The poet Walt Whitman thought of his lifelong work Leaves of Grass as an extension of himself. He wanted people to read it “as if meeting a man” and offered this image on its title page: a plain workingman, relaxed if a bit arrogant, hat cocked at a rakish angle, ready for anything. Whitman invited his readers to value experience over education and advised each to take a journey on the “open road”: here was an American method for self-discovery and cool. Whitman remains the guiding light of American bohemia, from the Beats to Bob Dylan to the potential of every road trip.