Editing Walt Whitman (section)

===Early life===
[[File:Corner of Henry and Cranberry Streets.png|thumb|The Apprentices' Library Association in 1825]]
Whitman was born on May 31, 1819, in [[West Hills, New York]], the second of nine children of [[Quakers|Quaker]] parents Walter and Louisa Van Velsor Whitman,<ref>Miller, 17.</ref> of English and Dutch descent respectively.<ref>{{cite encyclopedia |title=Walt Whitman |encyclopedia=Encyclopædia Britannica |date=January 12, 2024 |url=https://www.britannica.com/biography/Walt-Whitman |quote=His ancestry was typical of the region: his mother, Louisa Van Velsor, was Dutch, and his father, Walter Whitman, was of English descent. |access-date=January 20, 2024 }}</ref> He was immediately nicknamed "Walt" to distinguish him from his father.<ref name=Loving29>Loving, 29.</ref> At the age of four, Whitman moved with his family from Huntington to [[Brooklyn]], living in a series of homes, in part due to bad investments.<ref>Loving, 30.</ref> Whitman looked back on his childhood as generally restless and unhappy, given his family's difficult financial struggles.<ref>Reynolds, 24.</ref> One happy moment that he later recalled was when he was lifted in the air and kissed on the cheek by the [[Gilbert du Motier, marquis de Lafayette|Marquis de Lafayette]] during a celebration of the setting of the [[Brooklyn Apprentices' Library]]'s cornerstone by Lafayette in Brooklyn on July 4, 1825.<ref>Reynolds, 33–34.</ref> Whitman later worked as a librarian at that institution.<ref>{{cite book|title=Brooklyn!, 3rd Edition: The Ultimate Guide to New York's Most Happening Borough|author=Ellen Freudenheim, Anna Wiener|year=2004|page=339|isbn=9780312323318|publisher=[[St. Martin's Press]]}}</ref>

At the age of 11, Whitman ended his formal schooling<ref>Loving, 32.</ref> and sought employment to assist his family, which was struggling financially. He was an office boy for two lawyers and later was an [[apprenticeship|apprentice]] and [[printer's devil]] for the weekly Long Island newspaper the ''Patriot'', edited by Samuel E. Clements.<ref>Reynolds, 44.</ref> There, Whitman learned about the printing press and [[typesetting]].<ref>Kaplan, 74.</ref> He may have written "sentimental bits" of filler material for occasional issues.<ref>Callow, 30.</ref> Clements aroused controversy when he and two friends attempted to dig up the corpse of the [[Quaker]] minister [[Elias Hicks]] to create a plaster mold of his head.<ref>Callow, 29.</ref> Clements left the ''Patriot'' shortly afterward, possibly as a result of the controversy.<ref>Loving, 34.</ref>