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Look Inside | Reading Guide
Reading Guide
May 28, 2019 | ISBN 9781984897558 Buy
Nov 28, 2000 | ISBN 9780679783428 Buy
Jun 01, 1983 | ISBN 9780553211160 Buy *This format is not eligible to earn points towards the Reader Rewards program
Oct 12, 1993 | ISBN 9780679600763 Buy
May 28, 2019 | ISBN 9781984899026 Buy
Oct 26, 2004 | ISBN 9780553900767 Buy
Oct 31, 2000 | ISBN 9780679642084 Buy
Buy from Other Retailers:
May 28, 2019 | ISBN 9781984897558
Nov 28, 2000 | ISBN 9780679783428
Jun 01, 1983 | ISBN 9780553211160
Oct 12, 1993 | ISBN 9780679600763
May 28, 2019 | ISBN 9781984899026
Oct 26, 2004 | ISBN 9780553900767
Oct 31, 2000 | ISBN 9780679642084
In 1855, an unknown but wildly ambitious young poet self-published the first edition of Leaves of Grass, consisting of twelve untitled poems and an explanatory preface. Walt Whitman spent the rest of his life engaged in expanding and revising this work, through six editions and nearly four decades, establishing Leaves of Grass as one of the central works in the history of world poetry. This edition reproduces the magnificent “death-bed edition,” published in 1892 a mere two months before Whitman’s death at the age of seventy-two.
Abraham Lincoln read it with approval, but Emily Dickinson described its bold language and themes as "disgraceful." Ralph Waldo Emerson found it "the most extraordinary piece of wit and wisdom that America has yet produced." Published at the author’s expense on July 4, 1855, Leaves of Grass inaugurated a new voice and style into American letters and gave expression to an optimistic, bombastic vision that took the nation as its subject. Unlike many other editions of Leaves of Grass, which reproduce various short, early versions, this Modern Library Paperback Classics "Death-bed" edition presents everything Whitman wrote in its final form, and includes newly commissioned notes.
One of the great innovative figures in American letters, Walt Whitman created a daringly new kind of poetry that became a major force in world literature. Leaves Of Grass is his one book. First published in 1855 with only twelve poems, it was greeted by Ralph Waldo Emerson as "the wonderful gift . . . the most extraordinary piece of wit and wisdom that America has yet contributed." Over the course of Whitman’s life, the book reappeared in many versions, expanded and transformed as the author’s experiences and the nation’s history changed and grew. Whitman’s ambition was to creates something uniquely American. In that he succeeded. His poems have been woven into the very fabric of the American character. From his solemn masterpieces "When Lilacs Last in the Dooryard Bloom’d" and "Out of the Cradle Endlessly Rocking" to the joyous freedom of "Song of Myself," "I Sing the Body Electric," and "Song of the Open Road," Whitman’s work lives on, an inspiration to the poets of later generations.
Abraham Lincoln read it with approval, but Emily Dickinson described its bold language and themes as ‘disgraceful.’ And Ralph Waldo Emerson found Leaves of Grass ‘the most extraordinary piece of wit and wisdom that America has yet contributed,’ calling it a ‘combination of the Bhagavad Gita and the New York Herald.’ Published at the author’s own expense on July 4, 1855, Leaves of Grass initially consisted of a preface, twelve untitled poems in free verse (including the work later titled ‘Song of Myself’ which Malcolm Cowley called ‘one of the great poems of modern times’), and a now-famous portrait of a devil-may-care Walt Whitman in a workman’s shirt. Over the next four decades, Whitman continually expanded and revised the book as he took on the role of a workingman’s bard who championed American nationalism, political democracy, contemporary progress, and unashamed sex. This volume, which contains 383 poems, is the final ‘Deathbed Edition’ published in 1892.
Walt Whitman was born on May 31, 1819, near Huntington, Long Island, New York. His father–a farmer turned carpenter from whom Whitman acquired his freethinking intellectual and political attitudes–moved his wife and nine children to Brooklyn in 1823. The young… More about Walt Whitman
“Whitman’s best poems have that permanent quality of being freshly painted, of not being dulled by the varnish of the years.” –Malcolm Cowley
Editor’s Introduction vii Facsimile Frontispiece 2 Facsimile Title Page 3 Whitman’s Introduction 5 Song of Myself 25 A Song for Occupations 87 To Think of Time 98 The Sleepers 105 I Sing the Body Electric 116 Faces 124 Song of the Answerer 129 Europe: The 72d and 73d Years of These States 133 A Boston Ballad 135 There Was a Child Went Forth 138 Who Learns My Lesson Complete 140 Great Are the Myths 142
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