MANY
AMERICANS
got
their
first
exposure
to
the
great
gay
poet
Walt
Whitman
in
obligatory
high
school
or
college
English
classes.
For
Martin
Murray,
his
first
encounter
with
Whitman
was,
strangely
enough,
on
television.
In
1976,
when
he
was
20,
Murray
watched
the
movie
“Song
of
Myself”
on
CBS,
which
showed
Whitman
(played
by
Rip
Torn)
and
his
partner
Peter
Doyle
(Brad
Davis)
meeting
on
a
train
and
going
home
together.
“As
a
young
gay
man,
it
was
something
I
needed
at
that
time,”
Murray
says
from
his
home
in
D.C.
“The
thought
of
having
Brad
Davis
as
a
lover
was
also
very
appealing.”
Not
interested
in
Whitman’s
poetry,
Murray,
an
economist
by
trade,
began
to
research
Whitman’s
life
and
is
an
expert
on
the
subject,
publishing
“Pete
the
Great:
A
Biography
of
Peter
Doyle”
in
1994.
In
the
’80s,
he
learned
that
his
friend
Morgan
McDonald
also
loved
the
“great
gray
poet”
and
the
pair
came
up
with
a
walking
tour
of
D.C.
that
highlights
the
places
where
Whitman
lived
and
worked
in
the
city.
“When
we
were
advertising
the
tour
…
we
couldn’t
say,
‘Martin
and
Morgan
present’
so
we
came
up
with
the
Washington
Friends
of
Walt
Whitman,”
jokes
Murray,
who
has
been
president
of
the
group
since
its
inception
in
1987.
After
slowly
growing
over
nearly
two
decades,
the
Washington
Friends
of
Walt
Whitman,
which
Murray
describes
as
a
mostly
informal
group,
is
about
to
undertake
its
most
ambitious
project
to
date:
a
two
month-long
celebration
of
the
150th
anniversary
of
Whitman’s
masterpiece
“Leaves
of
Grass.”
From
March
26th
(the
date
of
Whitman’s
death
in
1892)
through
May
31
(the
date
of
Whitman’s
birth
in
1819)
the
city
is
scheduled
to
host
“D.C.
Celebrates
Whitman:
150
Years
of
‘Leaves
of
Grass,’”
which
includes
poetry
readings,
walking
tours
and
even
a
meditation
session
in
conjunction
with
the
celebration.
Murray
called
on
Kim
Roberts,
a
fellow
Friend
of
Whitman
and
the
editor
of
the
online
literary
journal
Beltway,
to
chair
the
festival.
First,
Roberts
published
a
Whitman
edition
of
Beltway
where
poets
in
the
region
submitted
poems
directly
addressing
or
influenced
by
Whitman.
Many
of
the
poets
will
be
reading
at
different
events
throughout
the
festival.
Roberts,
an
arts
administrator,
enlisted
help
from
friends
around
town
and,
as
word
of
the
events
spread,
different
organizations
approached
Roberts
about
being
included
in
the
festivities.
Now,
the
celebration
not
only
includes
the
Friends,
but
also
the
Folger
Shakespeare
Library,
the
Library
of
Congress,
the
Rainbow
History
Project,
the
Arts
Club
of
Washington,
George
Washington
University
and
Catholic
University.
Many
of
the
programs
focus
on
Whitman’s
presence
in
the
District.
“I
wish
that
more
people
associated
Whitman
with
Washington,”
Roberts
says.
“Most
people
associate
him
with
New
York
and
New
Jersey.
He
considered
the
10
years
he
was
in
D.C.
the
most
important
time
of
his
life.
The
fact
that
so
many
people
don’t
realize
that
he
spent
so
long
and
such
an
important
time
here
is
a
shame.
We
need
to
do
more
to
claim
him
as
one
of
our
own.”
BORN
ON
A
farm
on
Long
Island,
N.Y.,
Whitman
moved
with
his
family
to
Brooklyn
when
he
was
a
small
boy.
After
dropping
out
of
school
at
11,
he
continued
to
educate
himself
and
became
a
printer’s
apprentice.
After
working
as
a
printer
in
Brooklyn,
Whitman
worked
as
a
schoolteacher
on
Long
Island.
After
he
grew
tired
of
teaching,
Whitman
spent
the
’30s
and
’40s
writing
and
editing
at
different
newspapers
in
Long
Island,
Brooklyn
and
Manhattan.
In
1855,
he
published
the
first
edition
of
“Leaves
of
Grass,”
which
he
would
continue
to
revise,
adapt
and
augment
in
various
editions
throughout
his
life,
before
the
final
edition
was
published
in
1892.
At
43,
Whitman
moved
to
D.C.,
in
1862,
after
learning
that
his
brother
George
was
injured
in
the
Civil
War.
He
visited
soldiers
at
different
Civil
War
hospitals
around
the
city,
caring
for
them
as
a
nurse
and
supporting
himself
as
a
government
clerk,
first
at
the
Army
Paymaster’s
Office
and
later
at
the
Indian
Bureau
at
the
Department
of
the
Interior.
In
1865,
he
met
Doyle,
an
Irish
immigrant
who
served
in
the
Rebel
Army
and
operated
a
streetcar
for
the
Washington
and
Georgetown
Railroad.
Doyle
wrote
of
their
meeting,
“He
was
the
only
passenger,
it
was
a
lonely
night,
so
I
thought
I
would
go
in
and
talk
with
him
…
we
were
familiar
at
once
—
I
put
my
hand
on
his
knee
—
we
understood.
From
that
time
on,
we
were
the
biggest
sort
of
friends.”
In
the
same
year,
Whitman
was
fired
from
his
job
because
of
his
“obscene”
poetry.
While
often
cloaked
under
the
guise
of
male
“comrades”
and
the
concept
of
“adhesion,”
(which
Whitman
borrowed
from
the
faux-science
phrenology),
Whitman’s
poems
were
often
explicit
about
same-sex
love.
First
published
in
1860,
the
“Calamus”
poems,
named
after
a
...
