Walt Whitman

Walter Whitman, was born on the 31st of May, 1819 in Long Island, New York, US. He was an essayist, poet and journalist, as well as a volunteer nurse in the course of the American Civil War (1861–65). Walt Whitman participated in the shift from transcendentalism towards realism, and both views are present in his works. Walt Whitman, being one of the most influential American poets, is often refered to as "the father of the free verse". (http://www.egs.edu/library/walt-whitman/biography/)