Walt Whitman has been played on NTS in shows including SHAPE+, featured first on 31 August 2016. Songs played include Give Me The Splendid Silent Sun and Pioneers! O Pioneers! (From Birds Of Passage).

Walter Whitman (Walt for short) was an American poet. He was born March 31st, 1819, around Huntington, Long Island. Walt Whitman was born the second son of his family and had eight siblings. Whitman alternated between printing and writing jobs for about 15 years, working also for various newspapers. He then ventured to become a teacher and published several essays during that time. In 1846, he wrote his first and only novel, Franklin Evans. He worked as an editor for the Brooklyn Eagle and was fired from this job for political purposes. He then founded his own newspaper, the Freeman, in spirit of the Free Soil Party, which he supported. The newspaper soon failed because of political pressures.

In 1855, Walt published his first original book of poetry, Leaves Of Grass. Ralph Waldo Emerson soon became a fan of these early works, and supported Walt Whitman as a poet. Whitman continued to add to and revise Leaves Of Grass. He published several expanded editions throughout the rest of his life, including a second edition containing a letter from Ralph Waldo Emerson praising the first edition of his book.

Several years after 1862, Walt Whitman began to tend wounded soldiers in army hospitals, including his brother. It is said that he was a very compassionate man and devoted much of his time to tending these wounded. He also spent much of his personal money buying supplies and providing comfort for the patients he treated. After a stroke, Whitman purchased a simple home in Camden, New Jersey. Here he spent the rest of his life, entertaining various writers and continuing to write himself. He died on March 26th, 1892.