Walt Whitman: Background For His Works

Presents Whitman as a true American poet, whose works were strongly influenced by significant facets of the changing nineteenth-century America in which he lived., Presents by drawings, still and live-action photography, highlights in the life of Walt Whitman as selections from his poems are included 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 periods. Tells how his first publications 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., NOTE: Two (or more) records have been merged together to create this data.