A nephew is a son of one's sibling, sibling-in-law, or half-sibling, and a niece is a daughter of one's sibling, sibling-in-law, or half-sibling. Sons and daughters of siblings-in-law are also informally referred to as nephews and nieces respectively, even though there is no blood relation. The word nephew is derived from the French word neveu.

• Nephew – son of one's brother/sister (and his/her spouse).
• Niece – daughter of one's sister/brother (and her/his spouse).
• Half-nephew – son of one's half-brother/half-sister.
• Half-niece – daughter of one's half-brother/half-sister.
• Nephew-in-law – son of one's sister-in-law/brother-in-law; husband of one's niece.
• Niece-in-law – daughter of one's sister-in-law/brother-in-law; wife of one's nephew.
• Step-nephew – son of one's stepbrother/sister, or stepson of one's brother/sister.
• Step-niece – daughter of one's stepbrother/sister, or stepdaughter of one's brother/sister.
• Half-nephew-in-law – son of one's wife/husband's half-brother/half-sister; husband of one's half-niece
• Half-niece-in-law – daughter of one's wife/husband's half-brother/half-sister; wife of one's half-nephew
• Step-niece-in-law – daughter of one's wife/husband's stepbrother/stepsister; wife of one's step-nephew
• Step-nephew-in-law – son of one's wife/husband's stepbrother/stepsister; husband of one's step-niece
• Great-nephew – son of one's nephew/niece, grandson of one's sister/brother.
• Great-niece – daughter of one's nephew/niece, granddaughter of one's sister/brother.
• Half-great-nephew – son of one's half-nephew/niece.
• Half-great-niece – daughter of one's half-nephew/niece.

In archaic terminology, a maternal nephew is called a sister-son, emphasizing the importance as a person's nearest male relative should he have no brothers or sons of his own. The term is used to describe some knights who are nephews to King Arthur and is imitated by J. R. R. Tolkien, especially in lists of Kings of Rohan or dwarves where the sister-son is also heir. Sister-daughter is a less common parallel term for niece.

See also[link]

• Uncle
• Aunt
• Fictive kinship
• Cousin, for details of this and other family relationships.

External links[link]

Look up nephew in Wiktionary, the free dictionary.

Look up niece in Wiktionary, the free dictionary.

•  Chisholm, Hugh, ed. (1911). "nephew". Encyclopædia Britannica (11th ed.). Cambridge University Press. 
• Uncle/Aunt Nephew/Niece GENETIC AND QUANTITATIVE ASPECTS OF GENEALOGY
• Dictionary.com, "nephew," in Dictionary.com Unabridged. Source location: Random House, Inc. Available: http://dictionary.reference.com. Retrieved: January 1, 2011.

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Ashley Tisdale
Tisdale during the signing event for Sharpay's Fabulous Adventure in Madrid, Spain on May 23, 2011
Background information
Birth name	Ashley Michelle Tisdale
Born	(1985-07-02) July 2, 1985 (age 26) Deal, New Jersey, U.S.
Genres	Pop, dance pop, teen pop, pop rock[1]
Occupations	Actress, singer, songwriter, spokesperson, voice actress, executive producer
Instruments	Vocals[1]
Years active	1997–present
Labels	Warner Bros.
Website	ashleytisdale.com File:Signature of Ashley Tisdale.svg

Ashley Michelle Tisdale (born July 2, 1985) is an American actress and singer who rose to prominence portraying the candy-counter girl Maddie Fitzpatrick in Disney Channel's The Suite Life of Zack & Cody and the female antagonist Sharpay Evans in the High School Musical film series. The High School Musical series became a successful franchise which included two television films, a feature movie, a spin-off and numerous soundtrack albums. The popularity earned by Tisdale in High School Musical led her to sign a solo record deal with Warner Bros. Records in 2006. Her debut album Headstrong, was released in February 2007, and debuted at number five in the U.S. chart and sold 64,000 copies in the first week. It was later certified Gold by the Recording Industry Association of America. A second studio album, Guilty Pleasure, was released in 2009.

Tisdale owns a production company and has worked as an executive producer in movies which included the ABC Family television film Picture This. Tisdale has a prominent voice role as Candace Flynn in Disney Channel's Phineas & Ferb, a cartoon which became television's most-watched animated series among kids and tweens and had been met with acclaim by critics.^[2][3][4] In 2009, she was cast in her first major broadcast role in The CW's television series Hellcats as Savannah Monroe, an intense and very religious cheerleader.

Early life[link]

Tisdale was born in West Deal, New Jersey on July 2, 1985,^[5] to Lisa (née Morris) and Mike Tisdale, the manager of a construction company. Her elder sister, Jennifer Tisdale, is an actress. Through her grandfather, Tisdale is related to businessman Ron Popeil.^[6] She grew up in Ocean Township. She is Jewish on her mother's side and was raised with "a little bit of both" of her parents' religions.^[7]

At the age of three, Tisdale met her current manager, Bill Perlman, at a New Jersey mall. He sent her to numerous auditions for commercials, resulting in her placement in more than 100 national network TV ads as a kid.^[9] She began her theatrical career by appearing in Gypsy: A Musical Fable and The Sound of Music at Monmouth County's Jewish Community Center.^[5][10]

At the age of eight, she was cast to play the part of Cosette in a national touring production of the musical Les Misérables. "When I was little, I saw the play Les Misérables on Broadway, I thought it was the most amazing thing I have ever seen so I went to my manager and told him I wanted to be in it", said Tisdale in an interview to Newsday in 2007.^[8] She also claims to have had only a single singing lesson before landing the role.^[8] Tisdale toured for two years on Les Misérables^[11] before landing a role in an international touring production of Annie^[9] in Korea.^[12] At the age of twelve, Tisdale sang at the White House for President Bill Clinton.^[5]

Career[link]

1997–2006[link]

Tisdale performing at the High School Musical: The Concert tour in 2006.

In the late 1990s and early 2000s, Tisdale had minor roles in several television shows such as The Hughleys, Smart Guy, 7th Heaven, Boston Public and Bette and in the feature films A Bug's Life and Donnie Darko.^[9] During this time, she simultaneously worked as a Ford Model.^[6] For her role in Boston Public, she received a 2000 Young Artist Award nomination for "Best Guest Performance In a TV drama".^[13]

In 2004, she was cast as the teenage candy-counter girl Maddie Fitzpatrick in the Disney Channel series The Suite Life of Zack & Cody, which premiered in March 2005 and ended in 2008.^[6] She later won her first award at the UK Nickelodeon Kids' Choice Awards for "Best TV Actress", due to her performance as Fitzpatrick.^[14][6]

Although the producers of the Disney Channel Original Movie High School Musical did not initially consider her because of her "good-girl image" on The Suite Life, Tisdale was eventually cast as the popular, narcissistic high school student Sharpay Evans in the 2006 film.^[8] High School Musical became Disney Channel's most watched movie that year, with 7.7 million viewers in its US premiere broadcast.^[15] The soundtrack, in which Tisdale lent her vocals for several songs, became the top-selling album in the United States that year.^[16] Tisdale became the first female artist to debut with two songs simultaneously on the Billboard Hot 100 chart with "What I've Been Looking For" and "Bop to the Top", both tracks from the film's soundtrack.^[9] Due to the popularity earned by Tisdale through her performance in High School Musical, Warner Bros. Records signed her for a recording contract in July 2006 and she started working on her debut album.^[17]

2007–09[link]

Tisdale performing at the opening of the first Microsoft Store in Scottsdale, Arizona, in October 2009.

