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Book DescriptionIn 1855, the first edition of Leaves of Grass appeared, consisting of twelve untitled poems and a preface outlining the author's poetics. An initial commercial failure, this volume was the first stage of a massive, lifelong enterprise. Six editions and some thirty-seven years later, Leaves of Grass would become one of the
Book Description
In 1855, the first edition of Leaves of Grass appeared, consisting of twelve untitled poems and a preface outlining the author's poetics. An initial commercial failure, this volume was the first stage of a massive, lifelong enterprise. Six editions and some thirty-seven years later, Leaves of Grass would become one of the central works m the history of world poetry. This Vintage Books/The Library of America edition includes both the 1855 first edition in its exact, original form and the magnificent final edition of 1891-1892.
For the first time, the authoritative editions of works by major American novelists, poets, scholars, and essayists collected in the hardcover volumes of The Library of America are being published singly in a series of handsome paperback books. A distinguished writer has contributed an introduction for each volume, which also includes a chronology of the author's life and career, an essay on the text, and notes.
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Abraham Lincoln read it with approval, but Emily Dickinson described its bold language and themes as "disgraceful." Ralph Waldo Emerson found it "the most extraordinary piece of wit and wisdom that America has yet produced." Published at the author's expense on July 4, 1855, Leaves of Grass inaugurated a new voice and style into American letters and gave expression to an optimistic, bombastic vision that took the nation as its subject. Unlike many other editions of Leaves of Grass, which reproduce various short, early versions, this Modern Library Paperback Classics "Death-bed" edition presents everything Whitman wrote in its final form, and includes newly commissioned notes.
From the Trade Paperback edition.
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