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Template:Short description Template:Use mdy dates Template:Infobox book Leaves of Grass is a poetry collection by American poet Walt Whitman. After self-publishing it in 1855, he spent most of his professional life writing, revising, and expanding the collection until his death in 1892.Template:Sfn Either six or nine separate editions of the book were produced, depending on how one defines a new edition.<ref>Template:Cite journal</ref> The continual modifications to Leaves of Grass resulted in vastly different copies of it circulating in Whitman's lifetime. The first edition was a slim tract of twelve poems, and the last was a compilation of over 400 poems.

The book represents a celebration of Whitman's philosophy of life and humanity in which he praises nature and the individual's role in it. He catalogues the expansiveness of American democracy.<ref name=Catalogues>Template:Cite web</ref> Rather than dwell on religious or spiritual themes, he focuses primarily on the body and the material world. With very few exceptions, Whitman's poems do not rhyme or follow conventional rules for meter and line length.<ref>Template:Cite book</ref>

Leaves of Grass was notable for its discussion of delight in sensual pleasures at a time when such candid displays were considered immoral. The book was highly controversial for its explicit sexual imagery, and Whitman was subject to derision by many contemporary critics.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> Over the decades, however, the collection has infiltrated popular culture and become recognized as one of the central works of American poetry.

Among the poems in the early Leaves of Grass editions (albeit sometimes under different titles) were "Song of Myself", "Song of the Open Road", "I Sing the Body Electric", "Out of the Cradle Endlessly Rocking", and "Crossing Brooklyn Ferry". Later editions would contain Whitman's elegy to the assassinated President Abraham Lincoln, "When Lilacs Last in the Dooryard Bloom'd".

Publication history and origin

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Template:AnchorInitial publication, 1855

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The first edition of Leaves of Grass was self-published on July 4, 1855. This collection of twelve poems had its beginnings in an essay by Ralph Waldo Emerson entitled "The Poet" (1844), which called for the United States to develop its own new, unique poet who could write about the young country's virtues and vices.<ref name="Reynolds, 82">Template:Harvnb</ref> This call, along with a challenge to abandon strict rhyme and meter, were partly embodied in the early 19th century works of John Neal: in his poems as well as his novels Randolph (1823) and Rachel Dyer (1828). Whitman, likely having read Neal, consciously set out to answer Emerson's call in the first edition of Leaves of Grass.Template:Sfn<ref>Template:Cite journal</ref> Whitman later commented on Emerson's influence: "I was simmering, simmering, simmering; Emerson brought me to a boil."<ref name="Reynolds, 82"/>

On May 15, 1855, Whitman registered the title Leaves of Grass with the clerk of the United States District Court, Southern District of New Jersey, and received its copyright.<ref name="Kaplan198">Template:Harvnb</ref> The title is a pun, as grass was a term given by publishers to works of minor value, and leaves is another name for the pages on which they were printed.<ref name="Loving179" /> The first edition was published in Brooklyn at the printing shop of two Scottish immigrants, James and Andrew Rome, whom Whitman had known since the 1840s.Template:Sfn The shop was located at Fulton Street (now Cadman Plaza West) and Cranberry Street, now the site of apartment buildings that bear Whitman's name.<ref>Template:Cite news</ref><ref name="MTA-DwntwnBklynMap-2015">Template:Cite NYCS map</ref> Whitman paid for and did much of the typesetting for the first edition himself.

A calculated feature of the first edition was that it included neither the author's nor the publisher's name (both the author and publisher being Whitman). Instead, the cover included an engraving by Samuel Hollyer depicting Whitman himself—in work clothes and a jaunty hat, arms at his side.<ref name="Callow227">Template:Harvnb</ref> This figure was meant to represent the devil-may-care American working man of the time, one who might be taken as an almost idealized figure in any crowd. The engraver, later commenting on his depiction, described the character with "a rakish kind of slant, like the mast of a schooner".<ref>Template:Cite book</ref>

The 1855 edition contained no table of contents, and none of the poems had a title. Early advertisements appealed to "lovers of literary curiosities", quoting an excerpt from Charles A. Dana's review in the New York Tribune.Template:Sfn Sales of Whitman's book were few, but the poet was not discouraged. This was the edition that introduced his poems "Song of Myself", "I Sing the Body Electric", and "There Was a Child Went Forth".

