Preface to 1855 Leaves of Grass
Whitman's Preface to the original 1855 edition of Leaves of Grass is an impassioned celebration of America's past, present and potential future:
"The Americans of all nations at any time upon the earth have probably the fullest poetical nature. The United States themselves are essentially the greatest poem. In the history of the earth hitherto the largest and most stirring appear tame and orderly to their ampler largeness and stir. Here at last is something in the doings of man that corresponds with the broadcast doings of the day and night. Here is not merely a nation but a teeming nation of nations."
Whitman, Walt, and William Everson, 1912-1994. American Bard. Being the Preface to the First Edition of Leaves of Grass Now Restored to its Native Verse Rhythms and Presented as a Living Poem. [Santa Cruz]: Lime Kiln Press, 1981. One of 115 copies printed, illustrated, and signed by William Everson.
Whitman mined the poetic prose of his Preface and many of its lines and phrases were transcribed, revised, or paraphrased to become parts of poems, particularly in the 1856 and 1860 editions of Leaves of Grass. It was a logical next step for the American poet and printer William Everson to recast Whitman's prose into poetry, which he has done in American Bard. American Bard was Everson's final book as Master Printer of the Lime Kiln Press. This is the only book that Everson both printed and illustrated.
American Bard: The Original Preface to Leaves of Grass. New York: Viking Press, 1982. Frank W. Tober Collection.
Whitman, Walt, and William Everson, 1912-1994. American Bard: The Original Preface to Leaves of Grass. New York: Viking Press, 1982. Frank W. Tober Collection.
Whitman, Walt. Leaves of Grass: Preface to the Original Edition, 1855. London: Trüber & Co, 1881.
In his “Preface to the 1855 edition of Leaves of Grass,” Whitman declares that America encloses the past and the future, and that Americans “have probably the fullest poetical nature. The United States themselves are essentially the greatest poem.”
Three Poems. [Carrollton, Ohio]: Press on Scroll Road, 2011.
Whitman, Walt. Three Poems. [Carrollton, Ohio]: Press on Scroll Road, 2011.
This beautifully designed and printed book presents three of Whitman’s best-known poems, including the sexually charged “I Sing the Body Electric.” The four engravings are the work of Abigail Rorer.
Henry, Barbara. Walt Whitman's Faces: A Typographic Reading. Jersey City: Harsimus Press, 2012. No. 46 of 80 copies designed and printed by Barbara Henry.
The letterpress printer and book artist Barbara Henry recounts the genesis of this book:
"Walt Whitman’s Faces resulted from reading a poem ["Faces"] in the 1855 edition of Leaves of Grass that struck me as being about typefaces. I set the poem as a type specimen, illustrating what I believed to be Whitman’s descriptions of type with appropriate examples."
Henry presents the poem in a variety of typefaces and in an essay reflects on the effect Whitman's work as a printer had on his book design.
Salute, Walt Witman. Santa Fe, New Mexico: Twin Palms Publishers, 1996.
Michals, Duane. Salute, Walt Whitman. Santa Fe, New Mexico: Twin Palms Publishers, 1996.
The American photographer Duane Michals regards Walt Whitman as his "psychological and emotional mentor." In Salute, Walt Whitman, Michals intersperses his photographs and handwritten texts with writings by and about Whitman.
