Walt Whitman

Author profile

born

May 31, 1819 in West Hills, Huntington, Long Island, New York, The United States

died

March 26, 1892

gender

male

website

http://www.whitmanarchive.org/

genre

Poetry

About this author

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Walter Whitman was an American poet, essayist, journalist, and humanist. He was a part of the transition between Transcendentalism and realism, incorporating both views in his works. Whitman is among the most influential poets in the American canon, often called the father of free verse. His work was very controversial in its time, particularly his poetry collection Leaves of Grass, which was described as obscene for its overt sexuality.

Born on Long Island, Whitman worked as a journalist, a teacher, a government clerk, and a volunteer nurse during the American Civil War in addition to publishing his poetry. Early in his career, he also produced a temperance novel, Franklin Evans (1842). Whitman's major work, Leaves of Grass, was first publi...more

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Books by Walt Whitman

Average rating: 4.11 · 32,456 ratings · 1,144 reviews · 237 distinct works

	Leaves of Grass 4.10 avg rating — 27,110 ratings — published 1855 — 285 editions	My rating:
	Song of Myself 4.12 avg rating — 2,653 ratings — published 1856 — 22 editions	My rating:
	Poetry and Prose by Walt Whitman, Justin Kaplan (Editor) 4.34 avg rating — 1,216 ratings — published 1949 — 10 editions	My rating:
	The Portable Walt Whitman: Revised Edition by Walt Whitman, Mark Van Doren (Editor), Malcolm Cowley (Editor) 4.28 avg rating — 284 ratings — published 1945 — 12 editions	My rating:
	Selected Poems by Walt Whitman, Dover Thrift Editions 3.84 avg rating — 244 ratings — published 1942 — 19 editions	My rating:
	Songs for the Open Road: Poems of Travel and Adventure by Walt Whitman, Edna St. Vincent Millay, Dover Thrift Editions 4.11 avg rating — 115 ratings — published 1998	My rating:
	Selected Poems 1855-1892 by Walt Whitman, Gary Schmidgall (Editor) 4.22 avg rating — 125 ratings — published 2000 — 5 editions	My rating:
	Civil War Poetry and Prose by Walt Whitman, Candace Ward (Editor), Dover Thrift Editions 3.97 avg rating — 89 ratings — published 1989 — 3 editions	My rating:
	Specimen Days 4.11 avg rating — 62 ratings — published 1882 — 16 editions	My rating:
	When I Heard the Learn'd Astronomer (Golden Kite Honors (Awards)) by Walt Whitman, Loren Long (Illustrator) 4.15 avg rating — 33 ratings — published 2004 — 2 editions	My rating:

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Quotes by Walt Whitman

“Resist much, obey little.”
― Walt Whitman, Leaves of Grass

tags: poetry

1,419 people liked it

“What is that you express in your eyes? It seems to me more than all the print I have read in my life.”
― Walt Whitman

tags: poetry

1,078 people liked it

“This is what you shall do; Love the earth and sun and the animals, despise riches, give alms to every one that asks, stand up for the stupid and crazy, devote your income and labor to others, hate tyrants, argue not concerning God, have patience and indulgence toward the people, take off your hat to nothing known or unknown or to any man or number of men, go freely with powerful uneducated persons and with the young and with the mothers of families, read these leaves in the open air every season of every year of your life, re-examine all you have been told at school or church or in any book, dismiss whatever insults your own soul, and your very flesh shall be a great poem and have the richest fluency not only in its words but in the silent lines of its lips and face and between the lashes of your eyes and in every motion and joint of your body.”
― Walt Whitman

tags: activism , service

969 people liked it

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Walt Whitman

Author profile

combine editionsBooks by Walt Whitman

Quotes by Walt Whitman

Topics Mentioning This Author

combine editions
Books by Walt Whitman