Whitman sent one paper-bound copy of the 1855 Leaves of Grass to Emerson, who had inspired its creation. He responded with a letter of heartfelt thanks, writing, "I find it the most extraordinary piece of wit and wisdom America has yet contributed." He went on, "I am very happy in reading it, as great power makes us happy."<ref name="Miller27">Template:Harvnb</ref> The letter was printed in the New York Tribune—without the writer's permission—and caused an uproar among prominent New England men of letters, including Henry David Thoreau and Amos Bronson Alcott, who were some of the few Transcendentalists who agreed with Emerson's letter and his statements regarding Leaves of Grass.

Template:Quote box The first edition was a slim volume, consisting of only 95 pages.<ref name="Loving179">Template:Harvnb</ref> Whitman once said he intended the book to be small enough to be carried in a pocket: "That would tend to induce people to take me along with them and read me in the open air: I am nearly always successful with the reader in the open air", he explained.<ref name="Reynolds352">Template:Harvnb</ref> About 800 copies were printed,Template:Sfn though only 200 were bound in its trademark green cloth cover.<ref name="Kaplan198" /> The only American library known to have purchased a copy of the first edition was in Philadelphia.<ref>Template:Cite book</ref> The twelve first edition poems, given titles in later editions, included:

Template:AnchorRepublications, 1856–1889

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Leaves of Grass went through six or nine editions, depending on how new editions are distinguished. Scholars who hold that a separate edition is characterized by an entirely new set of type will only count the 1855, 1856, 1860, 1867, 1871–72, and 1881 printings; whereas others who do not mandate that criterion will also count the reprintings in 1876, 1888–1889, and 1891–1892 (the so-called "deathbed edition").<ref name="WDL">Template:Cite web</ref> The editions were of varying length, each one larger and augmented from the previous version—the final edition reached over 400 poems.

1856–1860

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Emerson's positive response to the 1855 edition inspired Whitman to quickly produce a much-expanded second edition in 1856.<ref name="Miller27" /> This new Leaves of Grass contained 384 pages and had a cover price of one dollar.<ref name="Reynolds352" /> It also included a phrase from Emerson's letter, printed in gold leaf: "I Greet You at the Beginning of a Great Career."<ref name="Reynolds352" /> Recognized as a "first" for U.S. book publishing and marketing techniques, Whitman has been cited as "inventing" the use of the book blurb. Professor Laura Dassow Walls noted, "In one stroke, Whitman had given birth to the modern cover blurb, quite without Emerson's permission."<ref>Walls, Laura Dassow. Henry David Thoreau – A Life, 394. Chicago and London: The University of Chicago Press, 2017. Template:ISBN</ref> Emerson later took offense that his letter was made publicTemplate:Sfn and became more critical of Whitman's work.Template:Sfn The 1856 edition added "Sun-Down Poem" (retitled "Crossing Brooklyn Ferry" in the 1860 edition) and "Poem of Procreation" (retitled "A Woman Waits for Me" in the 1867 edition).<ref>Template:Cite book</ref>

File:1860 LeavesOfGrass Thayer Eldridge NYPL.jpeg
Cover of 1860 edition

Thayer & Eldridge, publishers of the 1860 edition, declared bankruptcy shortly after the book's publication, and were almost unable to pay Whitman. "In regard to money matters", they wrote, "we are very short ourselves and it is quite impossible to send the sum". Whitman received only $250, and the original plates made their way to Boston publisher Horace Wentworth.Template:Sfn When the 456-page book was finally issued, Whitman said, "It is quite 'odd', of course", referring to its appearance: it was bound in orange cloth with symbols like a rising sun with nine spokes of light and a butterfly perched on a hand.Template:Sfn Whitman claimed that the butterfly was real in order to foster his image as being "one with nature". In fact, the butterfly was made of cloth and was attached to his finger with wire.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> The major poems added to this edition were "A Word Out of the Sea" (later retitled "Out of the Cradle Endlessly Rocking"), "Whoever You Are Holding Me Now in Hand", "I Hear America Singing", and "As I Ebb'd With the Ocean of Life".<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>

1867–1889

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The 1867 edition was intended to be, according to Whitman, "a new & much better edition of Leaves of Grass complete — that unkillable work!"Template:Sfn He assumed it would be the final edition.Template:Sfn It included the Drum-Taps section, its Sequel, and the new Songs before Parting. The book was delayed when the binder went bankrupt and its distributing firm failed. When it was finally printed, it was a simple edition and the first to omit a picture of the poet.Template:Sfn

In 1879, Richard Worthington purchased the electrotype plates and began printing and marketing unauthorized copies of Leaves of Grass.

