                            ___
                          .'   '.
                         /  .-.  \
                        |  /   \ |
                        | |\   /| |
                       _| |_\ /_| |_
                     .' |          | '.
                    /   |    ()    |   \
                   |    |          |    |
                   '-.__|          |__.-'
                        |   WALT   |
                        | WHITMAN  |
                        |  1819-   |
                        |   1892   |
                        '----------'
                       ~~~~~~~~~~~~~
                    LEAVES  OF  GRASS

🍃 The Leaves 🍃

A celebration of Walt Whitman, born this day in 1819

Today Song Life Poems War Quotes Editions About

🌿 The Editions

Leaves of Grass was not one book but many—revised, expanded, rearranged over nearly four decades. Whitman called it his life's work: "the most autobiographical record ever given."

The Seven Editions

1855: First edition - 12 poems, anonymous, 795 copies printed, Whitman set some type himself

1856: Second edition - 32 poems, includes Emerson endorsement on spine (without permission)

1860: Third edition - 154 poems, first to include 'Calamus' and 'Children of Adam' clusters

1867: Fourth edition - adds 'Drum-Taps' Civil War poems and Lincoln elegies

1871-72: Fifth edition - includes 'Passage to India' and other new work

1881-82: Sixth edition - final arrangement of poems, banned in Boston as obscene

1891-92: Deathbed edition - final authoritative version, still in print today

Structure of the Final Edition

• Inscriptions - opening poems establishing the book's themes

• Children of Adam - celebrating the body and physical love

• Calamus - poems of 'manly love' and comradeship

• Birds of Passage - poems of journeys and aspirations

• Sea-Drift - poems of the ocean and cosmic themes

• By the Roadside - short observations and sketches

• Drum-Taps - Civil War poems, among his finest work

• Memories of President Lincoln - including 'O Captain!' and 'Lilacs'

• Autumn Rivulets - mature reflections

• Songs of Parting - farewell poems

A Note on the 1882 Banning

The 1881-82 edition was banned in Boston as obscene—the district attorney threatened prosecution if it wasn't withdrawn. The publisher complied. But another publisher in Philadelphia picked it up immediately, and the scandal made it Whitman's best-selling edition in his lifetime.

Whitman wrote: "The dirtiest book in all the world is the expurgated book."