Specimen Days in America

London: Walter Scott, 1887.

Price: $8,500.00

Hardcover. Second English edition, first issue. Newly revised by the author, with fresh preface and additional note. The Camelot Series. 12mo. [i-v] vi-x [xi-xii] [13] 14-312 [8]pp. (advertisements at the rear). Publisher's flexible full red leather, lettered in gilt, all edges gilt. Front joint professionally repaired with some residual wear at both joints and edges, rear free endpaper is detached and chipped at the edges, only good. An interesting Inscription on the half-title to a fellow Whitman: "To Mr. Whitman of Philadelphia from Walt Whitman, June 1887." We like to speculate the playful poet inscribed the book to himself but there's no real proof. Nevertheless an early and interesting copy. Neither *BAL* or *Myerson* reference this binding. *BAL* specifies three primary bindings including red cloth, but red leather is not among them, and this is clearly a publisher's binding. Combined with the early inscription (the book was published in early June), this might be a previous unrecorded author's copy, or author's presentation issue. The fragile nature of the binding might account for it being unrecorded. *Myerson* A11.2.a1; *BAL* 21428.

Item #362673

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Item #362673 Specimen Days in America. Walt WHITMAN.
Specimen Days in America
Specimen Days in America
Specimen Days in America

Walt Whitman
birth name: Walter Whitman
born: 5/31/1819
died: 3/26/1892
nationality: USA

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Biography

American journalist, essayist, and poet whose style of writing in such works as Leaves of Grass (first edition, 1855) revolutionized American literature. Such poems as "I Sing the Body Electric" and "Song of Myself" asserted the beauty of the human body, physical health, and sexuality. - Merriam-Webster's Encyclopedia of Literaturemore

Collecting tips:

Whitman may well be the great American poet. Because he published so much of his own work, his bibliography can be complicated and detailed. Leaves of Grass (first edition, 1855 - but which he continued to expand upon for most of the rest of his life) exists in two states, and at least three bindings, but suffice it to say that any copy dated in 1855 is desirable, and will be commensurately expensive.more