Leaves of Grass Walt Whitman

Initial publication, 1855

The first edition of Leaves of Grass was published on July 4, 1855. The poem has its beginnings in an essay by Ralph Waldo Emerson called "The Poet" (1844), which expressed the need for the United States to have its own new and unique poet to write about the new country's virtues and vices.[3] This concept, along with the call to abandon strict rhyme and meter, were explored more fully in earlier works by John Neal: novels Randolph (1823) and Rachel Dyer (1828). Whitman, likely having read all three, consciously set out to answer their call.[4][5] He thus began working on the first edition of Leaves of Grass. Whitman later commented on Emerson's influence, stating, "I was simmering, simmering, simmering; Emerson brought me to a boil."[3]

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.[6] The title is a pun, as grass was a term given by publishers to works of minor value, and leaves is another name for the pages on which they were printed.[7] The first edition was published in Brooklyn at the printing shop of two Scottish immigrants, James and Andrew Rome, whom Whitman had known since the 1840s.[8] The shop was located at Fulton Street (now Cadman Plaza West) and Cranberry Street, now the site of apartment buildings that bear Whitman's name.[9][10] Whitman paid for and did much of the typesetting for the first edition himself.

A calculated feature of the first edition was that the book included neither the author nor the publisher's name (both the author and publisher being Whitman). Instead, the cover included an engraving by Samuel Hollyer depicting Whitman himself—in work clothes and a jaunty hat, arms at his side.[11] This figure was meant to represent the devil-may-care American working man of the time, one who might be taken as an almost idealized figure in any crowd. The engraver, later commenting on his depiction, described the character with "a rakish kind of slant, like the mast of a schooner".

The first edition contained no table of contents, and none of the poems had a title. Early advertisements appealed to "lovers of literary curiosities" as an oddity.[12] Sales of the book were few, but Whitman was not discouraged.

One paper-bound copy was sent to Emerson, who had initially inspired its creation. Emerson responded with a letter of heartfelt thanks, writing, "I find it the most extraordinary piece of wit and wisdom America has yet contributed." He went on, "I am very happy in reading it, as great power makes us happy."[13] The letter was printed in the New York Tribune—without the writer's permission—and caused an uproar among prominent New England men of letters, including Henry David Thoreau and Amos Bronson Alcott, who were some of the few Transcendentalists who agreed with Emerson's letter and his statements regarding Leaves of Grass.

Dear Sir,

I am not blind to the worth of the wonderful gift of "Leaves of Grass." I find it the most extraordinary piece of wit & wisdom that America has yet contributed. I am very happy in reading it, as great power makes us happy. It meets the demand I am always making of what seemed the sterile & stingy Nature, as if too much handiwork or too much lymph in the temperament were making our western wits fat & mean. I give you joy of your free & brave thought. I have great joy in it. I find incomparable things said incomparably well, as they must be. I find the courage of treatment, which so delights us, & which large perception only can inspire. I greet you at the beginning of a great career, which yet must have had a long foreground somewhere, for such a start. I rubbed my eyes a little to see if this sunbeam were no illusion; but the solid sense of the book is a sober certainty. It had the best merits, namely, of fortifying & encouraging.

I did not know until I, last night, saw the book advertised in a newspaper, that I could trust the name as real & available for a post-office. I wish to see my benefactor, & have felt much like striking my tasks, & visiting New York to pay you my respects.

R.W. Emerson

Letter to Walter Whitman July 21, 1855

The first edition was very small and collected only twelve unnamed poems in 95 pages.[7] 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.[14] About 800 copies were printed,[15] though only 200 were bound in its trademark green cloth cover.[6] The only American library known to have purchased a copy of the first edition was in Philadelphia.[16] The poems of the first edition, which were given titles in later issues, included:

• "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"

Republications, 1856–1889

There have been held to be either six or nine editions of Leaves of Grass, the count depending on how they are distinguished: scholars who hold that an edition is an entirely new set of type will count the 1855, 1856, 1860, 1867, 1871–72, and 1881 printings; whereas others will include the 1876, 1888–1889, and 1891–1892 (the "deathbed edition")[2] releases.

