A chronology of the key events in the life and career of poet Walt Whitman, 1819-1892.
Timeline
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New York, 1819-1854 A timeline from Walt Whitman’s birth through his early careers as a Long Island school teacher and newspaper printer and editor in New York, 1819-1854. -
Leaves of Grass, 1855-1861 A timeline from Walt Whitman’s publication of the first edition of his masterpiece Leaves of Grass in July 1855 through two subsequent editions and his first sighting of Abraham Lincoln as the president-elect passed through New York on his way to his March 1861 inauguration in Washington, shortly before the start of the American Civil War. -
Civil War and Washington, D.C., 1861-1874 A timeline from Walt Whitman’s publication of articles on the history of Brooklyn and New York to his December 1862 move to Washington, D.C., where he worked for the federal government and volunteered at Civil War hospitals, through his postwar publications, employment, and health crisis culminating in official termination from his job in the Justice Department in July 1874. -
Camden and the Last Years, 1875-1892 A timeline from Walt Whitman’s residency in Camden, New Jersey, to his death and memorial, including his lecturing on Abraham Lincoln, publication of an edition of Leaves of Grass in 1881 and a “death-bed” edition in 1891-92, censorship battles, and his final decade writing poetry, sharing reminiscences, and associating with family and friends.