![Leaves of Grass. Brooklyn: [Walt Whitman], 1855. (2)](https://exhibitions.lib.udel.edu/whitman/wp-content/uploads/sites/39/2019/10/Leaves-of-Grass.-Brooklyn-Walt-Whitman-1855_2-e1579105585295.jpg "Leaves of Grass. Brooklyn: [Walt Whitman], 1855. (2)")
Whitman, Walt. Leaves of Grass. Brooklyn: [Walt Whitman], 1855.
Leaves of Grass is arguably the most important work of literature produced by an American writer. The first edition of Leaves of Grass was privately printed in an edition of 795 copies and included 12 poems and a lengthy preface by Whitman. The book underwent eight subsequent editions during Whitman's lifetime as he expanded and revised the poetry and added more poems to the original collection of 12 poems. The engraved frontispiece portrait of the young Whitman dressed as a workman with his hand placed provocatively on his hip is one of the most iconic images in American literature. This copy includes a facsimile of the manuscript of Whitman’s poem “To those who have failed” and a list of previous owners on the front free endpaper.
![Leaves of Grass. Brooklyn: [Walt Whitman], 1855. (1)](https://exhibitions.lib.udel.edu/whitman/wp-content/uploads/sites/39/2019/10/Leaves-of-Grass.-Brooklyn-Walt-Whitman-Photo-1855.-e1579105606891.jpg "Leaves of Grass. Brooklyn: [Walt Whitman], 1855. (1)")
Whitman, Walt. Leaves of Grass. Brooklyn: [Walt Whitman], 1855.
This copy of the first edition of Leaves of Grass includes four preliminary leaves containing reviews of the book and press notices which Whitman had bound in as a way of creating additional promotion for the book. He did this for an unspecified number of copies.
![Leaves of Grass. Brooklyn, New York: [publisher not identified], 1856.](https://exhibitions.lib.udel.edu/whitman/wp-content/uploads/sites/39/2019/10/Leaves-of-Grass.-Brooklyn-New-York-publisher-not-identified-1856.-e1579105612550.jpg "Leaves of Grass. Brooklyn, New York: [publisher not identified], 1856.")
Whitman, Walt. Leaves of Grass. Brooklyn, New York: [publisher not identified], 1856.
This second edition of Leaves of Grass includes 20 additional poems. With the 1856, edition Whitman began his lifelong practice of adding new poems, reworking previously published poems, and reordering poems into different groupings.
Whitman, Walt. Leaves of Grass. Boston: Thayer and Eldridge, 1860.
In 1856, Whitman began planning a third edition of Leaves of Grass. By June 1857 he had written nearly 70 new poems and was seeking a publisher to bring out a new edition of Leaves of Grass. Early in 1860, Whitman reached agreement with the Boston publisher Thayer and Eldridge and the new edition came out in May.
The frontispiece is an engraving by Stephen Alonzo Schoff from an oil painting portrait by Charles Hine; it depicts Whitman not as a working-class figure as in the 1855 edition, but as a genteel romantic poet wearing a large, loose silk cravat.
Whitman, Walt. Leaves of Grass. Boston: Thayer and Eldridge, 1860.
In its advertisements, Thayer and Eldridge highlighted the book's elegant design. Displayed here is one of the variant bindings.
![Leaves of Grass. New-York: [Walt Whitman?], 1867.](https://exhibitions.lib.udel.edu/whitman/wp-content/uploads/sites/39/2019/10/Leaves-of-Grass.-New-York-Walt-Whitman-1867.-e1579105631360.jpg "Leaves of Grass. New-York: [Walt Whitman?], 1867.")
Whitman, Walt. Leaves of Grass. New-York: [Walt Whitman?], 1867.
This fourth edition, which Whitman himself published, contains only six new poems; however, Whitman adds the entire text of Drum-Taps and has moved a number of poems to the very end of the book to form a Coda titled "Songs Before Parting." This copy bears Whitman’s presentation inscription to Richard Wade Bleecker, a New York businessman. The city’s Bleecker Street is named after his grandfather, Anthony Bleecker, through whose family farm the street ran.
![Leaves of Grass. Washington: [Walt Whitman] Handwriting, 1871.](https://exhibitions.lib.udel.edu/whitman/wp-content/uploads/sites/39/2019/10/Leaves-of-Grass.-Washington-Walt-Whitman-Handwriting-1871.-e1579105637107.jpg "Leaves of Grass. Washington: [Walt Whitman] Handwriting, 1871.")
Whitman, Walt. Leaves of Grass. Washington: [Walt Whitman], 1871.
The fifth edition of Leaves of Grass, bound with Passage to India (Washington, 1871). This copy bears Whitman’s signed presentation inscription. It also includes a two-page autograph manuscript by Whitman in which he discusses the work of the German philosopher Arthur Schopenhauer.
Whitman, Walt. Leaves of Grass. New York: J.S. Redfield; Washington, 1871.
This copy of the 1871 edition of Leaves of Grass has the original green wrappers binding.
Leaves of Grass. Washington, D.C: [publisher not identified], 1872.
Whitman, Walt. Leaves of Grass. Washington, D.C: [publisher not identified], 1872.
Displeased with the way Redfield was promoting its edition of Leaves of Grass, Whitman decided to publish another edition himself, adding 120 pages with 74 poems, 24 of which were new texts. Whitman’s edition came out in 1872 with a Washington, D.C. imprint.
Leaves of Grass. [London: John Camden Hotten, 1873].
Whitman, Walt. Leaves of Grass. [London: John Camden Hotten, 1873].
This 1873 British edition of Leaves of Grass appears to be identical to the 1872 American edition published in Washington, D. C., including the fact that the title page bears the date "1872" and the publishing location "Washington, D. C." However, this edition is a piracy printed by the British publisher John Camden Hotten. Hotten printed 500 copies of Leaves of Grass based on the 1872 American edition and posed as its distributor, rather than publisher, to avoid British censorship laws. Hotten's name appears nowhere in the book.
Leaves of Grass. Boston: James R. Osgood and Co., 1881.
Whitman, Walt. Leaves of Grass. Boston: James R. Osgood and Co., 1881.
This edition of Leaves of Grass was the first to be distributed by a mainstream publisher; Osgood’s authors included William James, William Dean Howells, and Mark Twain. Whitman’s book sold more than 1,500 copies before the publisher withdrew it after a district attorney objected to the sexual content and threatened to prosecute the company for selling obscene literature.
Whitman, Walt. Leaves of Grass. London: David Bogue, 1881-1882.
The English edition of the 1881-82 Leaves of Grass was scheduled to be published by the firm of Trübner & Co.; however, after the legal trouble Osgood faced in Boston, Trübner withdrew from the project and the British edition was subsequently published by David Bogue.
