1819 Born May 31 at West Hills, Huntington Township, Long Island, New York.
1823 Family moved to Brooklyn, New York.
1825–30 Attended public school in Brooklyn.
1830–31 Office boy in lawyer’s office, then doctor’s; then printer’s apprentice.
1832–36 Various jobs: printer’s devil, handyman.
1836–41 Schoolteacher in Long Island.
1841–47 Reporter and editor for various newspapers. Editor (1846) of Brooklyn Daily Eagle. Published (1842) Franklin Evans, or the Inebriate, a tract.
1848 Discharged from the Eagle. Visited New Orleans (worked on New Orleans newspaper) and traveled on the Mississippi River and the Great Lakes.
1849 Editor of the Brooklyn Freeman, a journal.
1850–54 Part-time journalist. Carpenter and house builder in Brooklyn (with father).
1855 First edition of Leaves of Grass published in July. It contained twelve poems and a prose preface.
1856 Second edition of Leaves of Grass, containing twenty additional poems.
1860 Third edition of Leaves of Grass. Traveled to Boston to discuss the preparation of this edition with Emerson.
1862–63 Went to Virginia to attend brother George, who had been wounded in Civil War, Did volunteer work in government hospitals.
1863–73 Lived most of the time in Washington, D.C. Worked for the government.
1864 Drum-Taps published.
1867 Fourth edition of Leaves of Grass.
1871 Fifth edition of Leaves of Grass. Also published Democratic Vistas (a prose pamphlet).
1873 Suffered mild paralytic stroke. Moved to Camden, New Jersey. Mother died.
1876 Sixth edition of Leaves of Grass.
1879 Traveled to St. Louis to visit his brother Jeff.
1881 Visited Boston to prepare the seventh edition of Leaves of Grass, published that same year.
1882 Specimen Days published.
1884 Bought house in Camden, where he lived the rest of his life.
1888 November Boughs published.
1889 Pocket-size edition of Leaves of Grass published for his seventieth birthday.
1891–92 Final (“deathbed”) edition of Leaves of Grass.
1892 Died March 26. Buried in Harleigh Cemetery, Camden.
