Leaves of Grass

In Brooklyn in the 1840s, Walter Whitman (as he was then known) was a newspaper editor who took an interest in politics. A Democrat and member of the Free Soil Party, which called for abolition in the western territories of the US, he wrote hard-hitting editorials on political issues and often traded insults with rival newspapers. He also wrote unremarkable short stories, mainly sensationalist and moralistic adventures, likely influenced by the work of 19th-century American authors Edgar Allan Poe and Nathaniel Hawthorne. Whitman also penned conventional, gloomy poems and two temperance novels about the evils of drink. One of them sold 20,000 copies, which made it Whitman’s best-selling work in his lifetime. 

Whitman later said that these works came from the superficial part of his mind. The deeper part was still developing, as he read widely in subjects ranging from astronomy to art, philosophy, and literature. He was also well versed in the popular faith movements of the day, such as spiritualism and harmonialism, created by Swedish engineer-turned-seer Emanuel Swedenborg. Whitman also knew of the mesmerists, who believed in a universally pervasive magnetic fluid or ether that could be harnessed and used for healing. Whitman was always inquiring, reflecting, and absorbing ideas and information.