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Walt Whitman

1819 – 1892 · West Hills

Walt Whitman

The printer's boy from Long Island who taught American poetry to walk out the door and breathe.

Born West Hills, United States

About

The American poet Walt Whitman was born on Long Island in New York in 1819. He grew up in a large, struggling family and left school early to work. He was a printer, a schoolteacher, and a newspaper editor before he became a poet. That mix of jobs mattered, because he learned to write for ordinary people, not just scholars.

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Illustrations are created with AI assistance. Summaries are written with AI and reviewed by the editor. Book metadata comes from Wikidata and Open Library.