Walt Turns 193

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Walt Whitman’s birthday was yesterday. Happy belated!

Melville House pieced together pictures of Whitman’s notebooks and some of his best “come-hither” glamour shots, all taken from Library of Congress’s massive collection and The Walt Whitman Archive. There’s even a wax recording of Whitman reading “America”, one of his later poems, with a choo-choo-train-like accompaniment.

Graham Todd is an intern at The Rumpus. He spends his mornings writing post-apocalyptic, vaguely biblical sci-fi horror comedy, his evenings tutoring the wide-eyed youth of the Palo Alto area, and his Thursdays at The Rumpus office, effectively “off the streets”. Beyond this weekly ritual, he enjoys karaoke, the movies, and jogging. More from this author →