Leaves of Grass.

WHITMAN, Walt.

$11,000.00

Item Number: 143291

Camden, New Jersey: Author's Edition [Walt Whitman], 1882.

The Author’s edition of the most important and influential volume of poetry written in America; one of probably fewer than 100 copies produced with the inclusion of the “sexual odes” at Whitman’s insistence. Octavo, original publisher’s cloth, illustrated with two full-page engraved portraits of Whitman at different ages. Boldly signed by Walt Whitman on the title page.

The most important and influential volume of poetry written in America, Whitman’s literary masterpiece, Leaves of Grass is “one of the most magnificent fabrications of modern times… he never surrendered… his vision of himself as one who might go forth among the American people and astonish them…” (DAB). In 1881 Boston publisher James Osgood asked Whitman to publish an expanded version of Leaves of Grass. Whitman responded that he would agree to such an edition on the condition that it include the “sexuality odes” which before had proved so controversial. The edition was published in Boston and had received promising reviews when on March 1 it was declared obscene by the district attorney. Osgood then asked Whitman to publish a version without the offending material. Whitman refused and asked that the plates to the Boston edition be delivered to him in Camden, New Jersey. He then promptly issued this Author’s Edition from the Boston plates, with a new title page. “This is a scarce and almost unknown issue; it is doubtful if more than one hundred copies were printed. The text and type is the same as that used in the Boston edition, the title page only being different. All copies were autographed, and it is probable that Whitman had these made for a few friends while waiting for the first Philadelphia edition” (Wells & Goldsmith, 25). BAL 21418. In very good condition with the title page professionally strengthened. Housed in a custom slipcase.