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SIGNED AUTHOR'S EDITION. WHITMAN, WALT. 1819-1892 Leaves of Grass. Camden, New Jersey: [Printed for the author], 1882. image 1
SIGNED AUTHOR'S EDITION. WHITMAN, WALT. 1819-1892 Leaves of Grass. Camden, New Jersey: [Printed for the author], 1882. image 2
The Pauline and Ozzy Fletcher Collection of Whitmaniana
Lot 138

SIGNED AUTHOR'S EDITION.
WHITMAN, WALT. 1819-1892
Leaves of Grass. Camden, New Jersey: [Printed for the author], 1882.

21 November 2023, 10:00 EST
New York

US$6,000 - US$9,000

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SIGNED AUTHOR'S EDITION.

WHITMAN, WALT. 1819-1892 Leaves of Grass. Camden, New Jersey: [Printed for the author], 1882.
8vo (200 x 122 mm). 2 engraved portraits of Whitman. Publisher's green cloth, spine titled in gilt, bright yellow endpapers.
Provenance: "Gnostic Library No 15" (ink inscription to endpaper); Pauline and Ozzy Fletcher (bookplate to paste-down); sold to our consignor.

A FINE BRIGHT COPY OF THE RARE "AUTHOR'S EDITION." Following the publication of the 1881 Osgood edition of Leaves, the Boston District Attorney Oliver Stevens notified Osgood that the book was obscene. Threatened with prosecution, and after unsuccessful negotiations with Whitman and the DA's office, Osgood agreed to cease circulation, returning to Whitman the unbound sheets, as well as the plates, dies, and $100. Whitman immediately issued his "Author's Edition," adding a new title page, and had a small number bound for his personal distribution, as here. "This is a scarce and almost unknown issue; it is doubtful if more than one hundred copies were printed. The text and type is the same as that used in the Boston edition, the title page only being different. All copies were autographed, and it is probable that Whitman had these made for a few friends while waiting for the first Philadelphia edition" (Wells & Goldsmith, p 25). Myerson A7.2.c3.

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