Masterpieces of American Literature
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        • Selected Poems
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        • Life of Poe
        • Selected Poems
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        • The Tell-Tale Heart
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        • Selected Poetry
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        • Scarlett Letter Excepts
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      • C. Clement Moore
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  • Civil War Period
    • 1850 - 1861 >
      • Harriet Anne Jacobs
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      • Walt Whitman >
        • Excerpts
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      • Louisa May Alcott
      • Misc. Poets
      • Warriors & Memoirs
    • Civil War Songs

Walt Whitman

Leaves of Grass may be the most influential collection of poetry in the English language.

To Selected Works

Walt Whitman (1819 - 1892)

Picture
    In 1850, Whitman self-published about 500 copies of the first edition of Leaves of Grass, sending copies to notable poets and authors including Henry Wadsworth Longfellow.  It is reported that Longfellow threw his copy into a blazing fireplace, in disgust with the book.

    Ralph Waldo Emerson began his five page response to Whitman with the phrase, "I wish to congratulate you on the beginning of a great career."  Emerson was the book's great supporter.


    A good history of Whitman's life can also be found on Wikipedia.  Click  HERE to view it.
   
    My website on the literature of the Civil War contains extensive narrative about Whitman and contains his Drum Taps in its entirety.

    Click HERE to read this narrative.
   
    See  The Walt Whitman Archives for the various editions and complete texts of Leaves of Grass and the Prose Works.

   
    Like many other Romantic authors, Whitman turned more to prose after the Civil War.


PBS Biography with Spanish Subtitles
Short Biography of Whitman
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  • Home
    • What is STORY
    • The Elements of Fiction
    • What Is A Short Story
    • Literary Theory Guide
  • Lit. 214
    • Class Presentations
  • Colonial Period
    • Native American >
      • Red Jacket's Speech
      • Story Collections
      • Lyrics, Poems and Chants
    • Spanish Explorers
    • Early Colonial >
      • New England Primer
      • Anne Bradstreet
      • Mary Rowlandson
      • John Smith
      • John Winthrop
      • Colonial Song Lyrics
    • Colonial and Revolutionary >
      • Readings >
        • Ben Franklin >
          • Advice on the Choice of a Mistress
          • Excerpts from The Autobiography
          • A Tale
        • Phyllis Wheatly >
          • Poems
        • Thomas Paine >
          • Common Sense
        • Philip Freneau >
          • Freneau Poems
        • Thomas Jefferson >
          • Writings
        • Jupiter Hammon >
          • An Evening Thought
      • Lyrics
  • Romantic Period
    • Elements of American Romanticism
    • Authors >
      • Washington Irving >
        • Irving's Place >
          • Irving's Place2
        • Irving on the Tale
        • Rip Van Winkle
        • Rip 2
        • Rip 3
        • Poetry
      • James Fenimore Cooper >
        • LOTH Silent Movie
        • Chapter 32
        • Chapter 32 B
      • Oliver Wendell Holmes, Sr. >
        • Selected Poems
      • Ralph Waldo Emerson >
        • Selected Writings
        • Transcendentalism
      • Edgar Allen Poe >
        • Poe's Approach to Fiction
        • Life of Poe
        • Selected Poems
        • "The Raven"
        • The Black Cat
        • The Tell-Tale Heart
      • William Cullen Bryant >
        • Bryants Poems
      • Henry Wadsworth Longfellow >
        • Selected Poetry
      • Margaret Fuller
      • Fanny Fern
      • Herman Melville >
        • Moby Dick
      • Nathaniel Hawthorne >
        • Scarlett Letter Excepts
        • Young Goodman Brown
      • C. Clement Moore
    • Lyrics >
      • Folk / Gospel
      • Parlor Music
      • Music Hall
      • Stephen Foster >
        • Music
      • George Root
  • Civil War Period
    • 1850 - 1861 >
      • Harriet Anne Jacobs
      • Francis Harper
      • Frederick Douglass
      • Songs of Protest, Freedom, Sadness
    • 1861 - 1866 >
      • Julie Ward Howe
      • Emily Dickinson
      • Walt Whitman >
        • Excerpts
      • Abraham Lincoln
      • Louisa May Alcott
      • Misc. Poets
      • Warriors & Memoirs
    • Civil War Songs