![WHITMAN, Walt (1819-1892). Leaves of Grass. Brooklyn: [Printed for the Author], 1855.](https://www.christies.com/img/LotImages/2001/NYR/2001_NYR_09880_0390_000(040350).jpg?w=1)
Details
WHITMAN, Walt (1819-1892). Leaves of Grass. Brooklyn: [Printed for the Author], 1855.
2o (287 x 205 mm). Engraved frontispiece portrait of Whitman. (Inch-wide strip torn from upper margin of title to remove Whitman's inscription, portrait spotted, light browning and dampstains to upper and gutter margins of early leaves, which are detached, old repairs to the gutter of those leaves.) Original pine-green cloth, title in decorative gilt-lettering on covers with blind leaf and floral stamps, within triple gilt rules, spine gilt-lettered and decorated, marbled endpapers, edges gilt (front cover and first few leaves detached, spine torn with loss of a small piece of cloth); half red morocco slipcase.
FIRST EDITION, FIRST ISSUE BINDING (BAL's and Myerson's Binding A), First State of the frontispiece portrait (on heavy paper), second state of the copyright page (printed substituted for handwritten notice) as usual, second state of p. iv (corrected reading). A PRESENTATION COPY FROM WHITMAN TO WILLIAM J. LINTON (PRESENTATION INSCRIPTION REMOVED) WITH WHITMAN'S BOLD PENCILLED NOTE "By Walt Whitman" on the title (see provenance note) "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). Myerson notes that 795 copies were bound: 337 in Binding A in June and July 1855; 262 in Binding B in December 1855 and January 1856; and 196 copies in two other binding styles. BAL 21395; Grolier American 67; Johnson High Spots 79; Myerson A2.I.a1; PMM 340.
Provenance:
1. AN INTERESTING ASSOCIATION COPY, presented by Whitman to William J. Linton (1812-1897), the British-born wood-engraver, poet and printer, who was introduced to Whitman's poetry in England by Dante Gabriel Rossetti, and reportedly visited the poet in New York in 1860. The gift is documented in a two-page autograph statement by Frederick K. Skiff, which records that when Linton emigrated to America (in November 1860) "one of his first acts...was to call upon Whitman of whom he requested a copy of the original edition of Leaves of Grass--Whitman stated he only had his working copy," which he "finally presented to Linton after first writing (or printing) his name upon the title page. Whitman then added his presentation inscription at the upper right-hand corner of the title-page." Linton was an important book illustrator and contributed to Frank Leslie's Illustrated News and published the well-known History of Wood-Engraving in America (see DAB). After Linton's death Skiff recounts, he was given the opportunity to acquire the copy of Leaves of Grass from Linton's daughter, "but before delivery to me, she tore the inscription to her father from Whitman from the title-page--remarking...that her father's name must be removed from the book."
2. Frederick W. Skiff of Portland, Oregon (bookplate, and autograph account of the book's earlier provenance)
3. Estelle Doheny (bookplate).
2o (287 x 205 mm). Engraved frontispiece portrait of Whitman. (Inch-wide strip torn from upper margin of title to remove Whitman's inscription, portrait spotted, light browning and dampstains to upper and gutter margins of early leaves, which are detached, old repairs to the gutter of those leaves.) Original pine-green cloth, title in decorative gilt-lettering on covers with blind leaf and floral stamps, within triple gilt rules, spine gilt-lettered and decorated, marbled endpapers, edges gilt (front cover and first few leaves detached, spine torn with loss of a small piece of cloth); half red morocco slipcase.
FIRST EDITION, FIRST ISSUE BINDING (BAL's and Myerson's Binding A), First State of the frontispiece portrait (on heavy paper), second state of the copyright page (printed substituted for handwritten notice) as usual, second state of p. iv (corrected reading). A PRESENTATION COPY FROM WHITMAN TO WILLIAM J. LINTON (PRESENTATION INSCRIPTION REMOVED) WITH WHITMAN'S BOLD PENCILLED NOTE "By Walt Whitman" on the title (see provenance note) "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). Myerson notes that 795 copies were bound: 337 in Binding A in June and July 1855; 262 in Binding B in December 1855 and January 1856; and 196 copies in two other binding styles. BAL 21395; Grolier American 67; Johnson High Spots 79; Myerson A2.I.a1; PMM 340.
Provenance:
1. AN INTERESTING ASSOCIATION COPY, presented by Whitman to William J. Linton (1812-1897), the British-born wood-engraver, poet and printer, who was introduced to Whitman's poetry in England by Dante Gabriel Rossetti, and reportedly visited the poet in New York in 1860. The gift is documented in a two-page autograph statement by Frederick K. Skiff, which records that when Linton emigrated to America (in November 1860) "one of his first acts...was to call upon Whitman of whom he requested a copy of the original edition of Leaves of Grass--Whitman stated he only had his working copy," which he "finally presented to Linton after first writing (or printing) his name upon the title page. Whitman then added his presentation inscription at the upper right-hand corner of the title-page." Linton was an important book illustrator and contributed to Frank Leslie's Illustrated News and published the well-known History of Wood-Engraving in America (see DAB). After Linton's death Skiff recounts, he was given the opportunity to acquire the copy of Leaves of Grass from Linton's daughter, "but before delivery to me, she tore the inscription to her father from Whitman from the title-page--remarking...that her father's name must be removed from the book."
2. Frederick W. Skiff of Portland, Oregon (bookplate, and autograph account of the book's earlier provenance)
3. Estelle Doheny (bookplate).