1221 M St NW

Washington, DC

Walt Whitman (b. May 31, 1819; d. March 26, 1892) is one of the most famous and revered writers in American history. Like many artists, his work was not widely appreciated during his lifetime. He made a living as a teacher, editor, reporter and printer. Now, his Leaves of Grass, a self-printed volume of poems about the American frontier, is viewed as one of the first and greatest examples of American literature. Whitman was born in Brooklyn, New York and died in Camden, New Jersey. Before settling in Camden at the end of his life, he spent many years in Washington, DC. His brother, a soldier wounded during the Civil War and sent to DC to recover, was what first brought him here. Whitman worked for the Department of the Interior as well as area hospitals, nursing soldiers as they returned home from the war. He wrote Drum-Taps about these experiences. Whitman lived all over the city for a period of about ten years, at one point living in a building that would now be part of the Capitol grounds. In 1865, he returned home to Brooklyn briefly to recover from health issues that he attributed to difficult living conditions. When he returned to Washington, he took a room at 468 M Street NW. It was in a part of the city he considered infinitely superior to his previous, swampier neighborhood at the base of the Capitol. Whitman’s home on M Street is no longer standing; in its place is Claridge Towers Apartments at what is now 1221 M Street NW.