Headstrong is Tisdale's US Gold-certified^[18] debut album, released in February 2007 via Warner Bros,^[19] which debuted at number five on the Billboard 200, with 64,000 copies sold in that week.^[19] "Be Good to Me" was released as the album's first single in the December 2006 and "He Said She Said" was released as the second, in September 2007. In 2008, "Not Like That" and "Suddenly" were released as singles in a selective number of countries that did not include North America.^[20][21] A music DVD entitled There's Something About Ashley followed the release of her debut album, with a three-song trilogy comprising music videos and a documentary about the creation of Headstrong.^[22]

Tisdale performing "Headstrong" during High School Musical: The Concert

The success of the first High School Musical film led Tisdale to reprise the role in the 2007 sequel High School Musical 2. She lent vocals for several tracks in the film's soundtrack^[8] and her performance in High School Musical 2 was critically acclaimed by many media outlets such as The Hollywood Reporter.^[23][24][25] Even more successful than the first film, High School Musical 2 became the most-watched cable-television movie, receiving 17 million viewers on its premiere night.^[26] Also in 2007, Tisdale was given the voice role of Candace Flynn, the series' secondary antagonist, in Phineas and Ferb, which became television's most-watched animated series among kids and tweens^[2] and had very positive reviews.^[3][4]

As a producer,^[27] Tisdale formed her own production company in 2008 and named it Blondie Girl Productions.^[28] The 2008 ABC Family Original Movie Picture This marked Tisdale's debut as an executive producer and also in a leading role, in which she played Mandy Gilbert, an unpopular and bullied teenager.^[29] The film captured 4.3 million total viewers in its debut night.^[30]

Tisdale reprised her role as Sharpay Evans in the 2008 Walt Disney Pictures feature film High School Musical 3: Senior Year.^[6] Her performance in the film earned her an MTV Movie Award for "Breakthrough Performance Female" in 2009.^[31] and acclaim by critics including Owen Gleiberman of Entertainment Weekly, who labeled her one of film's breakout stars and said her portrayal of Evans makes "narcissism a goofy, bedazzled pleasure",^[32] and Mark Kermode, who said Tisdale is 2008's "best supporting actress".^[33] High School Musical 3 earned $42 million in its domestic opening weekend, which became the biggest opening for a musical film.^[34]

Her second studio album, Guilty Pleasure, was released in 2009.^[35] Described by Tisdale as a "rocker and edgier" album,^[36] it generated mixed reviews, with a 54% rating on Metacritic,^[37] and Billboard claimed the album "doesn't give the singer room to comfortably let loose".^[38] Guilty Pleasure debuted at number twelve on the Billboard 200, selling 25,000 copies in its first week, archiving a low commercial performance in comparison with her debut album.^[39] The song "It's Alright, It's OK" was released as the album's lead single in April in airplay and digital formats^[36] and a second single, "Crank It Up", was later released in October.^[40]

Tisdale starred in the 2009 20th Century Fox family feature film Aliens in the Attic as Bethany Pearson,^[41] the elder sister of the family and although she is credited as one of the main characters, The New York Times said Tisdale "spends much of the film off screen".^[42] The film was a minor success in box office, grossing $60 million worldwide.^[43]

2010–present[link]

Tisdale during the filming of the TV series Hellcats in 2010

Tisdale's return into broadcast television occurred in 2010 when her involvement in The CW Television Network drama series Hellcats was announced in March by The Hollywood Reporter, that reported Tisdale had signed on to co-star on her first major broadcast series role as Savannah Monroe, the peppy and fiercely intense captain of the Hellcats.^[44] The series had its script based on the book Cheer: Inside the Secret World of College Cheerleaders by journalist Kate Torgovnick and was described as "Election meets Bring It On" by critics.^[45][46] Hellcats, however, had only one full season as it was cancelled by The CW in 2011.^[47] She had vocal roles in several TV cartoons, during 2010, including The Cleveland Show,^[48] Family Guy^[49] and Glenn Martin, DDS.^[50] A guest appearance in an episode of Raising Hope and a starring role in a CBS pilot produced by Louis C.K., which has not been picked up by the channel, followed in 2012.^[51][52]

A High School Musical spin-off entitled Sharpay's Fabulous Adventure, released directly in DVD, featured Tisdale reprising her role as Sharpay Evans and also serving as the executive producer.^[53][54] The Disney Channel Original Movie captured 5 million viewers on its premiere night on Disney Channel.^[55] Tisdale voiced Candance Flynn in the 2011's Phineas and Ferb movie that premiered on Disney Channel with 7.6 million viewers on its debut night.^[56]

During 2011, Tisdale started focusing on her career as a television and film producer. Her production company Blondie Girl Productions signed a multiyear production deal with Relativity Media in 2010, to create, develop and executive produce a series.^[28] Tisdale has been working in a film for Disney Channel titled Adventure Quest,^[57] a project for Nickelodeon,^[58] a Bravo TV reality show titled Miss Advised,^[59] an upcoming television series based on Laurie Faria Stolarz's book Blue Is for Nightmares,^[60] three digital series,^[61] and a drama project for ABC Family.^[62]

Musical style[link]

Her music is predominantly pop^[1] and has included ballads and pop rock.^[63] Love and heartbreak are major themes in Tisdale's songs and her output makes use of electronic instruments such as drum machines and electric guitars. She co-wrote several songs on her studio albums.^[64][65][66] Her musical influences include Britney Spears,^[1] Christina Aguilera,^[1] Lindsay Lohan,^[1] Avril Lavigne,^[1] Kelly Clarkson,^[67] The Used,^[67] Boys Like Girls,^[67] Michael Jackson,^[68] My Chemical Romance,^[69] Lady Gaga,^[70] and Fergie^[71] and in an AOL interview, Tisdale said, "I’ve been a big fan of Pink ever since she started. I love Katy Perry’s sense of humor and her pop/rock feel. I love Pat Benatar's music. I’m inspired by all these women when I’m going into the studio, but almost anything inspires me."^[72]

Public image and personal life[link]

Tisdale posing for a fan picture at the 2008 "Jingle Ball" sponsored by Philadelphia's WIOQ.

