Four Amazing Facts about Walt Whitman

The greatest American poet in history had a strange and wonderful life. When I talk to people about my love of Walt Whitman, I usually take the opportunity to share a few interesting facts about his life. I'm not sure why - maybe I think people will be interested and research Whitman on their own.

Here are my four favorite interesting tidbits about the life and times of my all-time favorite writer.

1. Walt Whitman Had EIGHT Brothers and Sisters

Whitman was the next-to-youngest of nine children. These days the average American family consists of just three people, but including his mother and father (and two sets of grandparents that lived with them), there were fifteen people living in Whitman's tiny childhood home, until he left at the age of 16 to pursue a career as a teacher and journalist.

2. Whitman Once Founded His Own Newspaper

Disappointed with the work he was being given as a writer for the Evening Star, Whitman decided he could print and publish his own newspaper. Called The Weekly Freeman, Whitman's paper appeared once a week for a few months before the offices burned down. Using insurance money from the fire, Whitman was able to turn the paper into a daily, until he grew tired of the news business and ended the venture after just a year in print.

3. Take Heart, Young Poets - Whitman Was Self-Published

In 1855, just a few years after The Weekly Freeman closed shop for good, Whitman published the first edition of Leaves of Grass which would eventually become his masterpiece. The first copy, which he printed and sold on his own, contained just twelve poems. The self-published manuscript garnered the attention of Ralph Waldo Emerson, who wrote Whitman a letter which famous began with the words: "I greet you at the beginning of a great career . . ."

4. Whitman Was Fired from a Government Job for Writing "Obscene Poetry"

Walt briefly worked for the Department of Internal Affairs, until his supervisor caught him lazily scribbling poems. The supervisor wasn't necessarily angry about Whitman wasting time - and we don't know exactly what the poems were like - but what got him fired was the supposedly "obscene content." I'd love to know what counted as obscene in the late 19th century . . .