Whitman scholar Dennis Renner has written that the 1881 edition gave the poet "a chance to consolidate and unify his work late in his career. He could achieve 'the consecutiveness and ensembleTemplate:' he had always wanted".<ref name=1881_edition>Template:Cite web</ref> He spent the summer of 1881 revising the book and oversaw its October publication in Boston by James R. Osgood and Co. Most modern reissues of Leaves of Grass treat the 1881 edition as the definitive collection.<ref name=1881_edition/> This edition incorporated poems from his prior collections, Passage to India (1871) and Two Rivulets (1876).Template:Sfn

The 1889 (eighth) edition was little changed from the 1881 version, but it was more embellished and featured several portraits of Whitman. The biggest change was the addition of an "Annex" of miscellaneous extra poems.Template:Sfn

Sections

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By its later editions, Leaves of Grass had grown to 14 sections:Template:Col-beginTemplate:Col-break

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Template:Col-end Earlier editions contained a section called "Chants Democratic"; later editions omitted some of the poems from this section, publishing others in "Calamus" and other sections.

Template:AnchorDeathbed edition, 1892

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File:Whitman, Walt (1819-1892) - 1883 - Engraving.jpg
Frontispiece engraving created in 1883

As 1891 came to a close, Whitman prepared a final edition of Leaves of Grass. By this time, he was wheelchair-bound, having suffered a series of strokes that left him partially paralyzed.<ref>Template:Cite journal</ref> He wrote to a friend after finishing the final edition: "L. of G. at last complete — after 33 y'rs of hackling at it, all times & moods of my life, fair weather & foul, all parts of the land, and peace & war, young & old."Template:Sfn This last version of Leaves of Grass was published in 1892 and is referred to as the 'deathbed edition'.<ref name="Miller36">Template:Harvnb</ref> In January 1892, two months before Whitman's death, an announcement was published in the New York Herald:

Walt Whitman wishes respectfully to notify the public that the book Leaves of Grass, which he has been working on at great intervals and partially issued for the past thirty-five or forty years, is now completed, so to call it, and he would like this new 1892 edition to absolutely supersede all previous ones. Faulty as it is, he decides it as by far his special and entire self-chosen poetic utterance.Template:Sfn

By 1892, Leaves of Grass had expanded from a small book of twelve poems to a hefty tome of almost 400 poems.<ref name="WDL" /> As the volume changed, so did the pictures that Whitman used to illustrate himself—the last edition depicts an older Whitman with a full beard and wearing a jacket.

Translations

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Template:Section-expand In 1995, Dail Glaswellt, the Welsh language translation was published.<ref>Dail Glaswellt (Leaves of Grass, 1855) gan Walt Whitman. Cyfieithwyd gan M Wyn Thomas. Cyfres Barddoniaeth Pwyllgor Cyfieithiadau'r Academi Gymreig – Cyfrol X [Welsh Academy Translations Committee Poetry Series – Volume X] Cardiff, 1995. Template:ISBN</ref>

Analysis

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Analysis of Leaves of Grass is complicated by Whitman's continual revisions to the book. Most scholarly discussions have concentrated on the major early editions of 1856 and 1860, along with the collections published in 1881 and 1892.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> The later editions of Leaves of Grass would include such well-known poems as "Pioneers! O Pioneers!", "A Noiseless Patient Spider", and the poet's elegies to Abraham Lincoln, "O Captain! My Captain!" and "When Lilacs Last in the Dooryard Bloom'd".

While Whitman famously proclaimed (in "Song of Myself") that his poetry was "Nature without check with original energy", literary scholars have discovered that Whitman borrowed from a number of sources for Leaves of Grass. For instance, in his war poems collected in Drum-Taps, he lifted phrases from popular newspapers dealing with Civil War battles.<ref>Genoways, Ted. "Civil War Poems in 'Drum-Taps' and 'Memories of President LincolnTemplate:' ", A Companion to Walt Whitman, ed. Donald D. Kummings. Malden, Massachusetts: Blackwell, 2006: 522–538.</ref> He also condensed a chapter from a popular science book into his poem "The World Below the Brine".<ref name="WWQR30">Template:Cite web</ref>

In a constantly changing culture, Whitman's literature has an element of timelessness that appeals to the American notion of democracy and equality, producing the same experience and feelings within people living centuries apart.<ref>Template:Cite book</ref> Originally written at a time of significant urbanization in America, Leaves of Grass also responds to the impact such has on the masses.Template:Sfn The title metaphor of grass, however, indicates a pastoral vision of rural idealism.

