This Library of America edition is the biggest and best edition of Walt Whitman's writings ever published. It includes all of his poetry and what he considered his complete prose. It is also the only collection that includes, in exactly the form in which it appeared in 1855, the first edition of Leaves of Grass . This was the book, a commercial failure, which prompted Emerson's famous message to Whitman: "I greet you at the beginning of a great career." These twelve poems, including what were later to be entitled "Song of ...
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This Library of America edition is the biggest and best edition of Walt Whitman's writings ever published. It includes all of his poetry and what he considered his complete prose. It is also the only collection that includes, in exactly the form in which it appeared in 1855, the first edition of Leaves of Grass . This was the book, a commercial failure, which prompted Emerson's famous message to Whitman: "I greet you at the beginning of a great career." These twelve poems, including what were later to be entitled "Song of Myself" and "I Sing the Body Electric," and a preface announcing the author's poetic theories were the first stage of a massive, lifelong work. Six editions and some thirty-seven years later, Leaves of Grass became one of the central volumes in the history of world poetry. Each edition involved revisions of earlier poems and the incorporation of new ones. As it progressed, it was hailed by Emerson, Thoreau, Rosetti and others, but was also, as with the sixth edition in 1881-82, beset by charges of obscenity for such poems as "A Woman Waits for Me." Printed here is the final, great culminating edition of 1891-92, the last supervised by Whitman himself just before his death. Whitman's prose is no less extraordinary. Specimen Days and Collect (1882) includes reminiscences of nineteenth-century New York City that will fascinate readers in the twenty-first, notes on the Civil War, especially his service in Washington hospitals, and trenchant comments on books and authors. Democratic Vistas (1871), in its attacks on the misuses of national wealth after the Civil War, is relevant to conditions in our own time, and November Boughs (1888) brings together retrospective prefaces, opinions, and random autobiographical bits that are in effect an extended epilogue on Whitman's life, works, and times. LIBRARY OF AMERICA is an independent nonprofit cultural organization founded in 1979 to preserve our nation's literary heritage by publishing, and keeping permanently in print, America's best and most significant writing. The Library of America series includes more than 300 volumes to date, authoritative editions that average 1,000 pages in length, feature cloth covers, sewn bindings, and ribbon markers, and are printed on premium acid-free paper that will last for centuries.
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Seller's Description:
Good. Shelf and handling wear to cover and binding, with general signs of previous use. Slipcase shows heavy scuffing; Secure packaging for safe delivery.
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Seller's Description:
Fine. Sewn binding. Cloth over boards. In slipcase 1341 p. Library of America. Audience: General/trade. This is the direct sales edition in cream colored slipcase. Case and hardcover are in like new condition.
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Fine in good dust jacket. Sewn binding. Cloth over boards. With dust jacket. 1341 p. Library of America. Audience: General/trade. Book in near fine condition with beautiful green cloth binding: bright, clean with tight, straight spine. Appears unread. DJ is unclipped but shows obvious shelf wear/rubbing but no rips or tears. Slipcase included, also with obvious shelf wear/rubbing.
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Near Fine Condition in Near Fine jacket. Dust Jacket w/ minor tear. Library of America series. Quantity Available: 1. Category: Poetry; ISBN: 094045002x. ISBN/EAN: 9780940450028. Pictures of this item not already displayed here available upon request. Inventory No: 19174.
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