Tisdale is represented by Creative Artists Agency.^[73] In 2007, Tisdale appeared in a promotional campaign for Staples Inc.'s "Geared 4 School" sweepstakes and appeared in promotional campaigns for Eckō Red clothing brand, that included a mall tour in the US which performances in fashion shows hosted at each.^[22] She appeared in commercials for T-Mobile and Toys "R" Us. She was ranked #10 in Maxim's 2008 Hot 100 list and was ranked #94 on Forbes' 2008 Celebrity 100 list.^[74][75] In 2008, Tisdale was ranked #17 in "Forbes' High Earners Under 30" list and earned $2.8 million from High School Musical 3.^[76] She also teamed up with Huckleberry Toys to produce a limited quantity of dolls modeled after her.^[77] She was the face of Degree Girl in the U.S. and recorded several commercials and songs to promote the product.^[78] In 2009, Tisdale signed a five-year endorsement contract with Italian clothes line, Puerco Espin^[79] and became a volunteer for the 2009 "Get on the Bus" charity campaign.^[80] In 2011, she joined Got Milk? campaign.^[81]

Tisdale was romantically involved with Jared Murillo and ended their relationship in March 2009.^[82] In March 2007, Tisdale told Blender she was drug and alcohol-free, and does not smoke and went on to add, "my mom really instilled confidence in me, so I'm not somebody who'd be under peer pressure".^[83]

Tisdale underwent a septoplasty procedure in November 2007 to correct her partially deviated septum. According to Tisdale, this was done for "health-related reasons and not out of a belief in plastic surgery". The procedure corrected two small fractures in her nose which were interfering with her breathing. She spoke to People magazine about the surgery, saying that it was important to her to be honest with her fans.^[84]

From 2009^[85] to 2011,^[86] Tisdale was in a relationship with the music video director Scott Speer.^[85] Tisdale posed nude for the May 2011 issue of Allure magazine. She was quoted as saying that "being in this shoot was me saying, ‘I’m not just the young girl everybody thinks I am. I’m actually a woman.’”^[87][88]

Filmography[link]

Films[link]

Television[link]

Discography[link]

• Headstrong (2007)
• Guilty Pleasure (2009)

Awards and nominations[link]

References[link]

External links[link]

Wikiquote has a collection of quotations related to: Ashley Tisdale

Media related to Ashley Tisdale at Wikimedia Commons

• Official website
• Ashley Tisdale at the Internet Movie Database
• Ashley Tisdale at TV.com
• Ashley Tisdale at YouTube

Billy Bragg
Bragg at a protest calling for electoral reform in 2010
Background information
Birth name	Stephen William Bragg
Born	(1957-12-20) 20 December 1957 (age 54) Barking, Essex, England
Genres	Folk punk,[1] folk rock, alternative rock
Instruments	Vocals, guitar
Years active	1977–present
Associated acts	The Blokes Riff-Raff Wilco
Website	billybragg.co.uk

Stephen William Bragg (born 20 December 1957) – known as Billy Bragg – is an English alternative rock musician and left-wing activist.^[2][3] His music blends elements of folk music, punk rock and protest songs, and his lyrics mostly deal with political or romantic themes. His music career has lasted more than 30 years.

Early life[link]

Bragg was born in 1957 in Barking, Essex,^[4] the son of Dennis Frederick Austin Bragg, an assistant sales manager to a Barking cap and hat maker, and his wife, Marie Victoria D'Urso.^[5] Bragg was educated at Barking Abbey Secondary School in Barking.^[6]

Career[link]

In 1977, Bragg formed the punk rock/pub rock band Riff Raff, and toured London's pubs and clubs. The band released a series of singles, which did not receive wide exposure. He also worked in Guy Norris Records in Barking. Bragg became disillusioned with his music career, and in May 1981 joined the British Army as a recruit destined for the Queen's Royal Irish Hussars of the Royal Armoured Corps. After three months, he bought his way out of the army for £175 and returned home, having attended basic training but having never served in a regiment as a soldier.^[7]

Bragg began performing frequent concerts and busking around London, playing solo with an electric guitar. His roadie at the time was Andy Kershaw, who became a BBC DJ (Bragg and Kershaw later, in 1989, appeared in an episode of the BBC TV programme, Great Journeys, in which they travelled the Silver Road from Potosí, Bolivia, to the Pacific coast at Arica, Chile).^[8]

Bragg performing at South by Southwest in 2008

Bragg's demo tape initially got no response from the record industry, but by pretending to be a television repair man, he got into the office of Charisma Records' A&R man Peter Jenner.^[9] Jenner liked the tape, but the company was near bankruptcy and had no budget to sign new artists. Bragg got an offer to record more demos for a music publisher, so Jenner agreed to release them as a record. Life's a Riot with Spy Vs. Spy was released in July 1983 by Charisma's new imprint, Utility. Hearing DJ John Peel mention on-air that he was hungry, Bragg rushed to the BBC with a mushroom biryani, so Peel played a song from Life's a Riot with Spy Vs. Spy although at the wrong speed (since the 12" LP was, unconventionally, cut to play at 45rpm).^[9] Peel insisted he would have played the song even without the biryani and later played it at the correct speed.

Within months, Charisma had been taken over by Virgin Records and Jenner, who had been laid off, became Bragg's manager. Stiff Records' press officer Andy Macdonald – who was setting up his own record label, Go! Discs – received a copy of Life's a Riot with Spy Vs. Spy. He made Virgin an offer and the album was re-released on Go! Discs in November 1983.^{[citation needed]} In 1984, he released Brewing Up with Billy Bragg, a mixture of political songs (e.g., "It Says Here") and songs of unrequited love (e.g., "The Saturday Boy"). The following year he released Between the Wars, an EP of political songs that included a cover version of Leon Rosselson's "The World Turned Upside Down" – the EP made the top 20 of the UK Singles Chart and earned Bragg an appearance on Top of the Pops. Bragg later collaborated with Rosselson on the song, "Ballad of the Spycatcher". In 1985, his song "A New England", with an additional verse, became a Top 10 hit in the UK for Kirsty MacColl. After MacColl's early death, Bragg always sang the extra verse in her honour. In 1984–1985 he toured North America.

In 1986, Bragg released Talking with the Taxman about Poetry, which became his first Top 10 album. Its title is taken from a poem by Vladimir Mayakovsky and a translated version of the poem was printed on the record's inner sleeve. Back to Basics is a 1987 collection of his first three releases: Life's A Riot With Spy Vs. Spy, Brewing Up with Billy Bragg, and the Between The Wars EP. Bragg released his fourth album, Workers Playtime, in September 1988. With this album, Bragg added a backing band and accompaniment.

In May 1990, Bragg released the political mini-LP, The Internationale. The songs were, in part, a return to his solo guitar style, but some songs featured more complicated arrangements and included a brass band. The album paid tribute to one of Bragg's influences with the song, "I Dreamed I Saw Phil Ochs Last Night", which is an adapted version of Earl Robinson's song, "I Dreamed I Saw Joe Hill Last Night", itself an adaptation of a poem by Alfred Hayes.^{[citation needed]}

Performing with The Imagined Village at Camp Bestival, 20 July 2008

The album Don't Try This at Home was released in September 1991, and included the song, "Sexuality", which reached the UK Singles Chart. Bragg had been persuaded by Go! Discs' Andy and Juliet Macdonald to sign a four-album deal with a million pound advance, and a promise to promote the album with singles and videos.^{[citation needed]} This gamble was not rewarded with extra sales, and the situation put the company in financial difficulty. In exchange for ending the contract early and repaying a large amount of the advance, Bragg regained all rights to his back catalogue.^{[citation needed]} Bragg continued to promote the album with his backing band, The Red Stars, which included his Riff Raff colleague and long-time roadie, Wiggy.

Bragg released the album William Bloke in 1996 after taking time off to help raise his son. Around that time, Nora Guthrie (daughter of American folk artist Woody Guthrie) asked Bragg to set some of her father's unrecorded lyrics to music. The result was a collaboration with the band Wilco and Natalie Merchant (with whom Bragg had worked previously). They released the album Mermaid Avenue in 1998, and Mermaid Avenue Vol. II in 2000. A rift with Wilco over mixing and sequencing the album led to Bragg recruiting his own band, The Blokes, to promote the album. The Blokes included keyboardist Ian McLagan, who had been a member of Bragg's boyhood heroes The Faces. The documentary film Man in the Sand depicts the roles of Nora Guthrie, Bragg, and Wilco in the creation of the Mermaid Avenue albums.

