Biography on Walt Whitman essays

Biography on Walt Whitman essays Walt Whitmans work has now become legendary. Although he has that accomplishment for his poetry, he had a rough beginning. Whitman was born on May 31, 1819 in Long Island, New York. He was the second of nine children. He attended school in Brooklyn after his family moved there. From 1830-1835, Whitman learned the printing trade. Then, in 1836 he taught school in Long Island. It was then that he founded the weekly Long Island periodical, the Long Islander. There he worked on the newspaper until 1841, then moved to New York City and became deeply interested in journalism. He furthered his writing and wrote his first novel, Franklin Evans in 1842. Within the next few years he edited several newspapers and contributed to several others. He was dismissed from the Brooklyn Eagle because of political differences with the owner. Then for three months he traveled south to work for the New Orleans Crescent. The sheer physical beauty of the new nation made a vivid impression on hi m, and he was to draw on this experience in his later poetry. His brief stay in New Orleans also led his early biographers to suggest an early romance with a Creole woman, for which there is no evidence. (Encarta) Whitman claimed of having fathered six illegitimate children. During the period between 1848 and 1854, Whitman held many different jobs. After having moved back to Brooklyn, he edited a newspaper, worked as a carpenter, operated a printing office, and did free-lance journalism, built houses, and speculated real estate. In 1855, he wrote his first poetry piece. In the preface to his first edition of Leaves of Grass, he wrote that his poetry would celebrate the greatness of the new nation. His poetry was characterized by using slang expressions and writing in free verse. He stressed contemporary events and everyday happenings in his poetry. He drew his vocabulary from commerce and industry. Whitman sen ...