Particularly in "Song of Myself", Whitman emphasizes an all-powerful "I" who serves as narrator. The "I" attempts to relieve both social and private problems by using powerful affirmative cultural images;Template:Sfn the emphasis on American culture in particular helped reach Whitman's intention of creating a distinctly American epic poem comparable to the works of Homer.Template:Sfn

As a believer in phrenology, Whitman lists in his 1855 Leaves of Grass preface the phrenologist among those described as "the lawgivers of poets". Borrowing from phrenology, Whitman uses the concept of adhesiveness in reference to the human propensity for friendship and camaraderie.<ref>Mackey, Nathaniel. 1997. "Phrenological Whitman". Conjunctions 29(Fall). Archived from the original on February 2, 2016.</ref>

Thematic changes

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Whitman edited, revised, and republished Leaves of Grass many times before his death, and over the years his focus and ideas were not static. One critic has identified three major "thematic drifts" in Leaves of Grass: the period from 1855 to 1859, from 1859 to 1865, and from 1866 to his death.

In the first period, 1855 to 1859, his major work is "Song of Myself", which exemplifies his love for freedom: "Freedom in nature, nature which is perfect in time and place and freedom in expression, leading to the expression of love in its sensuous form."<ref name="academia.edu">Template:Cite journal</ref> The second period, from 1859 to 1865, paints the picture of a more melancholic, sober poet who has been scarred by the American Civil War. In poems like "Out of the Cradle Endlessly Rocking" and "When Lilacs Last in the Dooryard Bloom'd", the prevailing theme is death and dying.

Whitman experienced further evolution in the post-1865 period when his poems were often meditations on immortality. He grew more conservative in his old age, and had come to value the importance of law above the importance of freedom. His view of the world was less materialistic and more spiritual, and he believed that life had no meaning outside the context of God's plan.<ref name="academia.edu" />

Critical response and controversy

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When Leaves of Grass was first published, Whitman was fired from his job at the Department of the Interior after Secretary of the Interior James Harlan read it and said he found it offensive.<ref name="Miller36" /> An early review of the 1855 edition focused on the persona of the anonymous poet, calling him a loafer "with a certain air of mild defiance, and an expression of pensive insolence on his face".<ref name="Callow227" /> Another reviewer labeled the work an odd attempt at reviving old Transcendental thoughts, "the speculations of that school of thought which culminated at Boston fifteen or eighteen years ago".<ref name="Loving185" /> Emerson approved of the collection in part because he considered it a means of reviving Transcendentalism,Template:Sfn though even he urged Whitman to tone down the sexual imagery.Template:Sfn

Poet John Greenleaf Whittier was said to have thrown his 1855 edition into the fire.<ref name="Miller27" /> Thomas Wentworth Higginson wrote, "It is no discredit to Walt Whitman that he wrote Leaves of Grass, only that he did not burn it afterwards."<ref>Template:Cite book</ref> The Saturday Press printed a thrashing review that advised its author to commit suicide.<ref>Template:Cite news From Chapter One of Jerome Loving's 1999 Whitman biography, reprinted in the "Books" section of The New York Times.</ref>

Critic Rufus Wilmot Griswold reviewed Leaves of Grass in the November 10, 1855 issue of The Criterion, calling it "a mass of stupid filth",<ref name="Loving184">Template:Harvnb</ref> and categorized its author as a filthy free lover.Template:Sfn Griswold also suggested, in Latin, that Whitman was guilty of "that horrible sin not to be mentioned among Christians", one of the earliest public accusations of Whitman's homosexuality.<ref name="Loving185">Template:Harvnb</ref> Griswold's intensely negative review almost caused the publication of the second edition to be suspended.Template:Sfn Whitman incorporated the full review, including the innuendo, in a later edition of Leaves of Grass.<ref name="Loving184" />

