“FOR THE SWEETEST, WISEST SOUL OF ALL MY DAYS AND LANDS…”: FIRST EDITION OF WHITMAN’S DRUM-TAPS, IMPORTANT PREFERRED ISSUE WITH SEQUEL FOR LINCOLN, CONTAINING THE FIRST PRINTING OF “WHEN LILACS LAST IN THE DOORYARD BLOOM’D”

WHITMAN, Walt. Drum-Taps. BOUND WITH: Sequel to Drum-Taps. When Lilacs Last in the Door-Yard Bloom'd. New York and Washington: No publisher, 1865-6. 12mo, original brown cloth, gilt- and blind-stamped medallions, speckled edges; pp. (iv), 5-72, (3), 4-24. Housed in a custom clamshell box. $8800.

First edition, the important and preferred second issue, one of only 1000 copies, with the first appearance of the sequel celebrating Lincoln containing “Lilacs” and “O Captain! My Captain!”

Drum-Taps "stands among the nation's finest poems" (ANB). Upon the death of Lincoln, Whitman delayed the printing of Drum-Taps and added "When Lilacs Last in the Dooryard Bloom'd," a "profoundly moving dirge for the martyred Lincoln" (CHAL), with separate pagination, table of contents, and title page. Myerson A3.1a2. Wells & Goldsmith, 11. BAL 21398. With the bookplates of W.T.H. Howe and Edith Barbara Tranter. Howe was president of the American Book Company in Cincinnati and a noted book collector; Tranter was his secretary (and subsequent administrator of his estate) who also amassed a significant book collection which was sold at auction in 1952.

Chip to edge of front pastedown, inner paper hinge starting but strong, only a couple tiny spots of foxing to interior, slight rubbing to binding. A near-fine copy with outstanding provenance.