"HERE IS THE SOUL OF WHITMAN'S POETRY IN WHAT MUST BE ITS ULTIMATE REINCARNATION"

WHITMAN, Walt. Leaves of Grass. Comprising All the Poems Written by Walt Whitman Following the Arrangement of the Edition of 1891-'2. New York: Random House (Grabhorn Press), 1930. Folio, original half red morocco, Phillippine mahogany boards, uncut. $4000.

Limited first edition of the Grabhorn Press Leaves of Grass, number 108 of 400 copies, printed by Edwin and Robert Grabhorn and with illustrations by Valenti Angelo.

"Often called its magnum opus," The esteemed Grabhorn Press in San Francisco produced this edition of Leaves of Grass at the invitation of legendary editor Bennet Cerf at Random House, which sold the books for the then-astronomical amount of $100. Cerf began to despair of ever seeing the book at all, as the Grabhorns, never known for timeliness on projects, restarted Leaves multiple times until it met their exacting standards. But the wait was worth it, with contemporary reviews glowing: "'If a grander book has been produced in this country, I have not seen it,' wrote Ben Ray Redman in the New York Herald-Tribune. He compared it on equal terms with the best products of the Doves and Ashendene presses. 'Books,' he said, 'have their bodies as well as their souls, and here is the soul of Whitman's poetry in what must be its ultimate reincarnation… Lord, but it is a grand book'" (Wentz, The Grabhorn Press: A Biography, 53-54).

Interior fine, expert repairs to joints and spine ends.