Editing Walt Whitman (section)

==Legacy and influence==
[[File:Walt Whitman, 1940.JPG|thumb|upright=1|In 1940, Whitman was honored on a [[Postage stamps and postal history of the United States#Famous Americans Series of 1940|Famous Americans Series]] postage stamp issue.]]
Whitman has been claimed as the first "poet of democracy" in the United States, a title meant to reflect his ability to write in a singularly American character. An American-British friend of Whitman, [[Mary Berenson|Mary Whitall Smith Costelloe]], wrote: "You cannot really understand America without Walt Whitman, without ''Leaves of Grass'' ... He has expressed that civilization, 'up to date,' as he would say, and no student of the philosophy of history can do without him."<ref name="Reynolds, 4"/>  [[Andrew Carnegie]] called him "the great poet of America so far".<ref>Kaplan, 22.</ref> Whitman considered himself a messiah-like figure in poetry.<ref>Callow, 83.</ref> Others agreed: one of his admirers, William Sloane Kennedy, speculated that "people will be celebrating the birth of Walt Whitman as they are now the birth of Christ".<ref>Loving, 475.</ref>

Literary critic [[Harold Bloom]] wrote, as the introduction for the 150th anniversary of ''Leaves of Grass'':
{{Blockquote|If you are American, then Walt Whitman is your imaginative father and mother, even if, like myself, you have never composed a line of verse. You can nominate a fair number of literary works as candidates for the secular Scripture of the United States. They might include [[Herman Melville|Melville]]'s ''[[Moby-Dick]]'', [[Mark Twain|Twain]]'s ''[[Adventures of Huckleberry Finn]]'', and Emerson's two series of ''Essays'' and ''[[The Conduct of Life]]''. None of those, not even Emerson's, are as central as the first edition of ''Leaves of Grass'', whose 150th anniversary we now mark.<ref name="LOG#">{{Cite book |title=Leaves of Grass |last=Whitman |first=Walt |publisher=Penguin Classics |date=2005 |isbn=978-0143039273}} Introduction.</ref>}}

In his own time, Whitman attracted an influential coterie of disciples and admirers. Among his admirers were the [[Eagle Street College]], an informal group established in 1885 at the home of James William Wallace on Eagle Street in [[Bolton]], England, to read and discuss the poetry of Whitman. The group subsequently became known as the Bolton Whitman Fellowship or Whitmanites. Its members held an annual "Whitman Day" celebration around the poet's birthday.<ref name="WWC">{{Citation |title=C.F. Sixsmith Walt Whitman Collection |url=http://archiveshub.ac.uk/features/0602whitman.html |publisher=Archives Hub |access-date=August 13, 2010 |archive-date=April 30, 2011 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110430174722/http://archiveshub.ac.uk/features/0602whitman.html |url-status=live }}.</ref> Whitman's niece, Jessie Louisa Whitman, also contributed to his legacy by allowing Ralph L. Fansler to record her memories of Whitman during a series of interviews that took place between 1939 and 1943. In the interviews Jessie is noted for her faithfulness and lifelong interest in her uncle.<ref>{{Cite journal |last=Waldron |first=Randall |date=1989-07-01 |title=Jessie Louisa Whitman: Memories of Uncle Walt, et al., 1939–1943 |url=https://pubs.lib.uiowa.edu/wwqr/article/id/25922/ |journal=Walt Whitman Quarterly Review |language= |volume=7 |issue=1 |pages=15–27 |doi=10.13008/2153-3695.1231 |issn=2153-3695}}</ref> Jessie held letters written by Whitman, which were given to the [[Missouri Historical Society]] in 1960.<ref>{{Cite news |date=1960-01-13 |title=17 letters from poet Walt Whitman to family given to historical society |url=https://www.newspapers.com/article/st-louis-post-dispatch-17-letters-from/162654453/ |access-date=2025-01-09 |work=St. Louis Post-Dispatch |pages=3}}</ref>

