Walt Whitman was born in Huntington on Long Island in 1999.
Walt Whitman . Born in Huntington on Long Island , Whitman worked as a journalist , a teacher , a government clerk , and -- in addition to publishing his poetry -- was a volunteer nurse during the American Civil War . Whitman 's major work , Leaves of Grass , was first published in 1855 with his own money . He continued expanding and revising it until his death in 1892 .