Leaves of Grass - photo 1
Leaves of Grass - photo 2
Leaves of Grass - photo 3

Leaves of Grass

Lot 332
26.05.2022 10:00UTC -05:00
Classic
Sold
$ 75 600
AuctioneerCHRISTIE'S
Event locationUSA, New York
Archive
The auction is completed. No bids can be placed anymore.
Archive
ID 752953
Lot 332 | Leaves of Grass
Estimate value
$ 70 000 – 100 000
Leaves of GrassWalt Whitman, 1855WHITMAN, Walt (1819-1892). Leaves of Grass. Brooklyn: [Printed for the author,] 1855. First edition, first issue, Myerson’s Binding A, second state of copyright notice as usual, second state of page iv. “The poet and the prophet of democracy ... the whole of Leaves of Grass is imbued with the spirit of brotherhood and a pride in the democracy of the young American nation. In a sense, it is America's second Declaration of Independence: that of 1776 was political, that of 1855 intellectual” (PMM). “Whitman was spending nearly every day there [at the printing office of James and Thomas Rome in Brooklyn] that spring [of 1855], writing, revising, reading proof, even working at the type case, just as he had done twenty years earlier as an apprentice printer. Altogether he set in type about ten of the ninety-five pages of a book that he also designed, produced, published, promoted ... The 795 copies the Romes ran off on their hand press and delivered to the binder were all there were or could be of the first edition. No plates were made; the book was printed from type, and the type distributed" (Justin Kaplan, Walt Whitman: A Life (1982), p. 198). Upon receiving a copy of the book, Emerson wrote to Whitman on 21 July 1855, "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 has the best merits, namely, of fortifying and encouraging." Grolier American 67; Myerson A2.1.a; PMM 340.Folio (276 x 190mm). Engraved frontispiece portrait, marbled endpapers (repairs at gutter through page iv and at pp 88-89, a little creasing to title page, marginal spot, closed repaired tear). Original green cloth gilt, marbled endpapers (some rubbing to tips, very neatly rebacked with original spine laid down). Custom chemise and quarter morocco slipcase. Provenance: Edmund Baker (ownership inscription to verso of frontispiece dated October 1855) – B.E. Perry (receipt from Old Corner Bookstore for $5, dated 1877, loosely inserted).
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