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On a hot summer day in 1855, a 36-year-old writer emerged from an undistinguished printer's shop in Brooklyn, New York, carrying a slim volume of his work. To family, friends and neighbors, Walter Whitman, Jr., may have been just a too-old bachelor who lived in his parents' attic, but as he walked the city streets that day, he knew something of himself they could not imagine. With his book of a dozen poems, Leaves of Grass, he was about to introduce America to a savior.

Ominous events were on the horizon in America, and Walt Whitman offered up his poetry and his persona as a perfect reflection of the America he saw; it was daring, noble, naive, brutish, sexual, frightening and flawed. He hoped his work could heal a fracturing America. But in his own time, his poetry was as contested as the idea of America itself.

This American Experience tells Whitman's life story, from his working class childhood in Long Island, to his years as a newspaper reporter in Brooklyn when he struggled to support his impoverished family, then to his reckless pursuit of the attention and affection he craved for his work, to his death in 1892.


Program Sections:

1. Introduction (3:38)
   A biography of the American poet Walt Whitman.
   
   
2. The Center of Everything (7:22)
   From a working class Long Island family, 21-year-old Walt Whitman sets out to make his name in New York City.
   
   
3. Captured by the City (10:55)
   As a newspaperman, Whitman stakes out radical positions. Wandering New York's crowded streets he finds inspiration in the flood of humanity and the city's promise.
   
   
4. Slavery and the Coming Crisis (10:52)
   In New Orleans, Whitman encounters a racially mixed society -- and the stark fact of human bondage. He searches for a poetic voice to unite the fraying body politic.
   
   
5. Leaves of Grass (13:30)
   With great faith in its power to heal the nation, Whitman publishes Leaves of Grass in 1855.
   
   
6. Desperate to Connect (11:27)
   American literary lion Ralph Waldo Emerson writes to encourage Whitman, though Leaves of Grass sells poorly. A second edition includes new poems.
   
   
7. A Call for Affection (13:24)
   Whitman's romance with a young Irishman ends sadly. He suffers, but translates his experience to poetry, believing affection is the key to national healing.
   
   
8. The Civil War (8:20)
   Whitman volunteers to care for wounded Union soldiers in Washington, D.C.
   
   
9. Drum Taps (8:40)
   Whitman is exhausted by his hospital efforts. He writes poetry in memory of the dead.
   
   
10. His Life's Work (12:50)
    Living in Camden, New Jersey, Whitman reconceives Leaves of Grass. His old age becomes a poetic subject.
    
    
11. Credits (2:45)
    Production credits for the television program.

Originating Website: http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/amex/whitman/program/whitman_01_wm_hi.html