Top 10 Facts about Walt Whitman (2024)

Walt Whitman was an American poet, essayist and journalist. He was also a humanist, transitioning between transcendentalism and realism, incorporating both views in his works.

He is considered the father of free-verse poetry. He also introduced readers to previously forbidden topics such as sexuality and incorporated unusual themes such as debris, straw and leaves into his work.

Walt Whitman was born in West Hills, New York, the United States on May 31, 1819. He was named after his father Walter Whitman, Sr. He was immediately named “Walt” to distinguish him from his father.

His mother, Louisa Van Velsor Whitman gave birth to nine children. He had six brothers and two sisters although, one of his brothers died unnamed at the age of six months.

Here are the top 10 facts about Walt Whitman.

1. He started working at the age of 11

Whitman’s family had difficult financial status with his father struggling to make ends meet. Living in New York, Walt had to be pulled out of school to help contribute to the household.

Aged 11, Walt got his first job as an office boy to two lawyers, where he assisted the law office. He, later on, went to join the printing business. The business that would develop skills needed later by his work in self-publishing.

Whitman through educating himself became a teacher at 17 years old and began his teaching career in the one-room schoolhouses of Long Island. Over the years he held countless jobs as he tried everything to make a living and provide for his family.

2. Walt found the newspapers Long Islander and Brooklyn Weekly Freeman

Whitman took a break from teaching from 1838 to 1839 and found his newspaper Long Islander. The newspaper covered local news in the town of Huntington, New York.

During this time, he served as its publisher, editor, pressman and distributor for ten months before selling it to E.O. Crowell.

Nine years later, in 1848, Whitman founded another website entitled the Brooklyn Freeman. He used the newspaper to express his opposition to the extension of slavery. He wrote, edited and did typesetting for the Freeman newspaper.

Long Islander News is still active despite Freeman not surviving.

3. He kept working on the Leaves of Grass Collection throughout his life

The first edition of Leaves of Grass was only 12 poems which got published in 1855. He paid for the first publication and at the moment he could only afford 795 copies.

The book received strong praise from American essayist and poet Ralph Waldo who was an earlier transcendentalist. Due to its success, Whitman continued adding poems to each of many new editions.

By the time he was on his deathbed, his final count of poems had reached more than 400. The collection is one of the most famous works in American literature.

4. His Leaves of Grass collection has provoked a scandal

Leaves of Grass stirred up a scandal because of its frank use of sexual imagery and theme. It was so bad that the book was almost abandoned by its publisher.

On the book being released, many critics described it as profane and obscene. On numerous occasions, Whitman was denied and if employed, fired from the other jobs he worked to support his poetry.

In the book, Whitman discusses delight in sensual pleasures at a period when such was considered immoral and impure. The book also marks a radical departure from established poetic norms to free-verse poetry.

5. Walt Whitman was a nurse during the civil war

Aged 42, Whitman was an unlikely candidate for a soldier when the Civil War began. His brother George Whitman was enlisted in the New York 51st Volunteers for three years.

He departed for camp and the New York Tribune published a list of dead and wounded soldiers which contained the name First Lieutenant G.W. Whitemore.

Walt Whitman was worried and rushed to the south and found his brother alive and kicking with only minor wounds.

Whitman was struck profoundly by the toll the war had taken on the soldiers and volunteered to work as a nurse in the army hospitals. He even paid for goods with his salary working for the Army Paymaster.

6. He wrote a mystery novel that was missing for more than 165 years

In the year 1852, Walt wrote a mystery novel entitled: The Life and Adventures of Jack Engle in a New York newspaper. Walt published it without a byline and few readers paid attention to it.

The 36,000-word mystery novel was rediscovered by Zach Turpin, who found some familiar phrases during an online newspaper search for Whitman material. The book was reissued that year and so many Whitman enthusiasts were pleased.

7. Whitman was a health and fitness guru

In one of his series of articles for the New York Atlas in the 1850s under the pen name “Mose Velsor”, Whitman writes a detailed approach to diet and wellness.

He described manly training as taking brisk walks, dancing, and frequent bathing to cure ills and ward off depression. Beards according to him are also considered to be effective barriers against germs.

8. He suffered a stroke that left him partially paralyzed

Whitman was ill in 1872 from the results of long-experienced emotional strains. Being a volunteer nurse, he probably was affected by the aftermath of the war.

He suffered a paralytic stroke early in 1873 left him partially paralyzed. Before May, he had recovered sufficiently to travel to his brother’s home in Camden, New Jersey where his mother was on the verge of dying.

9. He was likely hom*osexual or bisexual

Walt Whitman’s sexual orientation is usually considered hom*osexual or bisexual. The assumption is based on his intense friendships with several boys. Biographical materials note he was involved for decades with a man named Peter Doyle.

In 1940 at the age of 21, he was accused of having hom*osexual relations with his students at the Locust Grove School.

Another reason for the assumption is based on his poetry. In works like “Calamus” poems in his Leaves of Grass collection, he discusses romantic and sexual relationships between men,

10. Whitman designed his tomb

Whitman elected to design his granite mausoleum as a final creative impulse. The self-designed and self-built tomb is located in Camden, New Jersey’s Harleigh Cemetery.

The monument shaped like a house cost a whopping four thousand dollars. The monument was paid for using monetary gifts given by some of his admirers.

Visitors sometimes left letters or pennies bearing the image of Lincoln at the front of the grave. The pennies are a reminder of the well-known elegy he wrote for Abraham Lincoln following his death in 1865.

Philipp A

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