Moran whitman1

CELEBRATING 200 YEARS OF WALT WHITMAN.

  • Walt Whitman Born

    Walter Whitman Jr. is born in West Hills, New York. He is the second of eight surviving children born to Walter Whitman Sr. and Louisa Van Velsor Whitman.
  • Moves to Brooklyn

    The Whitman family moves to Brooklyn, beginning Walt's love affair with New York City. They move frequently around the borough, and Walt Whitman attends public schools.
  • Leaves School

    Eleven-year-old Walt Whitman drops out of school in order to work and earn money for his family. He works as an assistant in the offices of a doctor and a lawyer.
  • Learns Printing Trade

    Whitman gets a job as an apprentice for the Long Island Patriot newspaper. He immediately takes to the profession, and is soon freelancing on his own as a printer and typesetter for local publications.
  • On His Own

    The Whitman family leaves Brooklyn and moves back to Long Island, leaving fourteen-year-old Walt to fend for himself in the city.
  • Leaves of Grass

    Whitman publishes the first edition of Leaves of Grass, a collection of twelve poems written in a bold new style. Readers are shocked and awed by the poems' raw subject material and striking style. Ralph Waldo Emerson sends Whitman a letter praising the book and congratulating him on "the beginning of a great career."
  • Fired

    Whitman's boss at the Department of the Interior fires him because of the supposedly obscene content of Leaves of Grass, which Whitman works on during his downtime at the office. He immediately gets another job at the U.S. Attorney General's Office.
  • Suffers Stroke

    Whitman suffers his first stroke, which leaves him partially paralyzed. It is the first of several serious health problems that Whitman endures in the last twenty years of his life.
  • Final Edition of Leaves

    Whitman prepares the final edition of Leaves of Grass, known as the "Deathbed Edition." In his author's note, he writes that he would like "this new 1892 edition to absolutely supersede all previous ones. Faulty as it is, he decides it is by far his special and entire self-chosen poetic utterance."
  • Walt Whitman Dies

    Walt Whitman dies at home in Camden at the age of 72. He is buried in Camden's Harleigh Cemetery.