|
|
Person of the Month
Walter Whitman
- Born 31st, May, 1819, in West Hills, Long Island, New York; died 26th
March, 1892, in Camden, New Jersey. US poet. Walt Whitman was a son of a
radical free-thinking carpenter. From the age of four he was brought up in
Brooklyn. He worked as an office boy, first in a lawyer's office, then
with a doctor, and finally with a printer. he became an itinerant teacher
in country schools. He then returned to printing. In 1846 he became the
editor of the Democratic paper, the Brooklyn Eagle. Numerous other
short-lived press jobs followed. In 1848 he and his brothers worked
briefly on the New Orleans Crescent. He returned to Brooklyn and worked as
a journalist (1846-54). In December 1862 he went to Washington hospitals
of the northern and southern armies. In 1865 he received a government
clerkship. He was dismissed from his job when it was realized that he was
the author of Leaves of grass, which was described as an indecent book. He
immediately obtained a similar job. In 1873 he was paralyzed by a stroke
and went to Camden, New Jersey where he spent the rest of his life.
Whitman's homosexuality is discussed in terms of adhesiveness which is
both friendship and "manly love". This idea was taken up by Edward
Carpenter, Havelock Ellis, and John Addington Symonds.
 |