Whitman, Walt. Poems, edited by William M. Rossetti. London: Chatto and Windus, 1892.
One of Whitman's most important editors, critics, and supporters was William Michael Rossetti, brother of better known Dante Gabriel and Christina Rossetti. His edition of Whitman's Poems was an important contribution to the growth of Whitman's reputation and readership in England and Europe.
Whitman, Walt. Autobiographia: or, the Story of a Life. New York: C.L. Webster & Co, 1892.
Published following Whitman’s death, this volume presents a selection of his autobiographical prose.
Whitman, Walt. Notes and Fragments. London, Ontario: A. Talbot & Co, 1899.
This compendium of Whitman's notes was compiled by Dr. Richard Maurice Bucke, a Canadian physician who became a close friend of Whitman and the poet's first biographer. Bucke's sources for this compilation were the numerous scraps of paper Whitman left which bear his aphorisms, poetry, quotations from other authors, and miscellaneous notes and jottings.
Whitman, Walt. November Boughs. London: Alexander Gardner, 1889.
Published just three years before Whitman's death, November Boughs is a mixture of prose and poetry. The book includes a long preface titled "A Backward Glance O'er Travel'd Roads," sixty short poems which are collected under the title of "Sands at Seventy," and previously published articles and essays.
Whitman, Walt. An American Primer. Boston: Small, Maynard & Co, 1904.
Edited from Whitman’s working manuscript by Horace Traubel, this volume is the first publication of one of Whitman’s essays. The essay presents Whitman’s general thoughts and speculations on language, especially American English.
Bucke, Richard Maurice. Walt Whitman. Philadelphia: David McKay, 1883.
This initial biography of Walt Whitman was written by his close friend, the Canadian physician Richard Maurice Bucke.
Whitman, Walt. from A Backward Glance O'er Travel'd Roads. Philadelphia: Haybarn Press, 1988.
This edition was conceived to mark the 100th anniversary of the publishing of Whitman's November Boughs, which included this reflective essay on his own writing. The book is printed letterpress in an edition of 100 by Mary Phelan with drawings by Ed Colker.
Margery S. Hellmann. A Noiseless Patient Spider. Seattle: The Holburne Press, 2008. Letterpress printed in an edition of 10 copies.
The book artist Margery Hellman’s minimalist interpretation of one of Whitman’s shortest poems, “A Noiseless Patient Spider,” includes playful use of typography and whimsical structures such as this lotus fold construction with thread representing the spider’s filaments.
Sandburg, Carl. A Lincoln and Whitman Miscellany. Chicago: Holiday Press, 1938.
Although this book is titled A Lincoln and Whitman Miscellany, Sandburg focuses primarily on Lincoln and devotes only a short section to Whitman. From the Lincoln Collection, Lincoln Club of Delaware.
Burroughs, John, 1837-1921. Notes on Walt Whitman, As Poet and Person. New York: American News Co, 1867.
The American author and naturalist John Burroughs was a devoted friend and disciple of Walt Whitman. Burroughs's first published book was Notes on Walt Whitman, but the work was so extensively revised and rewritten by Whitman himself that it should properly be considered a collaborative effort.