The editions were of varying length, each one larger and augmented from the previous version—the final edition reached over 400 poems. The first 1855 edition is particularly notable for its inclusion of the poems "Song of Myself" and "The Sleepers".

1856–1860

It was Emerson's positive response to the first edition that inspired Whitman to quickly produce a much-expanded second edition in 1856.[13] This new edition contained 384 pages and had a cover price of one dollar.[14] It also included a phrase from Emerson's letter, printed in gold leaf: "I Greet You at the Beginning of a Great Career."[14] Recognized as a "first" for U.S. book publishing and marketing techniques, Whitman has been cited as "inventing" the use of the book blurb. Laura Dassow Walls, Professor of English at the University of Notre Dame, noted, "In one stroke, Whitman had given birth to the modern cover blurb, quite without Emerson's permission."[17] Emerson later took offense that this letter was made public[18] and became more critical of his work.[19] This edition included "Crossing Brooklyn Ferry"—a notable poem.

The publishers of the 1860 edition, Thayer and Eldridge, declared bankruptcy shortly after its publication, and were almost unable to pay Whitman. "In regard to money matters," they wrote, "we are very short ourselves and it is quite impossible to send the sum." Whitman received only $250, and the original plates made their way to Boston publisher Horace Wentworth.[20] When the 456-page book was finally issued, Whitman said, "It is quite 'odd', of course," referring to its appearance: it was bound in orange cloth with symbols like a rising sun with nine spokes of light and a butterfly perched on a hand.[21] Whitman claimed that the butterfly was real in order to foster his image as being "one with nature." In fact, the butterfly was made of cloth and was attached to his finger with wire.[22] The major poems added to this edition were "A Word Out of the Sea" and "As I Ebb'd With the Ocean of Life".

1867–1889

The 1867 edition was intended to be, according to Whitman, "a new & much better edition of Leaves of Grass complete — that unkillable work!"[23] He assumed it would be the final edition.[24] The edition, which included the Drum-Taps section, its Sequel, and the new Songs before Parting, was delayed when the binder went bankrupt and its distributing firm failed. When it was finally printed, it was a simple edition and the first to omit a picture of the poet.[25]

In 1879, Richard Worthington purchased the electrotype plates and began printing and marketing unauthorized copies.

The 1889 (eighth) edition was little changed from the 1881 version, but it was more embellished and featured several portraits of Whitman. The biggest change was the addition of an "Annex" of miscellaneous additional poems.[26]

Sections

By its later editions, Leaves of Grass had grown to 14 sections.

Earlier editions contained a section called "Chants Democratic"; later editions omitted some of the poems from this section, publishing others in Calamus and other sections.

Deathbed edition, 1892

As 1891 came to a close, Whitman prepared a final edition of Leaves of Grass, writing to a friend upon its completion, "L. of G. at last complete — after 33 y'rs of hackling at it, all times & moods of my life, fair weather & foul, all parts of the land, and peace & war, young & old."[28] This last version of Leaves of Grass was published in 1892 and is referred to as the deathbed edition.[29] In January 1892, two months before Whitman's death, an announcement was published in the New York Herald:

Walt Whitman wishes respectfully to notify the public that the book Leaves of Grass, which he has been working on at great intervals and partially issued for the past thirty-five or forty years, is now completed, so to call it, and he would like this new 1892 edition to absolutely supersede all previous ones. Faulty as it is, he decides it as by far his special and entire self-chosen poetic utterance.[30]

By the time this last edition was completed, Leaves of Grass had grown from a small book of 12 poems to a hefty tome of almost 400 poems.[2] As the volume changed, so did the pictures that Whitman used to illustrate them—the last edition depicts an older Whitman with a full beard and jacket.

Translations

In 1995, Dail Glaswellt, the Welsh language translation is published.[31]