Walt Whitman: Poetry and Prose (Library of America)

Walt Whitman: Poetry and Prose (Library of America)

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 ofÂ Leaves of Grass. This was the book, a commercial failure, which prompted Emersonâ€™s famous message to Whitman: â€œI greet you at the beginning of a great career.â€ These twelve poems, including what were later to be entitled â€œSong of Myselfâ€ and â€œI Sing the Body Electric,â€ and a preface announcing the authorâ€™s poetic theories were the first stage of a massive, lifelong work. Six editions and some thirty-seven years later,Â Leaves of Grass becameÂ one of the central volumes in the history of world poetry.
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Each edition involved revisions of earlier poems and the incorporation of new ones.Â As it progressed, it was hailed by Emerson, Thoreau, Rosetti and others, but was also, as with the sixth edition in 1881â€“82, beset by charges of obscenity for such poems as â€œA Woman Waits for Me.â€ Printed here is the final, great culminating edition of 1891â€“92, the last supervised by Whitman himself just before his death.
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Whitmanâ€™s prose is no less extraordinary.Â Specimen Days and CollectÂ (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.Â Democratic VistasÂ (1871), in its attacks on the misuses of national wealth after the Civil War, is relevant to conditions in our own time, andÂ November BoughsÂ (1888) brings together retrospective prefaces, opinions, and random autobiographical bits that are in effect an extended epilogue on Whitmanâ€™s life, works, and times.

LIBRARY OF AMERICAÂ is an independent nonprofit cultural organization founded in 1979 to preserve our nationâ€™s literary heritage by publishing, and keeping permanently in print, Americaâ€™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.
Country USA
Brand Library of America
Manufacturer Library of America
Binding Hardcover
ItemPartNumber 9780940450028
Color Black
ReleaseDate 1982-05-06
UnitCount 1
EANs 9780940450028

Country	USA
Brand	Library of America
Manufacturer	Library of America
Binding	Hardcover
ItemPartNumber	9780940450028
Color	Black
ReleaseDate	1982-05-06
UnitCount	1
EANs	9780940450028

Walt Whitman: Poetry and Prose (Library of America)

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