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Eat lean meat. Bathe regularly. Wear comfortable shoes. Those are three pieces of self-help advice from an unlikely source — 19th-century poet and essayist Walt Whitman.


They come from a series of advice columns titled "Manly Health and Training" which Whitman — better known for 

" — wrote under the pseudonym Mose Velsor. The columns were discovered by University of Houston doctoral candidate Zachary Turpin. He tells NPR's Scott Simon that identifying Whitman as the true author was "a rare open-and-shut case."


"Besides it being signed with this pseudonym of his ... there was also draft language in his handwriting that matches the piece itself," Turpin explains. (You can listen to Simon and Turpin's full conversation in the audio link above.)


The articles offer tips on everything from what to eat (Whitman wasn't a fan of condiments) to how cold baths will make you "indifferent" to cold weather (we're skeptical). Here are some of our favorites, courtesy of the University of Iowa's 



Whitman's 13-part "Manly Health and Training" series was originally published in the 

 in 1858, and is now being republished by the 

. You can read the full text of his columns 

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In 1858, the poet published a series of advice columns -- titled "Manly Health and Training" -- in which he recommends wearing a beard, taking a cold bath every morning and avoiding condiments.

Self-help tips on 'Manly Health' from Walt Whitman

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