| Timeline |
| 1819 |
Born 31 May in Long Island, New York |
| 1823 |
Family moves to Brooklyn |
| 1830s |
Learns printing trade on Brooklyn Patriot and Star, teaches briefly, founds a weekly newspaper on Long Island |
| 1840s |
Works as a compositor for New World, as a journalist and printer for Aurora and The Evening Tattler |
| 1841 |
Death in the School Room published
|
| 1842 |
Franklin Evans published
|
| 1845 |
Writes theatre, music, and literary criticism for The Brooklyn Eagle |
| 1848 |
Briefly works for New Orleans Crescent, returns to edit the Brooklyn Freeman |
| 1855 |
Leaves of Grass published
|
| 1857 |
Editor Brooklyn Times |
| 1861 |
Outbreak of Civil War : Whitman devotes himself to nursing the dying and the injured |
| 1865 |
Drum Taps published |
| 1865 |
Receives an appointment as a clerk in the Bureau of Indian Affairs |
| 1867 |
Democratic Vistas I published |
| 1868 |
Democratic Vistas II published |
| 1870 |
Passage to India published |
| 1873 |
Suffers a paralytic stroke, goes to live with brother in Camden, NJ |
| 1874 |
A Prayer of Columbus and Song of the Redwood Tree published
|
| 1882 |
Specimen Days and Collect published |
| 1888 |
November Boughs published |
| 1891 |
Goodbye My Fancy published |
| 1891 |
Dies 26 March in Camden |
