"FROM WALT WHITMAN'S NEW BOOK": PROOF SHEET OF THE POEM "PATROLING BERNEGAT," WITH NOTATION IN WHITMAN'S HAND, INCLUDING HIS SIGNATURE

WHITMAN, Walt. Proof sheet of the poem "Patroling Barnegat." No place: no publisher, [1881]. One page (4-5/8 inches by 6-3/8 inches), 14 lines in letterpress on proof paper. Floated, silk matted and framed with an early postcard of Whitman, entire piece measures 10-1/2 by 17 inches. $9200.

Proof sheet of the poem, "Patroling Barnegat," inscribed by Whitman across the top margin, "From Walt Whitman's new book." With an additional marginal correction of one word in line 12—"beach" for "edge"—also in Whitman's hand.

Proof sheets of his poems, such as this one, were usually prepared by Whitman for private circulation and presentation. This poem was published in the April 1881 issue of Harper's Monthly Magazine and the June 1881 issue of The American, in Philadelphia, collected in the 1881-82 edition of Leaves of Grass. Someone, possibly Whitman himself, has cut and pasted the last four lines of the poem in order to move what had been line 11 to line 13. This proof presents the poem as it appears in the Philadelphia 1892 "Deathbed" edition of Leaves of Grass, with the exception of extra commas in lines 5, 7, 8, 10 and 12, and the word "beach" in line 12, which Whitman has here corrected by hand to read "edge," as it ultimately appeared. Myerson F62. BAL 21575.

Small drop of sealing wax near, but not touching, Whitman's notation. Edge-wear along right margin, not affecting letterpress. Dampstaining to upper right, touching Whitman's notation, and slightly blurring the words "new book," but not distorting Whitman's name. Very good and scarce.