| 1819 |
born May 31 |
| 1855 |
original volume of 12 works of
Leaves of Grass, an unabashed love letter to America, first published on
its 79th birthday, July 4 |
| 1856 |
Leaves of Grass published a second
time with 20 new poems in addition to the first 12 |
| 1857 |
editor
of Brooklyn Daily Times, a Free Soil newspaper, until middle of 1859 |
| 1859 |
joined the "Fred Gray
Association," a loose confederation of young men who seemed anxious
to explore new possibilities of male-male affection and met Fred Vaughan,
a young Irish stage driver, at Pfaff’s |
| 1860 |
Third edition of Leaves of Grass
with over 120 new poems and became a clerk in the Attorney General’s
Office until 1874 |
| 1862 |
traveled
to Washington D.C. to visit his wounded brother George, stayed there until
end of Civil War as an anti-slavery and pro-Union journalist who stayed
and worked in the military hospitals daily for the next 4 years and
published series called "City Photographs" in the New York
Leader |
| 1864 |
brother Jesse committed to an
insane asylum by Whitman after he physically attacked his mother |
| 1865 |
met Peter Doyle, a streetcar
conductor, and began romantic friendship and published Drum Taps |
| 1867 |
the fourth printing of Leaves of
Grass, the most carelessly printed and the most chaotic of all the
editions |
| 1868 |
first extant correspondence between
Whitman and Doyle |
| 1870 |
published Democratic Vistas and
Passage to India, his last great poetry volume |
| 1871 |
the fifth printing of Leaves of
Grass |
| 1873 |
suffered from a stroke which forced
him to leave Washington and live with George in Camden |
| 1876 |
the sixth printing of Leaves of
Grass and published Two Rivulets |
| 1881 |
fired from job as clerk for the
Department of the Interior when the Secretary of the Interior, James
Harlan, discovered that Whitman was the author of Leaves of Grass, which
he found offensive; and Specimen Days, an autobiography, was issued as a
prose counterpart to the seventh edition of Leaves of Grass |
| 1888 |
published November Boughs |
| 1891 |
the eighth edition of Leaves of
Grass and published final volume of poems and prose, Good-Bye, My Fancy |
| 1892 |
died on March 26 in Camden of
miliary tuberculosis, age 72 |
