|
|
|
MAY |
||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
|
S |
M |
T |
W |
T |
F |
S |
| 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 |
| 8 | 9 | 10 | 11 | 12 | 13 | 14 |
| 15 | 16 | 17 | 18 | 19 | 20 | 21 |
| 22 | 23 | 24 | 25 | 26 | 27 | 28 |
| 29 | 30 | 31 |
*Click on the day of the month for the daily quote.*
Wisdom is not finally tested in
the schools. Wisdom cannot be
pass'd from one having it to another
not having it. Wisdom is of the soul,
is not susceptible of proof, is its own proof.
~Walt Whitman~
Walt Whitman....editor, teacher, writer, orator, volunteer....is among America's greatest and most well-known poets. As an American author, he is probably the most well-known writer in the world. Portions of his book, Leaves of Grass, have been translated into every language around the world.
Walt Whitman was born in West Hills, New York, near Long Island, on May 31, 1819. He grew up in a middle class family. His dad had a lot of pride in America and his family. He named 3 of his sons after presidents; and his other children, except for his youngest son, bore the names of family members. Walt Whitman's siblings had many health problems ranging from his youngest brother being handicapped to his oldest brother being institutionalized. Walt Whitman attended Brooklyn public schools with other students of all ages and backgrounds. Walt Whitman's classmates were mostly poor, because affluent children attended private schools. He gained his hate for corporal punishment when he was about 10. He later wrote about it in his journalism and his fiction. Walt Whitman attended public schools until he was 11, at which time he began to work at various jobs. His first job was working for a group of Brooklyn lawyers who gave him a pass to a circulating library. This is when he began to learn on his own. He also gained knowledge from visiting museums, libraries, and lectures. He was always reading something, and he loved to converse and debate with anyone he met. Walt Whitman soon began learning the printing trade from serving as an apprentice to the Long Island Patriot, a newspaper. He was very excited when his work was first published at age 12. "For his entire life, he would maintain this fascination with the materiality of printed objects, with the way his voice and identity could be embodied in type and paper." At age 17, Walt Whitman seemed set in a printing trade, but fate stepped in by destroying the major printing houses in New York. Even though he did not have a teaching degree or attend any universities, he had acquired the skills he needed to become a teacher by the reading and writing he learned from his printing trade. He didn't think too highly of the country atmosphere, or the students in the country. He longed for the more sophisticated city life. He eventually gave up teaching, went back to New York City, and set up a printing press with his younger brother George. When this venture failed one year later, even though he hated teaching, he went back to the classrooms once again. He became a traveling teacher. It was rumored that Walt Whitman had a physical relationship with a young male student, and left teaching for good. Even though this rumor was never substantiated, Walt Whitman's Leaves of Grass is believed to be an account of this time. After this questionable incident, Walt Whitman decided he was not temperamentally suited for teaching, so he returned to writing. This time, Walt Whitman started writing fiction. He supported temperance, the moderate use of alcohol, and often wrote about it in his fiction. Not surprising, temperance was an important issue to him, considering his father was an alcoholic and one of his brothers died in his 30's from alcoholism. At this time, Walt Whitman was working as a traveling journalist for several New York papers. The rich city-dwellers were often the subjects of his writings. Walt Whitman was fascinated with opera. "Whitman loved the thought of the human body as its own musical instrument, and his fascination with voice would later manifest itself in his desire to be an orator and in his frequent inclusion of oratorical elements in his poetry. For Whitman, listening to opera had the intensity of a 'love-grip.'" His operatic experiences often affected his writing. Walt Whitman became editor for the Brookyln Eagle. He looked at it as a way to love the people of Brooklyn. During his time as editor, he often addressed the issue of slavery. He was personally against it. As much as feeling that slavery of blacks was wrong, he also felt that slaves doing a white man's job devalued white men. He felt that it was degrading to a white man for a black slave to do his job. Walt Whitman lost his job as editor because the publisher of the Eagle was sympathetic to the South. After he was fired from the Eagle, he met a man named J.E. McClure who offered him a job in New Orleans with the paper the Crescent. He and his brother Jeff, who was only 15, traveled to New Orleans. Walt Whitman loved the