Walt Whitman is often celebrated as America’s finest poet. But it was a different story when he was alive.
Whitman (1819-92) was ridiculed and ostracized during his lifetime. His seminal work -- "Leaves of Grass," a collection of free-verse poems -- was called by many obscene for its overt sexuality.
Even Whitman’s family was unimpressed with his work. When he brought the first copy home, his brother George dismissed it: “I saw the book -- didn’t read it at all -- didn’t think it worth reading -- fingered it a little."But Walt didn’t care. He was writing for those who believed, as he did, that “whatever satisfies the soul is truth.”Whitman had abandoned several occupations -- printer, teacher, editor, shopkeeper and house builder -- because he felt called to writing, in particular to writing poetry that explored nature and the self. Whitman published the first edition of "Leaves of Grass" with his own money in 1855, then printed, distributed and promoted it himself. He knew the poetry was shocking, but he also knew that its bluntness was the source of its power. As he once said, “All faults may be forgiven of him who has perfect candor.”Whitman was born in Huntington on Long Island. His parents had nine children, in whom they instilled many of the principles of Quakerism. Later in life, Walt would say that he accepted all faiths but believed in none. The Whitmans soon left for Brooklyn. Although Walt loved New York (and would rarely leave it until later in life), he did not see his childhood as a particularly happy one, in large part because his family struggled financially due to bad investments by his father. Walt’s formal schooling ended at age 11, when he became an office boy at a law firm. The partners there helped the youngster with his handwriting and composition and introduced him to novels and poetry. He then worked at a printing office, learning the craft of writing.
At 17, he became a teacher. But though Whitman was a gifted educator, he didn’t enjoy it much; he once wrote a short story titled “Death in the School-Room (a Fact).”For the next two decades, Whitman worked at a series of teaching, editing and writing jobs in New York. He even founded his own newspaper, the Long Islander, where he performed all the jobs -- writer, editor, publisher; he even delivered the paper himself. By 1845, he had worked for at least 10 newspapers. All the while, he wrote poetry and submitted some of it to periodicals.
