By: HISTORY.com Editors

First edition of Walt Whitman’s “Leaves of Grass” is published

Published: November 13, 2009Last Updated: January 31, 2025

Walt Whitman’s first edition of the self-published Leaves of Grass is printed, containing a dozen poems.

Whitman was born in West Hills, Long Island, and raised in Brooklyn. He left school at the age of 14 to become a journeyman printer and later worked as a teacher, journalist, editor and carpenter to support his writing. In 1855, he self-published Leaves of Grass, which carried his picture but not his name. He revised the book many times, constantly adding and rewriting poems. The second edition, in 1856, included his “Sundown Poem,” later called “Crossing Brooklyn Ferry,” one of his most beloved pieces. Whitman sometimes took long ferry and coach rides as an excuse to talk with people, and was also fond of long walks and cultural events in Manhattan.

In 1862, Whitman’s brother was wounded at the Battle of Fredericksburg, and Whitman went to care for him. He spent the rest of the war comforting both Union and Confederate soldiers. After the war, Whitman worked for several government departments until 1873, when he suffered a stroke. He spent the rest of his life in Camden, New Jersey, and continued to issue revised editions of Leaves of Grass until shortly before his death in 1892.

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Timeline

Also on This Day in History

Discover more of the major events, famous births, notable deaths and everything else history-making that happened on July 4th

1776

Continental Congress adopts the Declaration of Independence

In Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, the Continental Congress adopts the Declaration of Independence, which proclaims the independence of the United States of America from Great Britain and its king.

4:26m read

1817

Construction on the Erie Canal begins

On July 4, 1817, workers break ground on the Erie Canal at Rome, New York. The canal, completed in 1825, links the eastern seaboard with the Midwest and transforms New York into a major economic and cultural hub. The earliest proposals for the Erie Canal came from a destitute flour merchant named Jesse Hawley. In […]

3:10m read

1826

Thomas Jefferson and John Adams die

On July 4, 1826, former Presidents Thomas Jefferson and John Adams, who were once fellow Patriots and then adversaries, die on the same day within five hours of each other. Thomas Jefferson and John Adams were the last surviving members of the original American revolutionaries who had stood up to the British empire and forged […]

1:58m read

1863

Confederates surrender at Vicksburg

The Confederacy is torn in two when General John C. Pemberton surrenders to Union General Ulysses S. Grant at Vicksburg, Mississippi. The Vicksburg campaign was one of the Union’s most successful of the war. Although Grant’s first attempt to take the city failed in the winter of 1862-63, he renewed his efforts in the spring. […]

1884

France gives the Statue of Liberty to the United States

In a ceremony held in Paris on July 4, 1884, the completed Statue of Liberty is formally presented to the U.S. ambassador as a commemoration of the friendship between France and the United States. The idea for the statue was born in 1865, when the French historian and abolitionist Édouard de Laboulaye proposed a monument […]

2:26m read

1940

Terrorist bomb explodes at the New York World’s Fair

At about 5 p.m. on Thursday, July 4, 1940 a bomb explodes at the New York World’s Fair in Flushing, Queens, instantly killing two New York City police detectives and wounding five other men, two critically. The New York World’s Fair, which ran from April 1939 to October 1940 and took as its theme “Building […]

2:00m read

1965

LGBTQ activists hold the first Annual Reminder demonstration in Philadelphia

On July 4, 1965, more than two dozen LGBTQ activists demonstrate in front of Independence Hall in Philadelphia in one of the earliest gay rights demonstrations in the United States. The “Reminder” demonstration, held annually through 1969, drew scant mainstream media coverage at the time but is now seen as an important precursor to the wider […]

1:34m read

1971

Koko the Gorilla is born at the San Francisco Zoo

On July 4 in 1971, a primate star is born when a baby western lowland gorilla enters the world at the San Francisco Zoo. The gorilla, born in captivity on Independence Day to parents Jacqueline and Bwana, is named Hanabiko, which means “fireworks child” in Japanese—but she soon becomes known around the world as “Koko.” […]

2:16m read

1997

Pathfinder lands on Mars

After traveling 120 million miles in seven months, NASA’s Mars Pathfinder becomes the first U.S. spacecraft to land on Mars in more than two decades. In an ingenious, cost-saving landing procedure, Pathfinder used parachutes to slow its approach to the Martian surface and then deployed airbags to cushion its impact. Colliding with the Ares Vallis […]

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Arts & Entertainment

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