Bruised and rejected by the mainstream literary community, he did what so many people would do – he went out and had a drink with his friends. Walt Whitman thought Leaves of Grass, his love letter to America, would heal the divided country and make people see everyday beauty around them. While on the walk immediately overhead pass the myriad feet of BroadwayĪs the dead in their graves are underfoot hiddenĪnd the living pass over them, recking not of them,īeam up-Brighten up, bright eyes of beautiful young men! The vault at Pfaffs where the drinkers and laughers meet to eat and drink and carouse The years before the Civil War were a decadent period where Whitman played the bon vivant, finding friends and lovers among the New York counterculture. Whitman became a regular at Pfaff’s after getting fired from the Brooklyn Daily Times in 1859.