=== American poets ===
Whitman is one of the most influential American poets. [[Modernism|Modernist]] poet [[Ezra Pound]] called Whitman "America's poet ... He ''is'' America."<ref name="ReferenceA" /> His April 1913 poem, "A Pact," begins: "I make truce with you, Walt Whitman— I have detested you long enough."<ref>{{cite journal |last1=Pound |first1=Ezra |author1-link = Ezra Pound|title=A Pact |journal=[[Poetry (magazine)|Poetry: A Magazine of Verse]] |date=April 1913 |volume=II |issue=1 |pages=11–12 |url=https://www.poetryfoundation.org/poetrymagazine/browse?volume=2&issue=1&page=19 |access-date=20 April 2025}}</ref> To poet [[Langston Hughes]], who wrote "[[I, Too|I, too, sing America]]", Whitman was a literary hero.<ref>{{Cite web|last=Ward|first=David C.|date=September 22, 2016|title=What Langston Hughes' Powerful Poem 'I, Too' Tells Us About America's Past and Present|url=https://www.smithsonianmag.com/smithsonian-institution/what-langston-hughes-powerful-poem-i-too-americas-past-present-180960552/|access-date=July 31, 2019|website=Smithsonian|language=en}}</ref> Whitman's [[wikt:vagabond|vagabond]] lifestyle was adopted by the [[Beat generation|Beat movement]] and its leaders such as [[Allen Ginsberg]]<ref>Ginsburg's poem, [https://www.poetryfoundation.org/poems/47660/a-supermarket-in-california "A Supermarket in California"] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240402051327/https://www.poetryfoundation.org/poems/47660/a-supermarket-in-california |date=April 2, 2024 }}, explicitly addresses Whitman.</ref> and [[Jack Kerouac]] in the 1950s and 1960s, as well as anti-war poets such as [[Adrienne Rich]], [[Alicia Ostriker]], and [[Gary Snyder]].<ref>Loving, 181.</ref> [[Lawrence Ferlinghetti]] numbered himself among Whitman's "wild children", and the title of Ferlinghetti's 1961 collection ''[[Starting from San Francisco]]'' is a reference to Whitman's ''Starting from Paumanok''.<ref>{{cite web|author-last=Foley|author-first=Jack|title=A Second Coming|url=http://www.cprw.com/Foley/ferlinghetti.htm|access-date=February 18, 2010|website=[[Contemporary Poetry Review]]|date=2008|archive-date=December 6, 2010|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20101206151251/http://www.cprw.com/Foley/ferlinghetti.htm|url-status=live}}</ref> [[June Jordan]] published a pivotal essay entitled "For the Sake of People's Poetry: Walt Whitman and the Rest of Us", praising Whitman as a democratic poet whose works speak to ethnic minorities from all backgrounds.<ref>{{Cite web|date=November 7, 2020|title=For the Sake of People's Poetry by June Jordan|url=https://www.poetryfoundation.org/articles/68627/for-the-sake-of-peoples-poetry|access-date=November 7, 2020|website=Poetry Foundation|language=en}}</ref> United States poet laureate [[Joy Harjo]], who is a Chancellor of the [[Academy of American Poets]], counts Whitman among her influences.<ref>{{Cite web|last=Poets|first=Academy of American|title=An Interview with Joy Harjo, U.S. Poet Laureate |url=https://poets.org/text/interview-joy-harjo-us-poet-laureate|date=April 1, 2019|access-date=November 7, 2020|website=poets.org}}</ref>

