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- Often refered to as the father of the free verse.
- Walt Whitman witnessed slavery first hand and returned to Brooklyn where he started a newspaper called the Brooklyn Freeman.
- In a four year period he was fired from seven different newspapers.
- Walt Whitman believed that all religions were equally important.

http://www.softschools.com/facts/authors/walt_whitman_facts/1493/

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Franklin Evans; Or The Inebriate (1842)
Leaves of Grass (1855, plus subsequent editions)
Drum-Taps (1865)

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Walt Whitman was born on May 31, 1819 in New York. From a young age he was a very talented reader and at age 17 he began a career as a teacher; he continued to teach until he took on journalism full time in 1841. Whitman founded the Long Islander, a weekly newspaper, and also the Brooklyn Freeman. After the civil war, Whitman worked as a freelance journalist and visited the injured at New York City area hospitals. He eventually decided to stay and work in the hospitals for about 11 years. Whitman spent his last years working on revisions for a new edition of Leaves of Grass and preparing his final volume of poems.

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"I exist as I am, that is enough."
"I am as bad as the worst, but, thank God, I am as good as the best."
"Keep your face always toward the sunshine - and shadows will fall behind you."

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Picture of Whitman

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Picture of Whitman