Walt Whitman

Walt Whitman was an American writer/poet.

In 1850, Walt Whitman started writing his magnum opus, Leaves of Grass, a collection of poems stemming largely from his observations of the times. Though some criticized it as "obscene" for its sexual themes, writer Ralph Waldo Emerson publicly praised it, generating further interest in Whitman's work.

Whitman spent the rest of his life revising and adding to Leaves, incorporating his experiences as an office worker and volunteer nurse in the Civil War, as well as various family and health troubles he faced at the War's end.

In 1873, Whitman suffered a stroke, but managed to write further editions of Leaves before his death of tuberculosis in 1892. He remains one of America's most significant and influential poets.

• 1855 - Leaves of Grass

• May 31, 1819: Born Huntington Long Island, New York

• 1831-35: Educates himself on printing

• 1855: Leaves of Grass

• 1863-64: Civil War volunteer nurse and military office clerk

• 1865: "O'Captain! My Captain!" | "When Lilacs Last in the Dooryard Bloom'd"

• 1873: Suffers paralytic stroke

• 1875: Memoranda During the War

• 1882: Meets Oscar Wilde | Specimen Days and Collect

• 1888: Has second stroke | November Boughs

• March 26, 1892: Dies

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