Leaves of Grass First and Death-Bed Editions (3 page)

 

Leaves of Grass
was published anonymously in 1855.
Throughout his life, Whitman revised Leaves of Grass and regularly issued
new editions. The final authorized ninth, or “Death-bed,”
edition was published in 1891-1892.

 

Published by Barnes & Noble Classics in 2004 with new Introduction,
Notes, Biography, Chronology, Publication Information, Inspired By,
Comments & Questions, For Further Reading, and Index.

 

Introduction, Notes, Publishing Information, and For Further Reading

Copyright © 2004 by Karen Karbiener.

 

Note on Walt Whitman, The World of Walt Whitman and Leaves of Grass,
Inspired by Leaves of Grass, Comments & Questions, and Index
Copyright © 2004 by Barnes & Noble, Inc.

 

All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced or
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without the prior written permission of the publisher.

 

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colophon are trademarks of Barnes & Noble, Inc.

 

ISBN-13: 978-1-59308-083-9
ISBN-10: 1-59308-083-2

eISBN : 978-1-411-43252-9

LC Control Number 2004102191

 

Produced and published in conjunction with
Fine Creative Media, Inc.
322 Eighth Avenue
New York, NY 10001

 

Michael J. Fine, President and Publisher

 

Printed in the United States of America
QM
5 7 9 10 8 6 4

WALT WHITMAN

Walt Whitman was born on May 31, 1819, on a farm near West Hills, New York, on Long Island. In 1823, Walter Senior moved his growing family to Brooklyn, where he worked as a carpenter and introduced Walt to freethinkers and reformers like the Quaker preacher Elias Hicks and women’s rights activist Frances Wright. One of Whitman’s most vivid childhood memories was of being hoisted onto the shoulders of General Lafayette during a visit the Revolutionary War hero made to New York.

While many notable American figures of the mid-nineteenth century, such as Henry Wadsworth Longfellow and Nathaniel Hawthorne, were the privileged sons of well-established families, Whitman was, at least on the basis of his humble origins, indeed a man of the people. His mother, Louisa Van Velsor, an unfailing supporter of her literary-minded son, was barely literate; of the seven Whitman offspring who survived infancy, Eddy was mentally disabled, Jesse spent much of his life in an insane asylum, Andrew died young of alcoholism and tuberculosis, and Hannah married an abusive man who repeatedly beat her. Whitman was confronted with these often sordid family matters through much of his adult life.

Walt dropped out of school when he was eleven, though he continued to read widely and soon entered the newspaper business as a printer’s apprentice. Before long he was editing and writing for some of the most popular newspapers of the day. He reported on the crimes, fires, civic achievements, and other events that shaped rapidly growing New York in the 1830s and 1840s; he reviewed concerts, attended operas, and socialized with other writers and artists; and, always observing, notebook in hand, he walked the streets of the city that had fueled his imagination since his youth and inspired such poems as “Crossing Brooklyn Ferry.”

Whitman came onto the literary scene quietly. The First Edition of
Leaves of Grass
received little notice when it appeared in 1855, though such distinguished American men of letters as Ralph Waldo Emerson recognized the twelve poems included in the slim volume, with Whitman’s photo on the frontispiece, as a major literary achievement. Whitman spent the rest of his life revising and editing
Leaves of Grass
, incorporating new collections of poems into subsequent editions of his masterpiece. Though he more or less gave up journalism by the early 1860s
,
he continued to observe with a reporter’s eye, working his experiences into his poetry. The often disturbing wartime poems he included in such collections as
Drum-Taps
and
Sequel
to
Drum-Taps
took root in the visits he made to soldiers in Washington, D.C., hospitals during the Civil War. His romantic relationships also worked their way into his poetry, especially those in his “Calamus” collection, making Whitman one of the first American poets to openly address homosexuality.

Many of Whitman’s contemporaries were shocked by
Leaves of Grass,
and in 1882 a Boston printing was banned when the work was declared immoral. Even so, the poet continued to gain a reputation in America and, even more so, in Britain. After suffering a stroke in 1873, Whitman moved from Washington to Camden, New Jersey, where he spent the greater part of his remaining days writing, overseeing new editions of
Leaves of Grass,
and receiving visitors. Just ten days after writing his last poem, “A Thought of Columbus,” Walt Whitman died on March 26, 1892.

THE WORLD OF WALT WHITMAN AND
LEAVES OF GRASS