Walt Whitman

Biography

Walt Whitman (1819–1892) was an American poet, essayist, and journalist, one of the most influential poets in the history of world literature. Born on Long Island, New York, he worked as a printer, teacher, and journalist before publishing the first edition of Leaves of Grass in 1855, a revolutionary collection that he continued to revise and expand throughout his life. Whitman’s free verse, his celebration of democracy, the body, nature, and the self, broke radically with poetic convention and established him as the quintessential American poet. His work influenced virtually every major poet who followed.