=== Latin American poets ===
Whitman's poetry influenced Latin American and Caribbean poets in the 19th and 20th centuries, starting with Cuban poet, philosopher, and nationalist leader [[José Martí]], who published essays in Spanish on Whitman's writings in 1887.<ref>{{Cite journal|last=Meyer|first=Mary Edgar|title=Walt Whitman's Popularity among Latin-American Poets|url=http://dx.doi.org/10.2307/977855|journal=The Americas|year=1952|volume=9|issue=1|pages=3–15|doi=10.2307/977855|jstor=977855|s2cid=147381491 |issn=0003-1615|quote=Modernism, it has been said, spread the name of Whitman in Hispanic America. Credit, however, is given to Jose Marti.}}</ref><ref>{{Citation|last=Santí|first=Enrico Mario|title=This Land of Prophets: Walt Whitman in Latin America|date=2005|url=http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/978-1-137-12245-2_3|work=Ciphers of History|pages=66–83|place=New York|publisher=Palgrave Macmillan US|doi=10.1007/978-1-137-12245-2_3|isbn=978-1-4039-7046-6|access-date=November 7, 2020}}</ref><ref>{{Cite journal|last=Molloy|first=S.|date=January 1, 1996|title=His America, Our America: Jose Marti Reads Whitman|url=http://dx.doi.org/10.1215/00267929-57-2-369|journal=Modern Language Quarterly|volume=57|issue=2|pages=369–379|doi=10.1215/00267929-57-2-369|issn=0026-7929}}</ref> Álvaro Armando Vasseur's 1912 translations further raised Whitman's profile in Latin America.<ref name=":0">{{Cite web|last1=Cohen|first1=Matt|last2=Price, Rachel|title=Walt Whitman in Latin America and Spain: Walt Whitman Archive Translations|url=https://whitmanarchive.org/published/foreign/spanish/vasseur/introduction.html|access-date=November 7, 2020|website=whitmanarchive.org|publisher=The Walt Whitman Archive|quote=Only with Vasseur's subsequent 1912 translation did Whitman become available and important to generations of Latin American poets, from the residual modernistas to the region's major twentieth-century figures.}}</ref>  Peruvian vanguardist [[César Vallejo]], Chilean poet [[Pablo Neruda]], and Argentine [[Jorge Luis Borges]] acknowledged Walt Whitman's influence.<ref name=":0" />

=== European authors ===
Some, like [[Oscar Wilde]] and [[Edward Carpenter]], viewed Whitman both as a prophet of a utopian future and of same-sex desire—the passion of comrades. This aligned with their own desires for a future of brotherly [[socialism]].<ref>Robinson, Michael. ''Worshipping Walt''. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 2010: 143–145. {{ISBN|0691146314}}</ref> Whitman also influenced [[Bram Stoker]], author of ''[[Dracula]]'', and was a model for the character of [[Count Dracula|Dracula]]. Stoker said in his notes that Dracula represented the quintessential male which, to Stoker, was Whitman, with whom he corresponded until Whitman's death.<ref>Nuzum, Eric. ''The Dead Travel Fast: Stalking Vampires from Nosferatu to Count Chocula''. Thomas Dunne Books, 2007: 141–147. {{ISBN|0-312-37111-X}}</ref>

===Film and television===
Whitman's life and verse have been referenced in a substantial number of works of film and video. In ''[[Dead Poets Society]]'' (1989) by [[Peter Weir]], teacher John Keating, portrayed by [[Robin Williams]], inspires his students with the works of Whitman, [[Henry David Thoreau|Thoreau]], [[Robert Frost|Frost]], [[Shakespeare]] and [[Lord Byron|Byron]].<ref name="Britton" /><ref name="Wilmington">{{cite news |last1=Wilmington |first1=Michael |date=June 2, 1989 |title=Movie Review: 'Poets Society': A Moving Elegy From Peter Weir |url=https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-1989-06-02-ca-1055-story.html |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210416024446/https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-1989-06-02-ca-1055-story.html |archive-date=April 16, 2021 |access-date=October 10, 2020 |work=Los Angeles Times}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web |last=Johnson |first=Alex |date=18 September 2018 |title=The Book List: The poems that give 'Dead Poets Society' life |url=https://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/books/features/dead-poets-society-poems-robin-williams-walt-whitman-a8542921.html |website=independent.co.uk}}</ref>

In the movie ''[[Beautiful Dreamers]]'' (Hemdale Films, 1992) Whitman was portrayed by [[Rip Torn]]. Whitman visits an insane asylum in [[London, Ontario]], where some of his ideas are adopted as part of an [[occupational therapy]] program.<ref name="Britton">{{cite book |last1=Britton |first1=Wesley A. |editor-last1=LeMaster |editor-first1=J. R. |editor-last2=Kummings |editor-first2=Donald D. |title=Walt Whitman: An Encyclopedia|chapter=Media Interpretations of Whitman's Life and Works |date=1998 |publisher=Garland Publishing |location=New York |url=https://whitmanarchive.org/criticism/current/encyclopedia/entry_537.html |access-date=October 10, 2020}}</ref>

Whitman's poem "Yonnondio" influenced both a [[Yonnondio|book]] (''Yonnondio: From the Thirties'', 1974) by [[Tillie Olsen]] and a sixteen-minute film, ''Yonnondio'' (1994) by Ali Mohamed Selim.<ref name="Britton"/>