In 2004, Bragg joined Florida ska-punk band Less Than Jake to perform a version of 'The Brightest Bulb Has Burned Out' for the Rock Against Bush compilation.

At the 2005 Beautiful Days Festival in Devon, Bragg teamed up with the Levellers to perform a short set of songs by or associated with The Clash in celebration of Joe Strummer's birthday. Bragg performed guitar and lead vocals on "Police and Thieves", and performed guitar and backing vocals on "English Civil War", and "Police on my Back".

In 2007, Bragg moved closer to his English folk music roots by joining the WOMAD-inspired collective The Imagined Village, who recorded an album of updated versions of traditional English songs and dances and toured through that autumn. Bragg released his album Mr. Love & Justice in March 2008.^[10] This was the second Bragg album to be named after a book by Colin MacInnes. In 2008, during the NME Awards ceremony, Bragg sang a duet with British solo act Kate Nash. They mixed up their two greatest hits, Nash playing "Foundations", and Bragg redoing his "A New England".^[11] Bragg also collaborated with the poet and playwright, Patrick Jones, who supported Bragg's Tour.

In 2008, Bragg played a small role in Stuart Bamforth's film "A13: Road Movie".^[12] Bragg is featured alongside union reps, vicars, burger van chefs and Members of Parliament^[12] in a film that explored "the overlooked, the hidden and the disregarded."^[12]

He was involved in the play Pressure Drop at the Wellcome Collection in London in April and May 2010. The production, written by Mick Gorden, and billed as "part play, part gig, part installation", featured new songs by Bragg. He performed during the play with his band, and acted as compere.^[13]

Bragg curated the Leftfield stage at Glastonbury Festival 2010.^[14]

He will also be partaking in the Bush Theatre's 2011 project Sixty Six where he has written a piece based upon a chapter of the King James Bible.^[15]

Politics[link]

Bragg has been involved with grassroots, broadly leftist, political movements,^[3] and this is often reflected in his lyrics. Bragg has recorded and performed cover versions of famous socialist anthems The Internationale and The Red Flag. Bragg said in an interview: "My theory is this; I'm not a political songwriter. I'm an honest songwriter. I try and write honestly about what I see around me now."^[16] In another interview, Bragg said: "I don't mind being labelled a political songwriter. The thing that troubles me is being dismissed as a political songwriter."^[17] In an interview with Bullz-Eye, Bragg said:

I would then say that I am Mr. Love and Justice, and to check out the love songs. That’s how I capture people. People do say to me, “I love your songs, but I just can’t stand your politics.” And I say, “Well, Republicans are always welcome. Come on over!” I would hate to stand at the door, saying to people, “Do you agree with these positions? If not, you can’t come in.”^[18]

Bragg expressed support for the 1984 miners' strike, and the following year he formed the musicians' alliance Red Wedge, which promoted the Labour Party and discouraged young people from voting for the Conservative Party in the 1987 general election. Following the defeat of the Labour Party and the repeated victory of Margaret Thatcher and her Conservative government, Bragg joined Charter88 to push for a reform of the British political system.

Also during the 1980s, Bragg travelled to the Soviet Union a few times, after Mikhail Gorbachev had started to promote the policies of perestroika and glasnost. During one trip, he was accompanied by MTV, and during another trip he was filmed for the 1998 mini-documentary Mr Bragg Goes to Moscow, by Hannu Puttonen.

On TV series After Dark in 1987

On 12 June 1987, the night after the UK General Election, he appeared on a memorable edition of After Dark. In 1999, Bragg appeared before a commission that debated possible reform of the House of Lords.^[19]

During the 2001 UK general election, Bragg attempted to combat voter apathy by promoting tactical voting in an attempt to unseat Conservative Party candidates in Dorset, particularly in South Dorset and West Dorset.

Bragg has developed an interest in English national identity, apparent in his 2002 album England, Half-English and his 2006 book The Progressive Patriot. The book expressed his view that English socialists can reclaim patriotism from the right wing. He draws on Victorian poet Rudyard Kipling for an inclusive sense of Englishness.^[20] Bragg has participated in a series of debates with members of the Socialist Workers Party who disagree with his argument. Bragg also supports Scottish independence and Welsh independence.^[21]

Supporting a demonstration against police misuse of anti-terrorism legislation; Trafalgar Square, London, 23 January 2010

Bragg has been an outspoken opponent of fascism, racism, bigotry, sexism and homophobia, and is a supporter of a multi-racial Britain. As a result, Bragg has come under attack from far right groups such as the British National Party. In a 2004 The Guardian article, Bragg was quoted as saying:

The British National Party would probably make it into a parliament elected by proportional representation, too. It would shine a torch into the dirty little corner where the BNP defecate on our democracy, and that would be much more powerful than duffing them up in the street – which I'm also in favour of.^[22]

Also in 2004, Bragg collaborated with American ska punk band Less Than Jake to record a song for the Rock Against Bush compilation album.

During the 2005 general election campaign in the Bethnal Green and Bow constituency, Bragg supported Oona King, the Labour Party's pro-Iraq war candidate, over George Galloway, the anti-war Respect Party's candidate, due to a belief that splitting the left-wing vote would allow the Conservatives to win the seat.^[23] Galloway overturned King's 10,000-strong majority to become his party's only MP.^[24]

In March 2006, journalist Garry Bushell (a former Trotskyist who ran as a candidate for the English Democrats in 2005) accused Bragg of "pontificating on a South London council estate when we all know he lives in a lovely big house in West Dorset".^[25]

In January 2010, Bragg announced that he would withhold his income tax as a protest against the Royal Bank of Scotland's plan to pay bonuses of approximately of £1.5 billion to staff in its investment banking business. Bragg set up a Facebook group, made appearances on radio and television news programmes, and made speech at Speakers' Corner in London's Hyde Park. Bragg said, “Millions are already facing stark choices: are they willing to work longer hours for less money, or would they rather be unemployed? I don’t see why the bankers at RBS shouldn’t be asked the same.”^[26]

On the eve of the 2010 general election, Bragg announced that he would be voting for the Liberal Democrats because "they've got the best manifesto".^[27] He also backed the Lib Dems for tactical voting reasons. Bragg later expressed disappointment with the party, stating that "the Lib Dems had failed democracy ".^[28]

Bragg was also very active in his hometown of Barking as part of Searchlight's magazine's Hope not Hate campaign, where the BNP's leader Nick Griffin was standing for election. At one point during the campaign Bragg squared up to BNP London Assembly Member Richard Barnbrook, calling him a "Fascist racist" and saying "when you're gone from this borough, we will rebuild this community". The BNP came third on election day.^[29]

Bragg is a board director and key spokesman for the Featured Artists Coalition, a body representing the rights of recording artists. Bragg founded the organisation Jail Guitar Doors, which supplies instruments to prisoners to encourage them to address problems in a non-confrontational way.^[30]

Bragg is a regular at the Tolpuddle Martyrs' Festival, an annual event celebrating the memory of those transported to Australia for founding a union in the 1830s.^[31]

In January 2011, news sources reported that 20 to 30 residents of Bragg's Dorset hometown, Burton Bradstock, had received anonymous letters viciously attacking Bragg and his politics, and urging residents to oppose him in the village. Bragg claimed that a BNP supporter was behind the letters, which argued that Bragg is a hypocrite for advocating socialism while living a wealthy lifestyle, and referred to him as anti-British and pro-immigration.^[32]

In July 2011 Billy joined the growing protests over the News of the World phone hacking affair with the recording of "Never Buy the Sun" which references many of the scandals key points including the Milly Dowler case, police bribes and associated political fallout. It also draws on the 22 year Liverpool boycott of The Sun for their coverage of the Hillsborough Disaster.^[33]

In 2011 Bragg joined the Occupy Movement Protests.

