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RARE PIECE OF WHITMANIANA. [WHITMAN, WALT. 1819-1892.] SAUNDERS, HENRY S. A Whitman Controversy: Being Letters Published in Mercure de France, 1913-1914. Toronto: Henry S. Saunders, 1921. image 1
RARE PIECE OF WHITMANIANA. [WHITMAN, WALT. 1819-1892.] SAUNDERS, HENRY S. A Whitman Controversy: Being Letters Published in Mercure de France, 1913-1914. Toronto: Henry S. Saunders, 1921. image 2
The Pauline and Ozzy Fletcher Collection of Whitmaniana
Lot 147

RARE PIECE OF WHITMANIANA.
[WHITMAN, WALT. 1819-1892.] SAUNDERS, HENRY S.
A Whitman Controversy: Being Letters Published in Mercure de France, 1913-1914. Toronto: Henry S. Saunders, 1921.

21 November 2023, 10:00 EST
New York

Sold for US$1,408 inc. premium

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RARE PIECE OF WHITMANIANA.

[WHITMAN, WALT. 1819-1892.] SAUNDERS, HENRY S. A Whitman Controversy: Being Letters Published in Mercure de France, 1913-1914. Toronto: Henry S. Saunders, 1921.
4to (217 x 154 mm). 52 mimeographed pages, reproduced from type, rectos only. Publisher's buckram-backed brown cloth, printed title label pasted to spine.
Provenance: Pauline and Ozzy Fletcher (bookplate to paste-down); sold to our consignor.

NUMBER 7 OF ONLY 35 COPIES PRODUCED, NUMBERED AND SIGNED BY HENRY S. SAUNDERS. The "controversy" began with Guillaume Apollinaire's outlandish "eye-witness" account of homosexual "orgies" at Whitman's funeral published in the Mercure de France on April Fool's Day 1913, apparently a hoax suggested by Blaise Cendrars. The repercussions of Apollinaire's joke would last for years, most immediately in a public exchange of letters between Whitman's "defenders" and his critics. Saunders's publication in 1921 presents an English translation of the letters, with additional commentary by Saunders himself. Published for friends in an edition of only 35 copies, Saunders's Controversy is an important piece of Whitmaniana in relation to sexuality, and a rarity in the marketplace.

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