Whitman's poem "I Sing the Body Electric" (1855) was used by [[Ray Bradbury]] as the title of a short story and a short story collection. Bradbury's story was adapted for the ''[[The Twilight Zone (1959 TV series)|Twilight Zone]]'' [[I Sing the Body Electric (The Twilight Zone)|episode of May 18, 1962]], in which a bereaved family buys a made-to-order robot grandmother to forever love and serve the family.<ref name="Jewell">{{cite book|author-first1=Andrew |author-last1=Jewell |author-first2=Kenneth M. |author-last2=Price|chapter=Twentieth Century Mass Media Appearances |editor-first=Donald D.|editor-last=Kummings|title=A Companion to Walt Whitman|chapter-url=https://books.google.com/books?id=2uTCiN347lMC&pg=PA349|access-date=August 13, 2010|year=2009|publisher=John Wiley and Sons|isbn=978-1-4051-9551-5|pages=211–}}</ref>
"I Sing the Body Electric" inspired the showcase finale in the movie ''Fame'' (1980), a diverse fusion of gospel, rock, and orchestra.<ref name="Britton"/><ref>{{cite journal |last1=Stevens |first1=Daniel B. |title=Singing the Body Electric: Using ePortfolios to IntegrateTeaching, Learning and Assessment |journal=Journal of Performing Arts Leadership in Higher Education |date=2013 |volume=IV |issue=Fall |pages=22–48 |url=https://cnu.edu/jpalhe/pdf/jpalhe_volume4.pdf |access-date=October 10, 2020 |archive-date=October 12, 2020 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20201012065109/https://cnu.edu/jpalhe/pdf/jpalhe_volume4.pdf |url-status=live }}</ref>

