About the Author
Walt Whitman was an American poet and writer born in New York in 1819. Despite his family s financial troubles, Whitman attended school and, after graduating at age eleven, worked in a lawyer s office before becoming a printer s apprentice. Before he had even turned sixteen Whitman began anonymously publishing his poetry at the Long Island Star, where he worked. After leaving the Star, Whitman moved through several jobs including teaching, publishing and typesetting. Eventually, though, Whitman determined to make his living writing poetry, and paid for the first publication of Leaves of Grass himself when he was thirty-seven. At the time of its publication, Leaves of Grass was met with controversy and was criticized for its overtly sexual themes, however, but it has since come to be one of the most important works in early American literature and a product of the transcendentalist movement. Whitman died in 1892 at the age of seventy-two.
About the Book
From "Leaves of Grass"to "Song of Myself," all of Whitman's poetry in one volume
In 1855 Walt Whitman published "Leaves of Grass," the work that defined him as one of America s most influential voices and that he added to throughout his life. A collection of astonishing originality and intensity, it spoke of politics, sexual emancipation, and what it meant to be an American. From the joyful Song of Myself and I Sing the Body Electric to the elegiac When Lilacs Last in the Dooryard Bloom d, Whitman s art fuses oratory, journalism, and song in a vivid celebration of humanity. Containing all Whitman s known poetic work, this edition reprints the final, or deathbed, edition of Leaves of Grass (1891 92). Earlier versions of many poems are also given, including the 1855 Song of Myself. Features a completely new and fuller introduction discussing the development of Whitman's poetic career, his influence on later American poets, and his impact on the American cultural sensibility
Includes chronology, updated suggestions for further reading, and extensive notes
For more than seventy years, Penguin has been the leading publisher of classic literature in the English-speaking world. With more than 1,700titles, Penguin Classics represents a global bookshelf of the best works throughout history and across genres and disciplines. Readers trust theseries to provide authoritative texts enhanced by introductions and notes by distinguished scholars and contemporary authors, as well as up-to-datetranslations by award-winning translators."