Personal life[link]

Billy lives in Burton Bradstock, Dorset with his wife Juliet and son Jack.^[34] He is a supporter of West Ham United.

Discography[link]

References[link]

Further reading[link]

• Andrew Collins (2007). Still Suitable for Miners: Billy Bragg (revised and updated ed.). London: Virgin Books. ISBN 978-0-7535-1245-6. 
• Billy Bragg, The Progressive Patriot: A Search for Belonging (London: Bantam Press, 2006) ISBN 978-0-593-05343-0
• Billy Bragg, How we all lost when Thatcher won – Thatcher's victory over the miners led directly to this economic crisis. The Guardian, 5 March 2009

External links[link]

Wikisource has original works written by or about: Billy Bragg

Wikimedia Commons has media related to: Billy Bragg

• Official website
• Braggtopia
• Billy Bragg collection at the Internet Archive's live music archive
• Billy Bragg's Big Busk At Lincoln Center 27 July 2011

Walt Whitman
Walt Whitman, 1887
Born	(1819-05-31)May 31, 1819 West Hills, Town of Huntington, Long Island, New York, U.S.
Died	March 26, 1892(1892-03-26) (aged 72) Camden, New Jersey, U.S.
Signature

Walter "Walt" Whitman (May 31, 1819 – March 26, 1892) was an American poet, essayist and journalist. A humanist, he was a part of the transition between transcendentalism and realism, incorporating both views in his works. Whitman is among the most influential poets in the American canon, often called the father of free verse.^[1] His work was very controversial in its time, particularly his poetry collection Leaves of Grass, which was described as obscene for its overt sexuality.

Born on Long Island, Whitman worked as a journalist, a teacher, a government clerk, and – in addition to publishing his poetry – was a volunteer nurse during the American Civil War. Early in his career, he also produced a temperance novel, Franklin Evans (1842). Whitman's major work, Leaves of Grass, was first published in 1855 with his own money. The work was an attempt at reaching out to the common person with an American epic. He continued expanding and revising it until his death in 1892. After a stroke towards the end of his life, he moved to Camden, New Jersey, where his health further declined. He died at age 72 and his funeral became a public spectacle.^[2][3]

Whitman's sexuality is often discussed alongside his poetry. Though biographers continue to debate his sexuality, he is usually described as either homosexual or bisexual in his feelings and attractions.^[4] However, there is disagreement among biographers as to whether Whitman had actual sexual experiences with men.^[5] Whitman was concerned with politics throughout his life. He supported the Wilmot Proviso and opposed the extension of slavery generally. His poetry presented an egalitarian view of the races, and at one point he called for the abolition of slavery, but later he saw the abolitionist movement as a threat to democracy.^[6]

Life and work[link]

Early life[link]

Walter Whitman was born on May 31, 1819, in West Hills, Town of Huntington, Long Island, to parents with interests in Quaker thought, Walter and Louisa Van Velsor Whitman. The second of nine children,^[7] he was immediately nicknamed "Walt" to distinguish him from his father.^[8] Walter Whitman Sr. named three of his seven sons after American leaders: Andrew Jackson, George Washington, and Thomas Jefferson. The oldest was named Jesse and another boy died unnamed at the age of six months. The couple's sixth son, the youngest, was named Edward.^[8] At age four, Whitman moved with his family from West Hills to Brooklyn, living in a series of homes, in part due to bad investments.^[9] Whitman looked back on his childhood as generally restless and unhappy, given his family's difficult economic status.^[10] One happy moment that he later recalled was when he was lifted in the air and kissed on the cheek by the Marquis de Lafayette during a celebration in Brooklyn on July 4, 1825.^[11]

At age eleven Whitman concluded formal schooling.^[12] He then sought employment for further income for his family; he was an office boy for two lawyers and later was an apprentice and printer's devil for the weekly Long Island newspaper the Patriot, edited by Samuel E. Clements.^[13] There, Whitman learned about the printing press and typesetting.^[14] He may have written "sentimental bits" of filler material for occasional issues.^[15] Clements aroused controversy when he and two friends attempted to dig up the corpse of Elias Hicks to create a plaster mold of his head.^[16] Clements left the Patriot shortly after, possibly as a result of the controversy.^[17]

Early career[link]

Whitman, age 28

The following summer Whitman worked for another printer, Erastus Worthington, in Brooklyn.^[18] His family moved back to West Hills in the spring, but Whitman remained and took a job at the shop of Alden Spooner, editor of the leading Whig weekly newspaper the Long-Island Star.^[18] While at the Star, Whitman became a regular patron of the local library, joined a town debating society, began attending theater performances,^[19] and anonymously published some of his earliest poetry in the New York Mirror.^[20] At age 16 in May 1835, Whitman left the Star and Brooklyn.^[21] He moved to New York City to work as a compositor^[22] though, in later years, Whitman could not remember where.^[23] He attempted to find further work but had difficulty in part due to a severe fire in the printing and publishing district^[23] and in part due to a general collapse in the economy leading up to the Panic of 1837.^[24] In May 1836, he rejoined his family, now living in Hempstead, Long Island.^[25] Whitman taught intermittently at various schools until the spring of 1838, though he was not satisfied as a teacher.^[26]

After his teaching attempts, Whitman went back to Huntington, New York to found his own newspaper, the Long Islander. Whitman served as publisher, editor, pressman, and distributor and even provided home delivery. After ten months, he sold the publication to E. O. Crowell, whose first issue appeared on July 12, 1839.^[27] No copies of the Long-Islander published under Whitman survive.^[28] By the summer of 1839, he found a job as a typesetter in Jamaica, Queens with the Long Island Democrat, edited by James J. Brenton.^[27] He left shortly thereafter, and made another attempt at teaching from the winter of 1840 to the spring of 1841.^[29] One story, possibly apocryphal, tells of Whitman being chased away from a teaching job in Southold, New York in 1840. After a local preacher called him a "Sodomite", Whitman was allegedly tarred and feathered. Biographer Justin Kaplan notes that the story is likely untrue because Whitman regularly vacationed in the town thereafter.^[30] Biographer Jerome Loving calls the incident a "myth".^[31] During this time, Whitman published a series of ten editorials called "Sun-Down Papers—From the Desk of a Schoolmaster" in three newspapers between the winter of 1840 and July 1841. In these essays, he adopted a constructed persona, a technique he would employ throughout his career.^[32]

Whitman moved to New York City in May, initially working a low-level job at the New World, working under Park Benjamin, Sr. and Rufus Wilmot Griswold.^[33] He continued working for short periods of time for various newspapers; in 1842 he was editor of the Aurora and from 1846 to 1848 he was editor of the Brooklyn Eagle.^[34] He also contributed freelance fiction and poetry throughout the 1840s.^[35] Whitman lost his position at the Brooklyn Eagle in 1848 after siding with the free-soil "Barnburner" wing of the Democratic party against the newspaper's owner, Isaac Van Anden, who belonged to the conservative, or "Hunker", wing of the party.^[36] Whitman was a delegate to the 1848 founding convention of the Free Soil Party.

