Walt Whitman was born in May 31 1819 and was a second son to a house builder. His family had consisted of 9 siblings that lived in Brooklyn and long island in the 1820s and 1830s. At the age of just twelve Walt had started learning a printer trade which he is were he fell in love with written/printed words. With most of the learning he did was self taught which is probably part of the reason his poems used more casual for the time type of language, although he also had some other influences such as Homer, Dante, Shakespeare, and the Bible. Walt's first job he had was a in a printing factory in New York city until a fire had burned the building down. At the age of seven teen (1836)he had started a new career as a teacher in one room class rooms in long island. He held this job until around 1841 when he turned to journalism full time. During his time doing this he made his own newspaper called the "Long Islander". Flash forward a few year and the civil war had effected the way he started writing stating that after the outbreak of the civil war he pledged to live a purged and cleansed life. With all the wounded soldiers coming back he decided to use his money to pay for there medicine and to work in a hospital for 11 years. He struggled his whole life to make ends meet but always had a job until his death on march 26 1892. And he was widely regard as one of the best poets along with Emily Dickinson.