413 Walt Whitman - "Song of Myself"

In this episode, we resume our look at Walt Whitman's life and body of work, focusing in particular on the years 1840-1855. Did Whitman's teaching career end with him being tarred and feathered by an angry mob, as has long been rumored? What happened during his three months in New Orleans? And how did this printer and hack writer wind up writing the twelve poems in Leaves of Grass (1855), thereby becoming the "true poet" that Ralph Waldo Emerson had been searching for?

Additional listening ideas:

• 411 Walt Whitman - A New Hope
• 84 The Trials of Oscar Wilde
• 296 Nathaniel Hawthorne

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