Stop in on Wednesday, June 14th, between 1:00 and 4:00PM, for the opening of our new Father’s Day Exhibit.
Many Whitman biographers have portrayed Walt’s father as a drunken, cruel and financially unsuccessful man who forced his family to relocate all over Long Island and Brooklyn as he found building work. They believe that Walt himself suffered from his father’s behavior, typically casting him as a “mean father” character in his fiction, and writing descriptions of his threatening behavior into his poetry. But is it true? We will explore the few historical clues we have about Walter Whitman, Sr. which hint that the true story may be something different.
The exhibit will include books, pamphlets, photographs, letters, and other rarely seen items from the WWBA’s historic collection.