Walt Leaves Of Grass.

by WHITMAN

£7,000 · Offered by Henry Sotheran Ltd

The New Bible WHITMAN, Walt Leaves Of Grass. Boston: Thayer and Eldridge. 1860. 8vo. Original rust-coloured vertical wavy-grain cloth with blind-stamped boards, beveled edges, spine with gilt lettering and design of a butterfly; pp. [vi], 456, [2], frontispiece engraving of Whitman (signed ‘Schoff’), engraved tailpieces to pp. iv and 456 of a butterfly perched on a finger; slightly cocked, minor soiling to pastedowns, otherwise a very good copy. Extremely rare first issue of the third edition, the first edition published by someone other than the poet himself, including the first publication of the major poems ‘A Word Out of the Sea’, retitled ‘Out of the Cradle Endlessly Rocking’ in later editions, and ‘I Hear America Singing’. This edition of Whitman’s work is significantly expanded from the two self-published pamphlets of 1855 and 1856, which contained twelve and thirty-three poems respectively. The success of the second edition persuaded Thayer and Eldridge to take the work on but, in a stroke of the kind of luck that dogged Whitman’s professional career, the company went bust shortly after publication and could barely pay him $250. ‘The author went to Boston to superintend the printing and binding. The publishers failed during the period of financial depression at the beginning of the Civil War and the plates were sold at auction to R. Worthington, who surreptitiously used them for the original imprint. There are, for this reason, four or more editions bearing the origin

• Binding: Hardcover

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