atmosphere of this new place. He loved the colorful people, the country, the bars, and the coffee. The languages he heard in New Orleans intrigued him, and he began to use foreign phrases in his writings. One of the things that really affected him was seeing the live slave auctions in New Orleans. He though it was very dehumanizing. His experience in New Orleans gave him more of an open mind about the acceptance of slaves being free in the new world. He was surprised to see blacks serving on juries, eating with whites, and working with whites throughout the city. Walt Whitman's health was really good in New Orleans, but his brother Jeff was often ill and homesick. For this reason, they traveled back to New York. Up until this time, Walt Whitman's writings had been very ordinary and oftentimes very flat. Whitman decided to take a different route with his writings in the late 40's, and began to write poetry in a new style called homely imagery, "finding beauty in the commonplace but expressing it in an uncommon way." Even though his earlier writings had been somewhat bland, it was speculated about whether his new poetry was "carefully calculated strategy to blend journalism, oratory, popular music, and other cultural forces into an innovative American voice." Along with this new free verse poetry, his poems were outstanding because of the personifications and the wide array of subjects that he wrote about. “He deplored in his editorials the evils of the slave trade, of capital punishment, of police brutality toward prostitutes and children of the poor, the low wages of garment workers, the flogging of children in the public schools, the long hours of store clerks, prison conditions, and the hostility of many Americans toward foreigners.” Walt Whitman returned to Brooklyn in 1848 and worked for a newspaper, the Brooklyn Freeman. As he worked, he continued to work on his poetry, developing his unique style. When he finished the poems for Leaves of Grass, they were so controversial that he couldn't find a publisher. In 1855, Walt Whitman published the first edition of Leaves of Grass himself. This first edition contained 12 poems and a preface. Walt Whitman continued working on new editions to Leaves of Grass throughout his life. There were several more publications of this book. "Leaves of Grass was not a book that set out to shock the reader so much as to merge with the reader and make him or her more aware of the body each reader inhabited." While in Brooklyn, Walt Whitman liked to hang out with the working class, even though he was becoming well-known in the upper class circles by writing and attending operas. He sought out the people on the ferries and buses because he loved to hear stories from people that came from other places. He frequented Pfaff's Beer Hall. He liked to watch the crowd as well as participate. Around this time, the Civil War broke out. Walt Whitman was in his 40's, so he did not sign up, but one of his younger brothers George enlisted. When the family heard that George might have been injured, Walt Whitman traveled to Virginia to find his brother. When he reached his brother's unit, he discovered that his brother had been minorly injured. While visiting his brother, Walt Whitman saw the field hospitals for the battlefield soldiers, and it changed his life. When he saw the number of amputees, he decided to stay in Virginia and volunteer at the hospital to do what he could for the wounded soldiers. He tried all he knew to give them hope. He held them and loved them the best he could by doing little things for them that they had lost the ability to do. The doctors say Walt Whitman offered the men a medicine that they could not dispense. He offered them hope, and he tried to offer that same thing to the readers of all his books. From Walt Whitman's view, he felt that the soldiers gave him far more than he gave them. He once said that helping the soldiers was "the greatest privilege and satisfaction....and, of course, the most profound lesson of my life." Walt Whitman suffered a stroke on January 23, 1873. He moved to Camden, New Jersey to live with his brother George and his brother's wife Lou. When his brother's family moved, Walt Whitman chose to stay in Camden. In March 1884, he used some money he had saved from his writings to buy the first place he had ever owned. He had a housekeeper, and a young man who boarded with him. The young man helped him drive his wagon that his friend had given him. In his last days, Walt Whitman had a nurse Frederick Warren Fritzinger, a former sailor. Walt Whitman died from tuberculosis at the age of 72 on March 26, 1892. He was buried in Camden's Harleigh Cemetery. His tombstone simply says "Walt Whitman." Over his lifetime he had several close relationships, with males and females. He never married or had children.The art of art, the glory of
expression and the sunshine
of the light of letters, is simplicity.
~Walt Whitman~
Quote of the Day Archive Favorite Songs Inspirational Poems & Stories