Leaves of Grass: The First (1855) Edition (Penguin Classics Deluxe Edition) Paperback - 2005
by Walt Whitman; Introduction by Harold Bloom
This deluxe 150th anniversary edition of Whitman's masterwork features the complete text of the 1855 poem in its original and complete form, with a specially commissioned introductory essay by bestselling critic Harold Bloom.
About this book
Summary
And what I assume you shall assume,
For every atom belonging to me as good belongs to you.
When Walt Whitman self-published his Leaves of Grass in July 1855, he altered the course of literary history. One of the greatest masterpieces of American literature, it redefined the rules of poetry while describing the soul of the American character.
Throughout his great career, Whitman continuously revised, expanded, and republished Leaves of Grass, but as Harold Bloom reminds us, the book that matters most is the 1855 original. In celebration of the poem’s 150th anniversary, Penguin Classics proudly presents the 1855 text in its original and complete form, with a specially commissioned introductory essay by Harold Bloom.
* A Penguin Classics Deluxe Edition with French flaps and luxurious design
First Edition Identification
On May 15, 1855, Whitman registered the title Leaves of Grass with the clerk of the United States District Court, Southern District of New Jersey, and received its copyright. The first edition was published on July 4, 1855, in Brooklyn, at the printing shop of two Scottish immigrants, James and Andrew Rome, whom Whitman had known since the 1840s. Whitman paid for and did much of the typesetting for the first edition himself. The book did not include the author's name, and instead offered an engraving by Samuel Hollyer depicting Whitman in work clothes and a jaunty hat, arms at his side. Early advertisements for the first edition appealed to "lovers of literary curiosities" as an oddity. Sales on the book were few, but Whitman was not discouraged.
The first edition was very small, collecting only twelve unnamed poems in 95 pages. Whitman once said he intended the book to be small enough to be carried in a pocket. "That would tend to induce people to take me along with them and read me in the open air: I am nearly always successful with the reader in the open air", he explained. About 800 were printed, though only 200 were bound in its trademark green cloth cover. The only American library known to have purchased a copy of the first edition was in Philadelphia. The poems of the first edition, which were given titles in later issues, were "Song of Myself", "A Song for Occupations", "To Think of Time", "The Sleepers", "I Sing the Body Electric", "Faces", "Song of the Answerer", "Europe: The 72d and 73d Years of These States", "A Boston Ballad", "There Was a Child Went Forth", "Who Learns My Lesson Complete?", and "Great Are the Myths".
Details
- Title Leaves of Grass: The First (1855) Edition (Penguin Classics Deluxe Edition)
- Author Walt Whitman; Introduction by Harold Bloom
- Binding Paperback
- Edition Deluxe
- Pages 208
- Volumes 1
- Language ENG
- Publisher Penguin Group, New York
- Date 2005-06-28
- ISBN 9780143039273 / 014303927X
- Weight 0.51 lbs (0.23 kg)
- Dimensions 8.48 x 6.14 x 0.56 in (21.54 x 15.60 x 1.42 cm)
- Ages 18 to UP years
- Grade levels 13 - UP
- Library of Congress subjects American poetry - 19th century
- Library of Congress Catalog Number 2005047641
- Dewey Decimal Code 811.3
Media reviews
Citations
- Ingram Advance, 07/01/2005, Page 76
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