===Music and audio recordings===
Whitman's poetry has been set to music by more than 500 composers; indeed it has been suggested that his poetry has been set to music more than that of any other American poet except for [[Emily Dickinson]] and [[Henry Wadsworth Longfellow]].<ref>{{Cite web|url=http://www.americancomposers.org/rel990515.htm|title=American Composers Orchestra – May 15, 1999 – Walt Whitman & Music<!-- Bot generated title -->|access-date=June 13, 2010|archive-date=April 27, 2011|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110427030321/http://www.americancomposers.org/rel990515.htm|url-status=live}}</ref><ref>Sommerfeld, Paul (May 8, 2019), [https://blogs.loc.gov/music/2019/05/celebrating-walt-whitman/ "Celebrating Walt Whitman's 200th Birthday"] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220824093703/https://blogs.loc.gov/music/2019/05/celebrating-walt-whitman/ |date=August 24, 2022 }}, ''In the Muse Performing Arts Blog'', Library of Congress.</ref> Those who have set his poems to music include [[John Adams (composer)|John Adams]]; [[Ernst Bacon]]; [[Leonard Bernstein]]; [[Benjamin Britten]]; [[Rhoda Coghill]]; [[David Conte]]; [[Ronald Corp]]; [[George Crumb]]; [[Frederick Delius]]; [[Howard Hanson]]; [[Karl Amadeus Hartmann]]; [[Hans Werner Henze]]; [[Bernard Herrmann]];<ref>Music to accompany ''Whitman'', a radio play by [[Norman Corwin]]</ref>[[Jennifer Higdon]];<ref>{{Cite web|url=http://www.jenniferhigdon.com/pdf/program-notes/Dooryard-Bloom.pdf|title=PROGRAM NOTES: "Dooryard Bloom"|access-date=August 4, 2024|archive-date=March 4, 2016|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160304125654/http://www.jenniferhigdon.com/pdf/program-notes/Dooryard-Bloom.pdf|url-status=live}}</ref> [[Paul Hindemith]];<ref>[[When Lilacs Last in the Dooryard Bloom'd (Hindemith)]]</ref> [[Ned Rorem]];<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://oxfordsong.org/song/five-poems-of-walt-whitman|title=Five Poems of Walt Whitman &#124; Song Texts, Lyrics &…|website=Oxford Song|access-date=November 19, 2024|archive-date=September 16, 2024|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240916112920/https://oxfordsong.org/song/five-poems-of-walt-whitman|url-status=live}}</ref> [[Howard Skempton]]; [[Eva Ruth Spalding]]; [[Williametta Spencer]]; [[Charles Villiers Stanford]];<ref>[[Elegiac Ode]]</ref> [[Robert Strassburg]];<ref>{{cite journal|journal=Walt Whitman Quarterly Review|volume=21|number=3|year=2004|title=In Memoriam: Robert Strassburg, 1915–2003|first=Ed |last=Folsom |pages=189–191|doi=10.13008/2153-3695.1733|doi-access=free}}</ref>  [[Ananda Sukarlan]]; [[Ivana Marburger Themmen]];<ref>{{Cite book|last=Cohen|first=Aaron I.|url=https://www.worldcat.org/oclc/16714846|title=International encyclopedia of women composers|date=1987|isbn=0-9617485-2-4 | publisher=London Books & Music (USA)|edition=2nd|location=New York|oclc=16714846|access-date=July 28, 2021|archive-date=December 25, 2021|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20211225121554/https://www.worldcat.org/title/international-encyclopedia-of-women-composers/oclc/16714846|url-status=live}}</ref> [[Rossini Vrionides]];<ref>{{Cite book|last=Neilson|first=Kenneth P.|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=Pqip_ur9fg4C&q=rosina+vrionides|title=The World of Walt Whitman Music: A Bibliographical Study|date=1963|publisher=Kenneth P. Neilson|language=en}}</ref> [[Ralph Vaughan Williams]];<ref>[[A Sea Symphony]]</ref> [[Kurt Weill]];<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.kwf.org/works/walt-whitman-songs-for-voice-and-piano/|title=Four Walt Whitman Songs|website=The Kurt Weill Foundation for Music|access-date=February 22, 2022|archive-date=March 19, 2022|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220319091136/https://www.kwf.org/works/walt-whitman-songs-for-voice-and-piano/|url-status=live}}</ref> [[Helen L. Weiss]];<ref>{{Cite web|title=Frank Weise collection of Helen Weiss papers, circa 1940–1948, 1966|url=http://dla.library.upenn.edu/dla/ead/ead.html?id=EAD_upenn_rbml_PUSpMsColl1399&#ref3|access-date=June 9, 2021|website=dla.library.upenn.edu|archive-date=August 17, 2021|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210817154405/http://dla.library.upenn.edu/dla/ead/ead.html?id=EAD_upenn_rbml_PUSpMsColl1399&#ref3|url-status=live}}</ref> [[Charles Wood (composer)|Charles Wood]]; and [[Roger Sessions]].<ref>[https://www.dramonline.org/albums/sessions-roger-when-lilacs-last-in-the-dooryard-bloom-d Sessions, Roger/When Lilacs Last in the Dooryard Bloom'd], ''DRAM''.</ref> ''[[Crossing (opera)|Crossing]]'', an opera composed by [[Matthew Aucoin]] and inspired by Whitman's Civil War diaries, premiered in 2015.<ref>{{cite news |author-link=Anthony Tommasini |last=Tommasini |first=Anthony |url=https://www.nytimes.com/2015/06/01/arts/music/review-matthew-aucoins-crossing-is-a-taut-inspired-opera.html |title=Review: Matthew Aucoin's ''Crossing'' Is a Taut, Inspired Opera |work=[[The New York Times]] |date=May 31, 2015}}</ref>

