Walt Whitman (born 1819) is widely considered to be the greatest of all American poets. Largely self-taught, he read voraciously, including works by the great classic writers – Homer, Dante, Shakespeare. In 1836, at the age of 17, he began his career as a teacher and continued to teach until 1841 when he turned to journalism as a full-time career. He founded a weekly newspaper, Long-Islander, and later edited a number of Brooklyn and New York papers. As well as journalism, Whitman became absorbed in poetry, writing in a unique and distinctive style. In 1855, he finished his seminal work Leaves of Grass. He died in 1892.