Leaves of Grass
LEAVES OF GRASS first edition had no author listed (except for a drawing of a jaunty young man), and no poem titles other than "Leaves of Grass" in several places. This unique book caught the attention of Ralph Waldo Emerson, who wrote a few words in praise of this strange book in a private letter to Whitman. Whitman, ever the self-promoter, quoted the letter in the next printing without having asked Emerson's permission
THE ORIGINAL LEAVES OF GRASS is a slim book. Throughout his long life, Whitman added materials until the "Deathbed Edition" (as it is called) had expanded to more than double its original size (I think). The 1855 edition, published when Whitman was 36, is as close to the original vision as we will get.
THE ORIGINAL LEAVES OF GRASS: 1855 EDITION. Edited by A.S. Ash, 117pp., 2nd printing. ISBN 978-0-942208-08-5, $9.95
I want to order a copy of Leaves of Grass now.
A critical collection about Leaves of Grass is available in a teacher's Supplement Edition: Leaves of Grass at $45.00.
YOU MIGHT ALSO be interested in the booklet that Whitman wrote at the end of his life, A Backward Glance Over Traveled Roads, in which he gives an explanation of how he came to create such an original book in the first place.
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