Not all responses were negative. Critic William Michael Rossetti considered Leaves of Grass a classic along the lines of the works of William Shakespeare and Dante Alighieri.Template:Sfn A Connecticut woman named Susan Garnet Smith wrote to Whitman to profess her love for him after reading Leaves of Grass and even offered him her womb should he want a child.Template:Sfn Although he found much of the language "reckless and indecent", critic and editor George Ripley believed "isolated portions" of Leaves of Grass radiated "vigor and quaint beauty".<ref>Template:Cite book</ref>

Whitman firmly believed he would be accepted and embraced by the populace, especially the working class. Years later, he regretted not having toured the country to deliver his poetry directly by lecturing:Template:Sfn

If I had gone directly to the people, read my poems, faced the crowds, got into immediate touch with Tom, Dick, and Harry instead of waiting to be interpreted, I'd have had my audience at once.

Censorship in the United States

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On March 1, 1882, Boston district attorney Oliver Stevens wrote to Whitman's publisher, James R. Osgood, that Leaves of Grass constituted "obscene literature". Urged by the New England Society for the Suppression of Vice, his letter said:

We are of the opinion that this book is such a book as brings it within the provisions of the Public Statutes respecting obscene literature and suggest the propriety of withdrawing the same from circulation and suppressing the editions thereof.

Stevens demanded the removal of the poems "A Woman Waits for Me" and "To a Common Prostitute", as well as changes to "Song of Myself", "From Pent-Up Aching Rivers", "I Sing the Body Electric", "Spontaneous Me", "Native Moments", "The Dalliance of the Eagles", "By Blue Ontario's Shore", "Unfolded Out of the Folds", "The Sleepers", and "Faces".Template:Sfn

Whitman rejected the censorship, writing to Osgood, "The list whole & several is rejected by me, & will not be thought of under any circumstances." Osgood refused to republish the book and returned the plates to Whitman when his suggested changes and deletions were ignored.<ref name="Miller36" /> The poet found a different publisher, Rees Welsh & Company, that released a new edition of the book in 1882.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> Whitman believed the controversy would increase sales, which proved true. Its banning in Boston, for example, became a major scandal and it generated much publicity for Whitman and his work.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> Though it was also banned by retailers like Wanamaker's in Philadelphia, this version went through five editions of 1,000 copies each.Template:Sfn Its first printing, released on July 18, sold out in a day.Template:Sfn

Legacy

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File:Leavesofgrass margaretcook.jpg.webp
A 1913 illustrated edition of Leaves of Grass

Its status as one of the more important collections of American poetry has meant that over time various groups and movements have used Leaves of Grass, and Whitman's work in general, to advance their own political and social purposes. For example:

  • In the first half of the 20th century, the popular Little Blue Book series introduced Whitman's work to a wider audience than ever before. A series that backed socialist and progressive viewpoints, the publication connected the poet's focus on the common man to the empowerment of the working class.
  • During World War II, the U.S. government distributed for free much of Whitman's poetry to their soldiers, in the belief that his celebrations of the American Way would inspire the people tasked with protecting it.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref><ref>Template:Cite news</ref>
  • Whitman's work has been claimed in the name of racial equality. In a preface to the 1946 anthology I Hear the People Singing: Selected Poems of Walt Whitman, Langston Hughes wrote that Whitman's "all-embracing words lock arms with workers and farmers, Negroes and whites, Asiatics and Europeans, serfs, and free men, beaming democracy to all."<ref name=":0">Template:Cite web</ref>
  • Similarly, a 1970 volume of Whitman's poetry published by the United States Information Agency describes Whitman as a man who will "mix indiscriminately" with the people. The volume, which was presented for an international audience, attempted to present Whitman as representative of an America that accepts people of all groups.<ref name=":0" />

Nevertheless, Whitman has been criticized for the nationalism expressed in Leaves of Grass and other works. In a 2009 essay regarding Whitman's nationalism in the first edition, Nathanael O'Reilly claims that "Whitman's imagined America is arrogant, expansionist, hierarchical, racist and exclusive; such an America is unacceptable to Native Americans, African-Americans, immigrants, the disabled, the infertile, and all those who value equal rights."<ref>O'Reilly, Nathanael. "Imagined America: Walt Whitman's Nationalism in the First Edition of Leaves of Grass". Irish Journal of American Studies</ref> Template:Listen

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