Walt Whitman over many years created various editions of Leaves of Grass--among the most influential volumes of poetry published anywhere in the past 200 years. Whitman transmuted the world around him into lines addressing a broad spectrum of human interest, from democracy and religion to sexuality, gender, class and identity. His exuberant voice embodied his times, as he invoked the reader--you and poets to come--to join him in writing a poetry of the future. The first A to Z Whitman reference to incorporate 21st Century scholarship, this book provides a comprehensive introduction to his major poems and prose and to the people, places and topics that were central to his life.