author

Elizabeth Leavitt Keller

b. 1839

Best known for a vivid memoir of Walt Whitman’s final years, this American writer brought readers close to the poet’s daily life with the eye of someone who had been there. Her work has lasting value because it blends literary history with firsthand remembrance.

1 Audiobook

Walt Whitman in Mickle Street

Walt Whitman in Mickle Street

by Elizabeth Leavitt Keller

About the author

Elizabeth Leavitt Keller was born in Buffalo, New York, on November 3, 1839. She is remembered chiefly for Walt Whitman in Mickle Street (1921), a book drawn from her time caring for Walt Whitman in his later years and observing the people, routines, and atmosphere around his Camden home.

Keller also wrote about Whitman earlier in magazine form; her piece Walt Whitman: The Last Phase appeared in Putnam's Magazine in 1909. Because she wrote from personal experience, her work remains useful to readers interested in Whitman not just as a major poet, but as an aging man living among friends, visitors, and neighbors.

Available sources identify her life dates as 1839–1928, though the clearest information found here centers on her birth in 1839 and her authorship of Whitman-related reminiscences. I wasn't able to confirm a reliable portrait image from the sources reviewed, so no profile image is included.