Publisher Description
Walt Whitman’s poetry, written more than 150 years ago, continues to influence artists today, and no work more so than his epic American poem, Leaves of Grass, which he spent his entire life writing and revising. The work heralded a new dynamic relationship in poetry, with its candid and sensual interpretation of nature, humanity, and the universe. It has been referred to as the ultimate representation of nineteenth-century America and is masterfully immortalized by actor Ed Begley, Jr.
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About Walt Whitman
Walt Whitman (1819-1892) was the son of a carpenter. His formal schooling ended at age eleven, when he was apprenticed to a printer in Brooklyn. He spent the next two decades as a printer, freelance writer, and editor in New York. In 1855, at his own expense, he published the first edition of Leaves of Grass, which would mark him as the major poetic voice of an emerging America. Whitman would go on expanding and revising it for the rest of his life, with the final edition appearing in 1892, the year of his death.
About Ed Begley
Ed Begley, Jr. is an American actor and environmental activist. He has appeared in hundreds of films, television shows, and stage performances. He played Dr. Victor Ehrlich on the television series St. Elsewhere from 1982 to 1988. The role earned him six consecutive Primetime Emmy Award nominations and a Golden Globe Award nomination. Since 1970, he has been an environmentalist, well known for his travels in an electric car, reducing trash and recycling, and becoming a vegan.