[edit] Leaves of Grass

Whitman claimed that after years of competing for "the usual rewards", he determined to become a poet.^[37] He first experimented with a variety of popular literary genres which appealed to the cultural tastes of the period.^[38] As early as 1850, he began writing what would become Leaves of Grass,^[39] a collection of poetry which he would continue editing and revising until his death.^[40] Whitman intended to write a distinctly American epic^[41] and used free verse with a cadence based on the Bible.^[42] At the end of June 1855, Whitman surprised his brothers with the already-printed first edition of Leaves of Grass. George "didn't think it worth reading".^[43]

Walt Whitman, age 37, frontispiece to Leaves of Grass, Fulton St., Brooklyn, N.Y., steel engraving by Samuel Hollyer from a lost daguerreotype by Gabriel Harrison.

Whitman paid for the publication of the first edition of Leaves of Grass himself^[43] and had it printed at a local print shop during their breaks from commercial jobs.^[44] A total of 795 copies were printed.^[45] No name is given as author; instead, facing the title page was an engraved portrait done by Samuel Hollyer,^[46] but 500 lines into the body of the text he calls himself "Walt Whitman, an American, one of the roughs, a kosmos, disorderly, fleshly, and sensual, no sentimentalist, no stander above men or women or apart from them, no more modest than immodest".^[47] The inaugural volume of poetry was preceded by a prose preface of 827 lines. The succeeding untitled twelve poems totaled 2315 lines—1336 lines belonging to the first untitled poem, later called "Song of Myself". The book received its strongest praise from Ralph Waldo Emerson, who wrote a flattering five page letter to Whitman and spoke highly of the book to friends.^[48] The first edition of Leaves of Grass was widely distributed and stirred up significant interest,^[49] in part due to Emerson's approval,^[50] but was occasionally criticized for the seemingly "obscene" nature of the poetry.^[51] Geologist John Peter Lesley wrote to Emerson, calling the book "trashy, profane & obscene" and the author "a pretentious ass".^[52] On July 11, 1855, a few days after Leaves of Grass was published, Whitman's father died at the age of 65.^[53]

In the months following the first edition of Leaves of Grass, critical responses began focusing more on the potentially offensive sexual themes. Though the second edition was already printed and bound, the publisher almost did not release it.^[54] In the end, the edition went to retail, with 20 additional poems,^[55] in August 1856.^[56] Leaves of Grass was revised and re-released in 1860^[57] again in 1867, and several more times throughout the remainder of Whitman's life. Several well-known writers admired the work enough to visit Whitman, including Bronson Alcott and Henry David Thoreau.^[58]

During the first publications of Leaves of Grass, Whitman had financial difficulties and was forced to work as a journalist again, specifically with Brooklyn's Daily Times starting in May 1857.^[59] As an editor, he oversaw the paper's contents, contributed book reviews, and wrote editorials.^[60] He left the job in 1859, though it is unclear if he was fired or chose to leave.^[61] Whitman, who typically kept detailed notebooks and journals, left very little information about himself in the late 1850s.^[62]

Civil War years[link]

Walt Whitman as photographed by Mathew Brady

Walt Whitman's handwritten manuscript for "Broadway, 1861".

As the American Civil War was beginning, Whitman published his poem "Beat! Beat! Drums!" as a patriotic rally call for the North.^[63] Whitman's brother George had joined the Union army and began sending Whitman several vividly detailed letters of the battle front.^[64] On December 16, 1862, a listing of fallen and wounded soldiers in the New York Tribune included "First Lieutenant G. W. Whitmore", which Whitman worried was a reference to his brother George.^[65] He made his way south immediately to find him, though his wallet was stolen on the way.^[66] "Walking all day and night, unable to ride, trying to get information, trying to get access to big people", Whitman later wrote,^[67] he eventually found George alive, with only a superficial wound on his cheek.^[65] Whitman, profoundly affected by seeing the wounded soldiers and the heaps of their amputated limbs, left for Washington on December 28, 1862 with the intention of never returning to New York.^[66]

In Washington, D.C., Whitman's friend Charley Eldridge helped him obtain part-time work in the army paymaster's office, leaving time for Whitman to volunteer as a nurse in the army hospitals.^[68] He would write of this experience in "The Great Army of the Sick", published in a New York newspaper in 1863^[69] and, 12 years later, in a book called Memoranda During the War.^[70] He then contacted Emerson, this time to ask for help in obtaining a government post.^[66] Another friend, John Trowbridge, passed on a letter of recommendation from Emerson to Salmon P. Chase, Secretary of the Treasury, hoping he would grant Whitman a position in that department. Chase, however, did not want to hire the author of such a disreputable book as Leaves of Grass.^[71]

The Whitman family had a difficult end to 1864. On September 30, 1864, Whitman's brother George was captured by Confederates in Virginia,^[72] and another brother, Andrew Jackson, died of tuberculosis compounded by alcoholism on December 3.^[73] That month, Whitman committed his brother Jesse to the Kings County Lunatic Asylum.^[74] Whitman's spirits were raised, however, when he finally got a better-paying government post as a low-grade clerk in the Bureau of Indian Affairs in the Department of the Interior, thanks to his friend William Douglas O'Connor. O'Connor, a poet, daguerreotypist and an editor at the Saturday Evening Post, had written to William Tod Otto, Assistant Secretary of the Interior, on Whitman's behalf.^[75] Whitman began the new appointment on January 24, 1865, with a yearly salary of $1,200.^[76] A month later, on February 24, 1865, George was released from capture and granted a furlough because of his poor health.^[75] By May 1, Whitman received a promotion to a slightly higher clerkship^[76] and published Drum-Taps.^[77]

Effective June 30, 1865, however, Whitman was fired from his job.^[77] His dismissal came from the new Secretary of the Interior, former Iowa Senator James Harlan.^[76] Though Harlan dismissed several clerks who "were seldom at their respective desks", he may have fired Whitman on moral grounds after finding an 1860 edition of Leaves of Grass.^[78] O'Connor protested until J. Hubley Ashton had Whitman transferred to the Attorney General's office on July 1.^[79] O'Connor, though, was still upset and vindicated Whitman by publishing a biased and exaggerated biographical study, The Good Gray Poet, in January 1866. The fifty-cent pamphlet defended Whitman as a wholesome patriot, established the poet's nickname and increased his popularity.^[80] Also aiding in his popularity was the publication of "O Captain! My Captain!", a relatively conventional poem on the death of Abraham Lincoln, the only poem to appear in anthologies during Whitman's lifetime.^[81]

Part of Whitman's role at the Attorney General's office was interviewing former Confederate soldiers for Presidential pardons. "There are real characters among them", he later wrote, "and you know I have a fancy for anything out of the ordinary."^[82] In August 1866, he took a month off in order to prepare a new edition of Leaves of Grass which would not be published until 1867 after difficulty in finding a publisher.^[83] He hoped it would be its last edition.^[84] In February 1868 Poems of Walt Whitman was published in England thanks to the influence of William Michael Rossetti,^[85] with minor changes that Whitman reluctantly approved.^[86] The edition became popular in England, especially with endorsements from the highly respected writer Anne Gilchrist.^[87] Another edition of Leaves of Grass was issued in 1871, the same year it was mistakenly reported that its author died in a railroad accident.^[88] As Whitman's international fame increased, he remained at the attorney general's office until January 1872.^[89] He spent much of 1872 caring for his mother who was now nearly eighty and struggling with arthritis.^[90] He also traveled and was invited to Dartmouth College to give the commencement address on June 26, 1872.^[91]

Health decline and death[link]

Walt Whitman spent his last years at his home in Camden, New Jersey. Today, it is open to the public as the Walt Whitman House.

