“I SEND THE TWO VOLUMES TO YOU… THE TWO EMBODY ALL MY WORKS”: 1876 EDITIONS OF WHITMAN’S LEAVES OF GRASS AND TWO RIVULETS, BOTH SIGNED BY HIM, WITH TWO AUTOGRAPH LETTERS FROM WHITMAN TO THE OWNER OF THIS COPY DISCUSSING THE PURCHASE OF THESE BOOKS DIRECTLY FROM WHITMAN

WHITMAN, Walt. Leaves of Grass. Author's Edition, With Portraits from Life. WITH: Two Rivulets; Including Democratic Vistas, Centennial Songs, and Passage to India. Camden, New Jersey, 1876. Two volumes. Octavo, original marbled boards sympathetically rebacked and recornered in 1935, retaining original yellow endpapers. Housed in a custom clamshell box.

“Author’s Edition” of Leaves of Grass, signed in ink on the title page by Walt Whitman. Accompanied by the first and only edition, second printing, of Two Rivulets, inscribed “Walt Whitman, 1880-’81,” on the original albumen photograph portrait that serves as a frontispiece. With two autograph letters signed by Whitman from 1881 to the owner of these books, discussing their purchase directly from the poet.

Whitman's poetry "survives as certainly the most original work yet done by any American poet, and perhaps as the most passionate and best" (DAB). "Practically everything that can be said about the significance of [Leaves of Grass] has been said by its author… He was and is the poet and prophet of democracy, and the intoxication of his immense affirmative, the fervor of his 'barbaric yawp,' are so powerful that the echo of his… rhythmic song rings forever in the American air" (Grolier American 100 67). "On 2 May 1875, Whitman announced: 'I shall… bring out a volume this summer, partly as my own contribution to our National Centennial. It is to be called Two Rivulets—(i.e. two flowing chains of prose and verse, emanating the real and ideal). It will embody much that I had previously written & that you know, but about one-third, as I guess, that is fresh" (Myerson, 196). The book contains Two Rivulets, Democratic Vistas, Centennial Songs—1876, As a Strong Bird on Pinions Free, Memoranda During the War and Passage to India. This, the "Author's Edition" of Leaves of Grass, is the fifth edition, third printing, second issue, and is complete with both portraits and an advertisement leaf inserted between rear flyleaves. Two Rivulets is the first and only edition, second printing, one of only 600 copies. Wells and Goldsmith, 20-21. Myerson A2.5.c2 and A.9.1.b. PMM 340. The first letter is dated January 6, 1881, on a plain card measuring 4-1/2 by 4 inches, and reads: "431 Stevens Street, Camden, New Jersey Jan 6 '81. Dear Sir, Yours of 4th rec'd will send you the books with pleasure—I would mail them now, only I suppose it w'd better for me to notify you first of the price which is $10—Walt Whitman. I prefer a p.o. money order." The second letter is dated February 2, 1881, on a plain card measuring 5-1/4 by 3 inches, and reads: "431 Stevens Street Camden New Jersey Feb. 2 '81. Dear Sir, Yours of Jan 31 just rec'd. No such letter of 22d nor p.o. order has reached me & of course none has been paid by p.o. here. I see that Jan 6 I sent you my circular in answer to previous letter from you—that is the only correspondence—I have sent nothing, heard nothing, rec'd nothing since. But as in all such cases I consider it my obligation & loss. I send the two volumes to you, same mail with this—the two embody all my works—the little vols being only selections from them in duplicate. Walt Whitman." Also with 1935 receipt from a Philadelphia bookbinder laid in.

Expert reinforcement to text block and inner paper hinges of both volumes. Leaves of Grass with light wear and one repair to brittle fore-edges of preliminary leaves only. A very good set, most desirable signed by Whitman in each volume and with signed correspondence from the poet discussing the books.