Walt Whitman was a man of stunning contradictions. The publication of "Song of Myself" transformed him from an obscure poet into the voice of a nation. But Leaves of Grass, published in 1855, shocked the literary world with its avant-garde style and unabashed portrayal of the self. Committed to the full expression of his physical and intellectual lives, Whitman, ironically, spent much of his life masking his true sexuality behind an ambiguous cloak of respectability.

Walt Whitman: A Gay Life is the first biography to illuminate the vital connection between Whitman's life as a homosexual and his legacy as a landmark literary artist. Here is the story of his encounter with the young Oscar Wilde, one of the most intriguing meetings of minds in literary history. Here, too, are the unadorned details about Whitman's relationship with Peter Doyle, his longtime companion, as well as the explicit poems Whitman suppressed from later editions of his published work.