt Whitman

Walter Whitman was an American poet, essayist, and journalist, active throughout the mid 19th century, best known for his repeatedly revised work, Leaves of Grass, and considered to be a latter-day successor to Homer, Virgil, Dante, and Shakespeare (of whom he is not a fan, btw). Whitman was a part of the transition between transcendentalism and realism, incorporating both perspectives into his writing, though his work was considered to be somewhat controversial (I am sorry, VERY controversial – it was reviewed by some as obscene) due to its overt sensuality. Throughout his life, Whitman worked as a journalist, a government clerk, and a teacher, spending the majority of his life in Brooklyn, New York. As a humanist, Walt volunteered much of his time during the Civil War, taking care of Confederate and Union soldiers alike who were wounded in the hospitals. What I find so amazing about Whitman is that originally in 1855, he published Leaves of Grass with his own money, with the sheer desire to reach out to the common person and share his art with the world, and oddly enough, even as his fame grew on a global scale, Whitman was hugely popular in England as a representation of American culture. Leaves of Grass remained Whitman’s masterpiece, and he continued to edit, add, and revise editions until the year of his death in 1892. To this day, it is still one of the most well-known, well-loved, and enduring works of poetry in the canon. As Ezra Pound once claimed Whitman to be “America’s poet … he is America”, Walt strove to prove himself to be just that. His external appearance was specially crafted to be a caricature of the era of his life, regardless of the controversy of his sexuality. So just who was Walt Whitman? Let’s find out together on this week’s episode of Legacy: the Artists Behind the Legends, covering the life of legendary American writer, Walt Whitman.