In 2014, German publisher Hörbuch Hamburg issued the bilingual double-CD audio book of the ''Kinder Adams/Children of Adam'' cycle, based on translations by Kai Grehn in the 2005 ''Children of Adam from Leaves of Grass'' (Galerie Vevais), accompanying a collection of nude photography by [[Paul Cava]]. The audio release included a complete reading by [[Iggy Pop]], as well as readings by [[Marianne Sägebrecht]]; [[Martin Wuttke]]; [[Birgit Minichmayr]]; [[Alexander Fehling]]; [[Lars Rudolph]]; [[Volker Bruch]]; [[Paula Beer]]; Josef Osterndorf; Ronald Lippok; [[Jule Böwe]]; and [[Robert Gwisdek]].<ref>{{cite web |author-last1=Pop |author-first1=Iggy |author-link1=Iggy Pop |author-link2=Paula Beer |author-link3=Jule Böwe |author-link4=Volker Bruch |author-link5=Alexander Fehling |author-link6=Robert Gwisdek |author-link7=Birgit Minichmayr |author-link8=:de:Josef Ostendorf |author-link9=Lars Rudolph |author-link10=Marianne Sägebrecht |author-link11=Martin Wuttke |date=August 25, 2019 |orig-date=2014 |editor-last=Grehn |editor-first=Kai |editor-link=:de:Kai Grehn |title=Iggy Pop spricht Walt Whitman – Kinder Adams – Children of Adam: Von Kai Grehn nach einem Text von Walt Whitman |trans-title= |url=https://www.hoerspielundfeature.de/iggy-pop-spricht-walt-whitman-kinder-adams-children-of-adam-100.html |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230111015528/https://www.hoerspielundfeature.de/iggy-pop-spricht-walt-whitman-kinder-adams-children-of-adam-100.html |archive-date=January 11, 2023 |access-date=January 11, 2022 |publisher=[[Radio Bremen|RB]]/[[Deutschlandradio Kultur]]/[[Südwestrundfunk|SWR]] |language=de |author-first2=Paula |author-last2=Beer |author-first3=Jule |author-last3=Böwe |author-first4=Volker |author-last4=Bruch |author-first5=Alexander |author-last5=Fehling |author-first6=Robert |author-last6=Gwisdek |author-first7=Birgit |author-last7=Minichmayr |author-first8=Josef |author-last8=Ostendorf |author-first9=Lars |author-last9=Rudolph |author-first10=Marianne |author-last10=Sägebrecht |author-first11=Martin |author-last11=Wuttke}} [https://web.archive.org/web/20230111021209/https://download.deutschlandfunk.de/file/dradio/2019/08/24/kinder_adams_children_of_adam_drk_20190824_1830_d075d4fe.mp3] [52:29]</ref><ref>{{cite journal |journal=Walt Whitman Quarterly Review |volume=33 | number=3 |date=2016 |title=Whitman, Walt, Kinder Adams/Children of Adam; Iggy Pop, Alva Noto, and Tarwater, Leaves of Grass (review) |first=Stefan |last=Schöberlein |pages=311–312 |issn=0737-0679 |doi=10.13008/0737-0679.2210 |doi-access=free}}</ref> In 2014 composer [[John Zorn]] released ''[[On Leaves of Grass]]'', an album inspired by and dedicated to Whitman.<ref name="Tzadik">{{Cite web|title=Welcome to Tzadik|url=https://www.tzadik.com/index.php?catalog=8320|access-date=January 9, 2022|website=www.tzadik.com|archive-date=March 3, 2016|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160303174028/http://www.tzadik.com/index.php?catalog=8320|url-status=live}}</ref>

===Namesake recognition===
[[File:20241017 1whitma71325.jpg|thumb|Walt Whitman service area in New Jersey]]
[[File:Walt Whitman Monument at the Walt Whitman Bridge Entrance.jpg|thumb|upright=1|The [[Walt Whitman (Davidson)|Whitman statue]] at the entrance to the [[Walt Whitman Bridge]]. The bridge connects [[Philadelphia]] and [[South Jersey]] and is one of the longest bridges on the [[East Coast of the United States|U.S. East Coast]].]]
Whitman's importance in American culture is reflected in schools, roads, rest stops, and bridges named after him. Among them are the [[Walt Whitman High School (Bethesda, Maryland)|Walt Whitman High School]] in [[Bethesda, Maryland]] and [[Walt Whitman High School (Huntington Station, New York)|Walt Whitman High School]] on [[Long Island]], [[Syosset Central School District|Walt Whitman Elementary School]] ([[Woodbury, Nassau County, New York|Woodbury, New York]]), Walt Whitman Boulevard ([[Cherry Hill, New Jersey]]), and a service area on the [[New Jersey Turnpike]] in [[Cherry Hill, New Jersey|Cherry Hill]], to name a few.{{Citation needed|date=February 2024}}

