Complete Poems & Prose of Walt Whitman 1855... 1888 [Leaves of Grass]
$22,000 · Offered by Biblio
First edition · Signed
Philadelphia: Ferguson Bros. & Co, 1889. Signed Limited First Edition. Very Good. SIGNED FIRST EDITION OF THE DEFINITIVE COLLECTION OF WHITMAN'S WORK; A REMARKABLE COPY FROM WHITMAN'S PERSONAL LIBRARY. On this Edition: "Whitman never lost his passion for joining disparate parts into a whole: it was the basis of his politics, his philosophy, and his bookmaking. He wrote to one acquaintance in 1886 that 'I think of... bringing out a complete budget of all my writing in one book.'... Horace Traubel was again involved in getting this big book out, and he and Whitman had endless discussions about all aspects of its production." Whitman was worried about his failing health and terrified that he would die before his "big book" was published. "At one point the poet told Traubel, 'I am in a hurry-in a hurry: I want to see the book in plates: then I can die satisfied. We will attend to the presswork and binding when we come to it. The main thing is the plates-the plates. Horace, I am on the verge of a final collapse: I look on the future-even tomorrow, next day-with a feeling of the greatest uncertainty. I am anything but secure: let us make the book secure.' ... Whitman was immersed in every aspect of his bookmaking" and was very pleased with the result, for upon receiving the first copies he declared to Traubel, "it's better-far, far better-than the best I looked for." (All quotations from Ed Folsom, Whitman Making Books/Books Making Whitman). Whitman's "big book"- what he thought of
- Publisher: Ferguson Bros. & Co
- Year: 1889
- Edition: First Edition
- Binding: unknown
Found via Rare Books Intel, a search across rare-book dealers, auction houses and marketplaces worldwide.