Walt Whitman

Whitman, Walt

Leaves of Grass. Brooklyn, New York: [Printed for the author], 1855

Folio. Second state of copyright notice as usual, second state of p. iv, engraved frontispiece portrait of Whitman with tissue guard (first state printed on heavy paper); frontispiece washed, some paper repairs to upper inner corners of frontispiece and title and small repairs to subsequent leaves, occasional light foxing and offsetting. Publisher's green cloth (Myerson binding A), covers and spine stamped in gilt with decorative title, covers with gilt triple-rule border, stamped all over in blind with floral ornaments, marbled endpapers; expertly recased with some restoration to extremities and gilt stamping. Housed in a custom velvet-lined cloth box.

A newly-discovered first edition of Leaves of Grass, passed by descent through the family of Whitman's friend Frank Baker (1841–1918), physician, founding member of the National Geographic Society, and one-time superintendent of the National Zoo.

Prior to an illustrious medical career, Baker served in the 37th New York Volunteers (1861–1863) and then transferred to Washington, D.C., for government service, where he became intimately familiar with John Burroughs and Whitman. In a postcard from 1889, Whitman intriguingly refers to Baker as “my first nurse” (Walt Whitman to Richard Maurice Bucke, 1 May 1889). This copy descends directly through Baker’s family, though it was evidently acquired by Baker on the secondary market, bearing as it does an unrelated ownership signature dating from the 1880s. 

REFERENCES

BAL 21395; Grolier American, 67; Myerson A2.1.a(1)

PROVENANCE

Frank Baker — Herman Bean (ownership signature on verso of ffep, 1886)