Whitman found work as a freelance typesetter and as a
journalist. The latter profession excited him immeasurably. "How
it made my heart double-beat to see my piece on the pretty white
paper, in nice type," 7 he recalled of his journalism career. In
1842, Whitman published a novel, an allegory about the dangers
of alcohol entitled Franklin Evans; or The Inebriate. Whitman,
at the time, was a supporter of the temperance movement, in part
because of his father's drinking. The novel was commercially
successful, though Whitman later described it as "damned rot -
rot of the worst sort." 8 In 1846, Whitman took over as editor
for the Brooklyn Daily Eagle. He brought literary reviews to the
paper for the first time, writing articles on the works of
authors like Herman Melville and Ralph Waldo Emerson. He was
forced out in 1848 over a political dispute with his boss. His
boss backed the pro-slavery Democrats; Whitman was an unabashed
free-soiler. So he temporarily left New York to work at a paper
in New Orleans. He so