But this practice has come at the cost of neglecting the rich, fluid, and complex historical presence that Leaves of Grass, in all of its instantiations, had in American culture from its first edition in 1855 to its last authorized issue in 1892. Indeed, Whitman asked that the deathbed edition be considered authoritative, and many-though not all-publishers and scholars complied, perhaps spurred by the ease and lower costs associated with studying and printing one book, and surely inspired by scholarly notions of final intentions and authoritative texts that dominated much of twentieth century editing. Since Whitman’s death, most publishers and readers have come to think of Leaves of Grass as synonymous with the “ deathbed edition,” the expanded reissue of the 1881 edition that Whitman released in 1892. Pirated through the 1880s, so while some consumers were buying the 1881Įdition, others were still finding the 1860 available. Tipped in pages of other Whitman publications: some with Passage to India and others with both Passage to India and Afterįurther complicate matters, multiple editions of Leaves of Grass would often occupy the market simultaneously.

Some copies of the 1871-1872 edition contain only the text of Leaves of Grass proper, others have Set, and so would tip in any number of additional pages at different points in

Incorporate additional works into an edition after the type had already been Not only were alternate bindings available, but-because Whitman was such a tireless reviser and was so involved in the physical production of his own books-there were also significant textual variations among particular copies Often Whitman decided to But Whitman and his readers worked within a technologically different publishing economy, and most editions of Leaves of Grass would have been available in often strikingly different forms. Today we are accustomed to a relative homogeneity among copies of a particular edition: modern printing and marketing ensure that, provided we both own either the hardback or paperback issue, your copy of a particular volume will be almost imperceptibly different from mine. Whitman envisioned his magnum opus as a living, growing, organic being, and he saw the book through six significantly different editions in his lifetime, most of which contained many variant issues. literary history, is also one of the most difficult texts in literary history to define.

Leaves of Grass, the centerpiece of Whitman’s writing, and one of the most important books in U.S.

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