Leaves of Grass

First issued in 1855 and expanded through later lifetime editions, this is Whitman's evolving collection of poems in free verse. The central piece, later titled Song of Myself, presents a speaker who claims to contain multitudes and who catalogues American trades, bodies, and landscapes. Other clusters address the Civil War hospitals, the death of Lincoln, erotic comradeship, and the open road. There is no plot: the book is a poetic autobiography and national inventory, revised as Whitman aged, in which the self and the democracy it speaks for are offered as one continuous subject.

Quarter bound in dark-green morocco, green cloth covers ornamented in light green and ornately lettered in gilt on upper cover and spine. Top edge gilt. Dark-green ribbon marker. Green slipcase.