Walt Whitman

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Walt Whitman

• And His Web of Influence

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Walt Whitmans Web of Influence

• Walt Whitmans work has far-reaching influences
  across literature, politics, society and art.

The Life and Times of Walt Whitman
People influenced by Walt Whitman
Art/Movies/Music influenced by Walt Whitman
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Walt Whitman growing up

• Born in Long Island, New York in 1819
• He and his family of 11 moved to Brooklyn
• Only went to school for six years before he
  started an apprenticeship with a printer. He
  was basically self-educated
• After 2 years of his apprenticeship he moved to
  New York City and worked in print shops

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Walt Whitman back home

• In 1835 moved back to his hometown and he became
  a country school teacher
• Started and edited The Long Islander
• Taught in Huntington until 1841 when he moved
  back to New York City

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Walt Whitman in NYC

• Whitman worked as a journalist, and as a printer
• Made political speeches, wrote freelance writings
  for popular magazines, and worked on Martin Van
  Burens Presidential campaign
• There was a split in the Democratic Party, which
  put Walt Whitman out of a job. They didn't like
  that he supported the Free-Soil party, so he lost
  his job editing an influential newspaper called,
  The Brooklyn Eagle

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Walt Whitman in writing

• 1841, Whitman had his words first published.
  Several short stories and two novels Franklin
  Evans and The Childs Champion
• In 1855, Walt Whitman paid for the first edition
  of Leaves of Grass to be printed. This
  contained 12 long poems, without title
• Second edition contained 20 more poems, and a
  letter congratulating Whitman from Ralph Waldo
  Emerson. When Emerson saw the letter in the
  second edition he was surprised to see it
  published

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Walt Whitman in the Civil War

• 1841, Whitman had his words first published.
  Several short stories and two novels Franklin
  Evans and The Childs Champion
• Whitman cared for many wounded soldiers during
  the American Civil War
• While doing this, he saw Abraham Lincoln many
  times and began to admire him
• After Lincoln got assassinated Whitman wrote two
  poems inspired by his grief, O Captain! My
  Captain! and When Lilacs Last in the Dooryard
  Bloomed

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Walt Whitman in the End

• After the Civil War Whitman worked in the
  Department of the Interior. When found out that
  he was the author of the Leaves of Green he
  got fired because they were considered
  'offensive'
• When Whitman died he owned a house in New Jersey
  which he was able to get because he had published
  7 different editions of Leaves of Green
• He died on March 26, 1892 at the age of 73
• An excerpt from one of his poems is
• inscribed on his tombstone

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People Influenced by Walt Whitman
Oscar Wilde
T.S. Eliot
Bram Stoker
Allen Ginsberg
Richard Maurice Bucke
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Walt WhitmanT.S. Eliot

• T.S. Eliot was a poet in Britain. He was strongly
  influenced by the French, but Eliot also answered
  Whitmans Revolutionary call
• Eliot was inspired by the hysteria from the fear
  of the cold war. He was also influenced by the
  political persecutions
• Eliot saw Walt Whitman as a great patriot who was
  really frustrated with America, but he also saw
  the love for freedom and power from his writing,
  Song of the Open Road

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Walt WhitmanBram Stoker

• Bram Stoker had an illness growing up that kept
  him in bed most of his life. Because of this
  illness, a lot of his works had to to with
  everlasting sleep and the resurrection form the
  dead
• Stoker based his story Dracula on Walt Whitman.
  It is said that Dracula is symbolic for Walt
  Whitman, "The Master", and his effect on society
• Dracula the vampire at times resembles Whitman.
  Each has long white hair, a heavy moustache,
  great height and strength

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Walt WhitmanOscar Wilde

• Oscar Wilde was one of the writers during the
  height of the Victorian Era
• He wrote many short stories, plays and poems that
  inspired people all around the world
• He won the Newdigate prize for one of his poems
  that he wrote
• Wilde traveled across the US to give lectures to
  people on aesthetics
• Walt Whitman was an influence on Wilde with his
  visions of an optimistic and a self-reliant
  America

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Walt Whitman Richard Maurice Bucke

• Bucke was friends with many people that loved
  literature.
• He was impressed by Whitmans Leaves of Green
• Bucke was greatly influenced by being friends
  with Walt Whitman, philosophically and through
  his literature
• Bucke developed a theory of human intellectual
  and emotional evolution
• Also wrote and gave professional speeches and
  wrote a book on all of his theories called Man's
  Moral Nature
• Bucke was elected into the English Literature
  section of the Royal Society of Canada

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Walt WhitmanAllan Ginsberg

• Allen Ginsberg is a poet who wrote many things
  including A Supermarket in California
• In this there are references to Walt Whitman and
  Frederico Garcia Lorca
• Ginsberg had a Jewish background, and his works
  were mainly based on modernism and romanticism.
  He thought that he inherited the visionary and
  homoerotic poetry from Walt Whitman
• Ginsberg applied Whitman's tone and stylistic
  innovations to the anti-authoritarian politics
  and insurgent thinking of the post-World War II
  era. Ginsberg was one in a long series of poets
  to pay homage to Whitman

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Art/Movies/MusicInfluenced By Walt Whitman
Movie Dead Poets Society
Art Van Goghs Starry Night
Art Joseph Stella
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Walt Whitman Dead Poets Society

• The movie focuses on passages from Whitmans Oh
  Captain! My Captain as an ongoing theme
• As quoted by main character John Keating when
  describing the purpose of poetryBut poetry,
  beauty, romance, love, these are what we stay
  alive for. To quote from Whitman, "O me! O
  life!... of the questions of these recurring of
  the endless trains of the faithless--of cities
  filled with the foolish what good amid these, O
  me, O life?

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Walt Whitman Starry Night

• Van Gogh gave very little explanation or meaning
  behind his famous work Starry Night. One theory
  is that is it a visual interpretation of Walt
  Whitmans poetry
• Whitman's From Noon to Starry Night was first
  published in France in 1888
• Also possibly inspired by Whitmans Song of
  Myself
• Smile O voluptuous cool-breath'd earth!  Earth
  of the slumbering and liquid trees!  Earth of
  departed sunset--earth of the mountains
  misty-topt!  Earth of the vitreous pour of the
  full moon just tinged with blue!  Earth of shine
  and dark mottling the tide of the river!  Earth
  of the limpid gray of clouds brighter and clearer
  for my sake! 

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Walt Whitman Joseph Stella

• Joseph Stella, never having met Whitman, drew
  inspiration from his poetry and used it in his
  art works. He had no personal relationship with
  Whitman, but yet his debt to him was great
• When Stella first started out his drawings, he
  put Whitman's democratic ideas in his art work.
  Joseph Stella did some drawings for a magazine
• Also, Stella wanted to show the life of humans as
  an undisguised and naked life, just as Whitman did