How did a carpenter’s son, grammar school dropout, and sometime hack writer become America’s poet? Scholar Karen Karbiener traces the extraordinary transformation of Walter Whitman Jr. to “Walt Whitman, a kosmos, of Manhattan the son,” a saint-like Civil War nurse, and the iconic “Good Gray Poet.” Whitman’s story will be enhanced by discussions of highlights from the Athenæum’s current Whitman exhibition, as well as selected poems.

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