Walt Whitman: Background for His Works

Presents, by drawings and still and live-action photography, highlights in the life of Walt Whitman as selections from his poems are presented in the narration. Shows how his writings were influenced by his rural life as a youth, his experiences with city life, his observation of pioneer life, his trip to New Orleans from New York and return via Chicago, the Civil War, and the post-Civil War period. Tells how his publication of Leaves of Grass both disgusted and surprised the conventional critics, and points out that although his works finally became recognized and imitated, he never obtained financial success.