After suffering a paralytic stroke in early 1873, Whitman was induced to move from Washington to the home of his brother - George Washington Whitman, an Engineer — at 431 Stevens Street in Camden, New Jersey. His mother, having fallen ill, was also there and died that same year in May. Both events were difficult for Whitman and left him depressed and he would remain at his brothers home until buying his own in 1884.^[92] However, before purchasing his own home, he spent the greatest period of his residence in Camden at his brother's home in Stevens Street. While in residence he was very productive publishing three version of Leaves of Grass among other works. He was also last fully physically active in this house, receiving both Oscar Wilde and Thomas Eakins. His other brother, Edward, an "invalid" since birth, also lived in the house.

When his brother and sister-in-law were forced to move for business reasons, he bought his own house at 328 Mickle Street (now 330 Mickle Street).^[93] First taken care of by tenants, he was completely bed ridden for most of his time in Mickle Street. During this time, he began socializing with Mary Oakes Davis – the widow of a sea captain. She was a neighbor to him boarding with a family in Bridge Avenue just a few blocks from Mickle Street.^[94] She moved in with Whitman on February 24, 1885, to serve as his housekeeper in exchange for free rent. She brought with her a cat, a dog, two turtledoves, a canary, and other assorted animals.^[95] During this time, Whitman produced further editions of Leaves of Grass in 1876, 1881, and 1889.

As the end of 1891 approached, he prepared a final edition of Leaves of Grass, an edition which has been nicknamed the "Deathbed Edition". He wrote, "L. of G. at last complete—after 33 y'rs of hackling at it, all times & moods of my life, fair weather & foul, all parts of the land, and peace & war, young & old".^[96] Preparing for death, Whitman commissioned a granite mausoleum shaped like a house for $4,000^[97] and visited it often during construction.^[98] In the last week of his life, he was too weak to lift a knife or fork and wrote: "I suffer all the time: I have no relief, no escape: it is monotony — monotony — monotony — in pain."^[99]

	"America" An 1890 recording thought to be Walt Whitman reading the opening four lines of his poem "America".
Problems listening to this file? See media help.

Whitman died on March 26, 1892.^[100] An autopsy revealed his lungs had diminished to one-eighth their normal breathing capacity, a result of bronchial pneumonia,^[97] and that an egg-sized abscess on his chest had eroded one of his ribs. The cause of death was officially listed as "pleurisy of the left side, consumption of the right lung, general miliary tuberculosis and parenchymatous nephritis."^[101] A public viewing of his body was held at his Camden home; over one thousand people visited in three hours^[2] and Whitman's oak coffin was barely visible because of all the flowers and wreaths left for him.^[101] Four days after his death, he was buried in his tomb at Harleigh Cemetery in Camden .^[2] Another public ceremony was held at the cemetery, with friends giving speeches, live music, and refreshments.^[3] Whitman's friend, the orator Robert Ingersoll, delivered the eulogy.^[102] Later, the remains of Whitman's parents and two of his brothers and their families were moved to the mausoleum.^[103]

Writing[link]

Portrait of Whitman by Thomas Eakins, 1887-88

Whitman's work breaks the boundaries of poetic form and is generally prose-like.^[1] He also used unusual images and symbols in his poetry, including rotting leaves, tufts of straw, and debris.^[104] He also openly wrote about death and sexuality, including prostitution.^[84] He is often labeled as the father of free verse, though he did not invent it.^[1]

Poetic theory[link]

Whitman wrote in the preface to the 1855 edition of Leaves of Grass, "The proof of a poet is that his country absorbs him as affectionately as he has absorbed it." He believed there was a vital, symbiotic relationship between the poet and society.^[105] This connection was emphasized especially in "Song of Myself" by using an all-powerful first-person narration.^[106] As an American epic, it deviated from the historic use of an elevated hero and instead assumed the identity of the common people.^[107] Leaves of Grass also responded to the impact that recent urbanization in the United States had on the masses.^[108]

Lifestyle and beliefs[link]

Alcohol[link]

Whitman was a vocal proponent of temperance and in his youth rarely drank alcohol. He once claimed he did not taste "strong liquor" until he was thirty^[109] and occasionally argued for prohibition.^[110] One of his earliest long fiction works, the novel Franklin Evans; or, The Inebriate, first published November 23, 1842, is a temperance novel.^[111] Whitman wrote the novel at the height of popularity of the Washingtonian movement though the movement itself was plagued with contradictions, as was Franklin Evans.^[112] Years later Whitman claimed he was embarrassed by the book^[113] and called it a "damned rot".^[114] He dismissed it by saying he wrote the novel in three days solely for money while he was under the influence of alcohol himself.^[115] Even so, he wrote other pieces recommending temperance, including The Madman and a short story "Reuben's Last Wish".^[116] Later in life he was more liberal with alcohol, enjoying local wines and champagne.^[117]

Religion[link]

Whitman was deeply influenced by deism. He denied any one faith was more important than another, and embraced all religions equally.^[118] In "Song of Myself", he gave an inventory of major religions and indicated he respected and accepted all of them – a sentiment he further emphasized in his poem "With Antecedents", affirming: "I adopt each theory, myth, god, and demi-god, / I see that the old accounts, bibles, genealogies, are true, without exception".^[118] In 1874, he was invited to write a poem about the Spiritualism movement, to which he responded, "It seems to me nearly altogether a poor, cheap, crude humbug."^[119] Whitman was a religious skeptic: though he accepted all churches, he believed in none.^[118] God, to Whitman, was both immanent and transcendent and the human soul was immortal and in a state of progressive development.^[120]

Sexuality[link]

Whitman and Peter Doyle, one of the men with whom Whitman was believed to have had an intimate relationship

Whitman's sexuality is generally assumed to be homosexual or bisexual based on his poetry, though that has been at times disputed.^[4] His poetry depicts love and sexuality in a more earthy, individualistic way common in American culture before the medicalization of sexuality in the late 19th century.^[121] Though Leaves of Grass was often labeled pornographic or obscene, only one critic remarked on its author's presumed sexual activity: in a November 1855 review, Rufus Wilmot Griswold suggested Whitman was guilty of "that horrible sin not to be mentioned among Christians".^[122] Whitman had intense friendships with many men and boys throughout his life. Some biographers have claimed that he may not have actually engaged in sexual relationships with males,^[5] while others cite letters, journal entries and other sources which they claim as proof of the sexual nature of some of his relationships.^[123]

