Walt Whitman: A Life

The Pulitzer Prize and National Book Award-winning author “gives us flesh and blood Whitman in this fine and sensitive biography” (The Boston Globe).

A moving, penetrating, sharply focused portrait of America’s greatest poet—his genius, his passions, his androgynous sensibility—an exuberant life entwined with the turbulent history of mid-nineteenth century America. In vivid detail, Justin Kaplan, winner of the Pulitzer Prize and the National Book Award, examines the mysterious selves of this enigmatic man whose bold voice of joy and sexual liberation embraced a growing nation . . . and exposes the quintessential Whitman, that perfect poet whose astonishing verse made “words sing, dance, kiss, copulate” for an entire world to hear.

“Whitman emerges from this biography alive and kicking—hugely human, enormously attractive.” —Newsweek

“Not only readable, but dramatic.” —The New York Times Book Review

“A buoyant, energizing book.” —The Nation

“Brilliant.” —Publishers Weekly

© 2023 Harper Perennial (Ebook): 9780062339782

Release date

Ebook: 21 November 2023