The [[Walt Whitman Bridge]], which crosses the [[Delaware River]] between [[Philadelphia]] and [[Gloucester City, New Jersey]] near Whitman's home in Camden, New Jersey, was opened on May 16, 1957.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.drpa.org/bridges/bridges_ww.html|title=Walt Whitman Bridge|publisher=Delaware River Port Authority of Pennsylvania and New Jersey|date=2013|access-date=December 2, 2017|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20171112190012/http://www.drpa.org/bridges/bridges_ww.html|archive-date=November 12, 2017|url-status=dead}}</ref> A [[Walt Whitman (Davidson)|statue of Whitman]] by [[Jo Davidson]] is located at the entrance to the Walt Whitman Bridge and another casting resides in the [[Bear Mountain State Park]]. The controversy that surrounded the naming of the Walt Whitman bridge has been documented in a series of letters from members of the public, which are held in the University of Pennsylvania library.<ref name=":1">{{Cite web |title=Delaware River Port Authority records on the naming of the Walt Whitman Bridge |url=https://findingaids.library.upenn.edu/records/UPENN_RBML_PUSP.MS.COLL.1043 |access-date=July 17, 2023 |website=Philadelphia Area Archives |series=Ms. Coll 1043}}</ref> The web page about this matter states: "The bridge was meant to be named after a person of note who had lived in New Jersey, but some area citizens opposed the name 'Walt Whitman Bridge'.... Many objecting to the choice of his name for the bridge saw Whitman's work as sympathizing with communist ideals and criticized him for his egalitarian view of humanity."<ref name=":1" />

In 1997, the [[Walt Whitman Community School]] in [[Dallas]] opened, becoming the first private high school catering to LGBT youth.<ref name="Jetp12">{{Cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=szsDAAAAMBAJ&pg=PA12|title=Jet|date=September 22, 1997|publisher=Johnson Publishing Company|language=en}}</ref> His other namesakes include the [[Walt Whitman Shops]] in [[Huntington Station, New York]], near his birthplace, and Walt Whitman Road, which spans Huntington Station to [[Melville, New York|Melville]] on Long Island.<ref>{{Cite web | last=A Simon Mall|first=Simon Property Group|title=Walt Whitman Shops®|url=https://www.simon.com/mall/walt-whitman-shops|access-date=January 9, 2022|website=www.simon.com|language=en-us|archive-date=January 9, 2022|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220109221654/https://www.simon.com/mall/walt-whitman-shops|url-status=live}}</ref>

Whitman was inducted into the [[New Jersey Hall of Fame]] in 2009,<ref>[https://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20090202/ap_en_mu/people_nj_hall_of_fame;_ylt=AlZVKwTMpyR6gahss6B1PmtxFb8C New Jersey to Bon Jovi: You Give Us a Good Name] Yahoo News, February 2, 2009.</ref> and, in 2013, he was inducted into the [[Legacy Walk]], an outdoor public display in Chicago that celebrates [[LGBT]] history and people.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://chicagophoenix.com/2013/10/12/boystown-unveils-new-legacy-walk-lgbt-history-plaques/|title=Boystown unveils new Legacy Walk LGBT history plaques|work=Chicago Phoenix|url-status=dead|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160313200751/http://chicagophoenix.com/2013/10/12/boystown-unveils-new-legacy-walk-lgbt-history-plaques|archive-date=March 13, 2016}}</ref>

A coed [[Camp Walt Whitman|summer camp]] founded in 1948 in [[Piermont, New Hampshire]], is named after Whitman.<ref>[http://www.campwalt.com/our-philosophy-history.html Camp Walt Whitman] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170428171743/http://www.campwalt.com/our-philosophy-history.html |date=April 28, 2017 }} July 1, 2016.</ref><ref name="NYT CWW">{{cite news |last1=Domius |first1=Susan |title=A Place and an Era in Which Time Could Stand Still |newspaper=The New York Times |url=https://www.nytimes.com/2008/08/15/nyregion/15bigcity.html |access-date=November 20, 2018 |agency= |date=August 14, 2008}}</ref>

A crater on [[Mercury (planet)|Mercury]] is named for him.<ref>{{cite web |title=Mercury |url=http://wenamethestars.inkleby.com/world/mercury/e/10 |website=We Name the Stars |access-date=October 11, 2020 |archive-date=March 3, 2021 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210303213353/http://wenamethestars.inkleby.com/world/mercury/e/10 |url-status=live }}</ref>