#11: Walt Whitman (May 31, 1819 – March 26, 1892)
Born in 1819 in West Hills, New York, Walt Whitman worked as a printer, teacher, journalist, and government clerk before publishing Leaves of Grass in 1855. The collection broke with traditional poetry by openly celebrating the human body, desire, affection, and everyday life. Poems such as “Calamus” explored intense emotional bonds between men, challenging the strict expectations of nineteenth-century society. Historians still debate the nature of Whitman’s relationships, but his writing clearly pushed against the limits of Victorian respectability and helped reshape American poetry.
