Walt Whitman

Born on May 31, 1819, on Long Island, Walt Whitman worked as a printer, teacher, journalist, and editor before becoming one of the most influential poets in American literature. He spent much of his early life in Brooklyn and New York, where city life, politics, and ordinary working people helped shape his writing.

Whitman is best known for Leaves of Grass, first published in 1855 and revised again and again for the rest of his life. Its free verse style felt radically new at the time, and its sweeping, intimate voice changed what poetry could sound like in English. Alongside poems of self, nature, and democracy, his writing was also deeply marked by the American Civil War, especially after his service visiting wounded soldiers in Washington, D.C.

He died on March 26, 1892, in Camden, New Jersey, but his influence has only grown. Whitman remains a central figure for readers who love expansive, personal writing and for anyone interested in the making of a distinctly American literary voice.