Leaves of Grass - 1855 Edition

walt whitman

In July 1855 Ralph Waldo Emerson, America’s foremost philosopher and essayist – and no mean poet – received in the mail a slim book of poetry entitled Leaves of Grass. Though anonymous, the volume bore a copyright notice in the name of Walt Whitman. Whitman, in fact, not only wrote the book, but paid to have it printed. He send one to Emerson hoping for a few friendly words; he received a letter that changed American literary history. Emerson Called the book “the most extraordinary piece of wit and wisdom that America has yet contributed” and hailed Whitman “at the beginning of a great career.” The bardic force of Whitman’s long, all embracing lines was one with which all poets who came after would have to reckon. Whitman would continue to revise and expand Leaves of Grass, but many prefer this first incarnation, twelve untitled poems that charted and championed a new course for American poetry.

Genres poetryclassicsfictionliteratureamerican19th centuryphilosophyclassic literatureschoolthe united states of america

155 pages, cloth

First published July 4,1855

Literary awards

premi crítica serra dor de traducció,

Places

new york city new york, washington d.c.,

This edition

Format: 155 pages, cloth
Published: January 1, 1998 by Lowe \u0026 B. Hould, Borders imprint
ISBN: 9780681224773
ASIN: 0681224770
Language: English

About the author

walt whitman

Walter Whitman Jr. was an American poet, essayist, and journalist. He is considered one of the most influential poets in American literature. Whitman incorporated both transcendentalism and realism in his writings and is often called the father of free verse. His work was controversial in his time, particularly his 1855 poetry collection Leaves of Grass, which was described by some as obscene for its overt sensuality.
Whitman was born in Huntington on Long Island, and lived in Brooklyn as a child and through much of his career. At the age of 11, he left formal schooling to go to work. He worked as a journalist, a teacher, and a government clerk. Whitman's major poetry collection, Leaves of Grass, first published in 1855, was financed with his own money and became well known. The work was an attempt to reach out to the common person with an American epic. Whitman continued expanding and revising Leaves of Grass until his death in 1892.
During the American Civil War, he went to Washington, D.C., and worked in hospitals caring for the wounded. His poetry often focused on both loss and healing. On the assassination of Abraham Lincoln, whom Whitman greatly admired, he authored two poems, "O Captain! My Captain!" and "When Lilacs Last in the Dooryard Bloom'd", and gave a series of lectures on Lincoln. After suffering a stroke towards the end of his life, Whitman moved to Camden, New Jersey, where his health further declined. When he died at the age of 72, his funeral was a public event.
Whitman's influence on poetry remains strong. Art historian Mary Berenson wrote, "You cannot really understand America without Walt Whitman, without Leaves of Grass... He has expressed that civilization, 'up to date,' as he would say, and no student of the philosophy of history can do without him." Modernist poet Ezra Pound called Whitman "America's poet... He is America."