The Life of Walt Whitman is the story of a young man's journey to becoming the great American poet he set out to be. It was a life of struggle and adversity. Even though we all know too well how it feels to be judged for what or how we believe, Whitman was not easily frightened. He had strong beliefs and stood his ground in what he believed in, regardless of what names he was called or what people said about him. In his writings and in his life Whitman was true to who he was and what he believed. Walt Whitman was born on May 31, 1819, to Walter and Louisa Whitman, a working-class family in West Hills, New York, a village near Hempstead, Long Island. The second of six children, Whitman grew up in a community full of Quakers and followed the religion very strictly as a child. From 1825 to 1830, Whitman attended public schools in Brooklyn. He loved reading the works of Ralph Waldo Emerson because he thought he resonated with Emerson's ideas and theologies that were close to his own (123HelpMe.com). At the age of eleven, Whitman concluded his formal education and began his life as a factory worker. Whitman's first job was as a clerk to some lawyers who gave him a library subscription. This is where he will further educate himself. Whitman gained his knowledge from visiting museums, his love of reading books, and engaging everyone he met in conversation or debate. In 1831 Whitman apprenticed to a working-class newspaper. It was here that he learned the trade of typography and was first exposed to the excitement of putting words into print. By the age of twelve Whitman had begun publishing his own work. By 1833, Whitman's family had left and returned to West Hills, leaving fourteen-year-old Walt at... middle of paper... but he was unable to. Due to his health he returned to New Jersey, where he was never a healthy man again, and looked old and steadily aging (Briggs 24). For the rest of Whitman's life, he would add, delete, merge, separate, and rearrange poems while publishing six very different editions of Leaves of Grass (Price and Folsom). Nineteen years later Whitman died in New Jersey. After his passing Whitman was the voice people needed and wanted to remember. More than a century after Whitman's death, he represents an enormous presence in American culture. TV shows depict it. The musicians allude to him. Schools and bridges are named after him. Truck stops, apartments, parks, summer camps, corporate centers and shopping centers bear his name. Look for it, just as he told you, under the soles of your boots (Price and Folsom). Whitman became known as the “Great Gray Poet".."