1855. He was thirty-six years old, not yet a published writer, and could not find any company

willing to take a chance on his unusual style. His experience in newspapers

allowed him to help publish his work himself, even setting up some of the type and

distributing the first edition. To get a decent start, Whitman even went so far as to

write complimentary unsigned reviews of his book which he had placed in the

newspapers- "An American bard at last! "- his own words of his first work, showing his

audacity to be well thought of. Whitman wrote only one book- Leaves of Grass- but he

took a lifetime to write it, and he saw his one book through many shapes. As

biographers have found, it is difficult to write the life of Whitman without writing

instead the life and times of his book. He was the kind of parent who lives his life

through his child, though he was unmarried and childless. As though in anticipation of

scholars and critics who would probe deeply into his private affairs, Whitman placed a

warning at the beginning of "Leaves of Grass". A little reflection will confirm Whitman's

point: "no man's life was ever captured

encouragement was a letter from Ralph Waldo Emerson praising his work. States

Whitman suggests, the reader who would know his life must read his book, and even

publishing a new edition with a great many new poems the following year. His major

unique style- the "lyric epic"- by which he made long poems stay alive. According to

perhaps impossible to say whether Whitman's sexual imagery derives from one

upon you and then averts his face,

"Camerado, this is no book/Who touches this touches a man."

poem, all others continued to appear in each successive edition of the same title, as

I am a man who, sauntering along without fully stopping, turns a casual look

Some common words found in the essay are:
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Approximate Word count = 1121
Approximate Pages = 4 (250 words per page double spaced)