116 130
FINETRANSCENDENTALIST ASSOCIATION
272
●
WHITMAN,WALT.
Leaves of Grass.
1 portrait only (detached, edges chipped,
laid-in; initialed by Whitman and dated 1855). 8vo, original dark green cloth over bevelled
boards, spine gilt-lettered, recased, light wear to extremities, corners bumped; top edges gilt,
others uncut; yellow coated endpapers, inner hinges expertly repaired, mounted newsprint
clipping to 4 terminal blanks.
Camden, NJ: 1882
[5,000/7,500]
AUTHOR
’
S EDITION
,
SIGNED IN INK BY WHITMAN ON THE TITLE
-
PAGE
.
ADDITIONALLY
INSCRIBED BY WHITMAN TO F
.
B
.
SANBORN
on the front free endpaper.The inscription reads in full:
“To / FB Sanborn / from the author / with thanks and love / June 11 1882.” Franklin B.
Sanborn (1831–1917) was an abolitionist and a friend of John Brown. In 1860, when he was tried
in Boston because of his refusal to testify before a committee of the U.S. Senate,Whitman was in the
courtroom (GayWilson Allen,The Solitary Singer [NewYork: Macmillan, 1955], 242). He reviewed
Drum-Taps in the Boston Commonwealth on February 24, 1866. He was editor of the Springfield
Republican from 1868 to 1872, and the author of books dealing with his friends, Emerson,Thoreau,
and Alcott.
Wells & Goldsmith, pp. 25-26: “This is a scarce and almost unknown issue; it is doubtful if more
than one hundred copies were printed. It appeared after the suppression of the Boston edition [using
the plates of that edition (the seventh) and adding a new title-page] and before the first Philadelphia
edition was issued ... it is probable that Whitman had these [copies] made for a few friends while
waiting for the first Philadelphia edition.” Important association copy of the rarest of the Author’s
Editions. BAL 21418 (reissue); Meyerson A2.7.c3.