Walter Whitman was an American poet, journalist and humanist. He is mainly known for his approach to Transcendentalism and realism and mastery in free verses, which mirrors in his works. Born into a family of farmers in Long Island, he grew up in Brooklyn, living there through much of his career. An autodidact, he had to give up his schooling at the age of eleven to augment the family income, thereafter taking up various small jobs, including teaching, anonymously publishing poems in various journals.  At the age of 19, he founded a weekly newspaper, shortly breaking into professional journalism, publishing his first book, a novel, at the age of 23 and the first edition of his most celebrated work, Leaves of Grass, at 36. Partly inspired by his admiration for Ralph Waldo Emerson and partly by his travels through the American frontier, he spent most of his life revising and enlarging the book, publishing several editions of it until his death.