Peter Doyle may be the most likely candidate for the love of Whitman's life, according to biographer David S. Reynolds.^[124] Doyle was a bus conductor whom Whitman met around 1866 and the two were inseparable for several years. Interviewed in 1895, Doyle said: "We were familiar at once — I put my hand on his knee — we understood. He did not get out at the end of the trip — in fact went all the way back with me."^[125] In his notebooks, Whitman disguised Doyle's initials using the code "16.4".^[126] A more direct second-hand account comes from Oscar Wilde. Wilde met Whitman in America in 1882 and wrote to the homosexual rights activist George Cecil Ives that there was "no doubt" about the great American poet's sexual orientation — "I have the kiss of Walt Whitman still on my lips," he boasted.^[127] The only explicit description of Whitman's sexual activities is second hand. In 1924 Edward Carpenter, then an old man, described an erotic encounter he had had in his youth with Whitman to Gavin Arthur, who recorded it in detail in his journal.^[128][129] Late in his life, when Whitman was asked outright if his series of "Calamus" poems were homosexual, he chose not to respond.^[130]

Walt Whitman and Bill Duckett

Another possible lover was Bill Duckett. As a young teenage boy he lived in on the same street in Camden and moved in with Whitman, living with him a number of years and serving him in various roles. Duckett was fifteen when Whitman bought his house at 328 Mickle Street. Since, at least 1880, Duckett and his grandmother, Lydia Watson, were boarders subletting space from another family at 334 Mickle Street. Due to this close proximity it is obvious that Duckett and Whitman met as neighbors. Their relationship was close, with the youth sharing Whitman's money when he had it. Whitman described their friendship as "thick." Though some biographers describe him as a boarder, others identify him as a lover.^[131] Their photograph [pictured] is described as "modeled on the conventions of a marriage portrait," part of a series of portraits of the poet with his young male friends, and encrypting male-male desire.^[132] Yet another intense relationship with a young man was the one with Harry Stafford, with whose family he stayed when at Timber Creek, and whom he first met when the young man was 18, in 1876. Whitman gave young Stafford a ring, which was returned and given back over the course of a stormy relationship lasting a number of years. Of that ring Stafford wrote to Whitman, "You know when you put it on there was but one thing to part it from me, and that was death."^[133]

There is also some evidence that Whitman may have had sexual relationships with women. He had a romantic friendship with a New York actress named Ellen Grey in the spring of 1862, but it is not known if it was also sexual. He still had a photo of her decades later when he moved to Camden and referred to her as "an old sweetheart of mine".^[134] In a letter dated August 21, 1890 he claimed, "I have had six children — two are dead". This claim has never been corroborated.^[135] Toward the end of his life, he often told stories of previous girlfriends and sweethearts and denied an allegation from the New York Herald that he had "never had a love affair".^[136] As Whitman biographer Jerome Loving wrote, "the discussion of Whitman's sexual orientation will probably continue in spite of whatever evidence emerges."^[5]

Shakespeare authorship[link]

Whitman was an adherent of the Shakespeare authorship question, refusing to believe in the historic attribution of the works to William Shakespeare of Stratford-upon-Avon. Whitman comments in his November Boughs (1888) regarding Shakespeare's historical plays:

Conceiv'd out of the fullest heat and pulse of European feudalism—personifying in unparalleled ways the medieval aristocracy, its towering spirit of ruthless and gigantic caste, with its own peculiar air and arrogance (no mere imitation)—only one of the "wolfish earls" so plenteous in the plays themselves, or some born descendant and knower, might seem to be the true author of those amazing works—works in some respects greater than anything else in recorded literature.^[137]

Slavery[link]

Whitman opposed the extension of slavery in the United States and supported the Wilmot Proviso.^[138] At first he was opposed to abolitionism, believing the movement did more harm than good. In 1846, he wrote that the abolitionists had, in fact, slowed the advancement of their cause by their "ultraism and officiousness".^[139] His main concern was that their methods disrupted the democratic process, as did the refusal of the Southern states to put the interests of the nation as a whole above their own.^[138] In 1856, in his unpublished The Eighteenth Presidency, addressing the men of the South, he wrote "you are either to abolish slavery or it will abolish you". Whitman also subscribed to the widespread opinion that even free African-Americans should not vote^[140] and was concerned at the increasing number of African-Americans in the legislature.^[141]

Legacy and influence[link]

Whitman was honored on a 'Famous Americans Series' Postal issue, in 1940.

Walt Whitman has been claimed as America's first "poet of democracy", a title meant to reflect his ability to write in a singularly American character. A British friend of Walt Whitman, Mary Smith Whitall Costelloe, wrote: "You cannot really understand America without Walt Whitman, without Leaves of Grass... He has expressed that civilization, 'up to date,' as he would say, and no student of the philosophy of history can do without him."^[142] Modernist poet Ezra Pound called Whitman "America's poet... He is America."^[143] Andrew Carnegie called him "the great poet of America so far".^[144] Whitman considered himself a messiah-like figure in poetry.^[145] Others agreed: one of his admirers, William Sloane Kennedy, speculated that "people will be celebrating the birth of Walt Whitman as they are now the birth of Christ".^[146]

The literary critic, Harold Bloom wrote, as the introduction for the 150th anniversary of Leaves of Grass:

If you are American, then Walt Whitman is your imaginative father and mother, even if, like myself, you have never composed a line of verse. You can nominate a fair number of literary works as candidates for the secular Scripture of the United States. They might include Melville's Moby-Dick, Twain's Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, and Emerson's two series of Essays and The Conduct of Life. None of those, not even Emerson's, are as central as the first edition of Leaves of Grass.^[147]

Whitman's vagabond lifestyle was adopted by the Beat movement and its leaders such as Allen Ginsberg and Jack Kerouac in the 1950s and 1960s as well as anti-war poets like Adrienne Rich and Gary Snyder.^[148] Lawrence Ferlinghetti numbered himself among Whitman's "wild children", and the title of his 1961 collection Starting from San Francisco is a deliberate reference to Whitman's Starting from Paumanok.^[149] Whitman also influenced Bram Stoker, author of Dracula, and was the model for the character of Dracula. Stoker said in his notes that Dracula represented the quintessential male which, to Stoker, was Whitman, with whom he corresponded until Whitman's death.^[150] Other admirers included the Eagle Street College, an informal group established in 1885 at the home of James William Wallace in Eagle Street, Bolton, to read and discuss the poetry of Whitman. The group subsequently became known as the Bolton Whitman Fellowship or Whitmanites. Its members held an annual 'Whitman Day' celebration around the poet's birthday.^[151]

Whitman's poetry has been set to music by a large number of composers; indeed it has been suggested his poetry has been set to music more than any other American poet except for Emily Dickinson and Henry Wadsworth Longfellow.^[152] Those who have set his poems to music have included Kurt Weill, Ralph Vaughan Williams, Frederick Delius, Paul Hindemith, Karl Amadeus Hartmann, Benjamin Britten, Leonard Bernstein, Ned Rorem, Ronald Corp, George Crumb, Roger Sessions and John Adams.

Whitman is a 2009 inductee of the New Jersey Hall of Fame.^[153] The Walt Whitman Bridge crosses the Delaware River near his home in Camden.

Works[link]

• Franklin Evans (1842)
• Leaves of Grass (1855)
• Drum-Taps (1865)
• Memoranda During the War
• Specimen Days
• Democratic Vistas (1871)

See also[link]

Poetry portal

• American philosophy
• Dr. Quinn, Medicine Woman
• Walt Whitman Bridge, connecting Philadelphia to Gloucester City, New Jersey, is named for Walt Whitman.
• Walt Whitman High School in Bethesda, Maryland
• Walt Whitman High School in Huntington, New York
• Walt Whitman Shops in Huntington Station, New York

Notes[link]