Description

Franklin Library leather edition of Justin Kaplan's "Walt Whitman: A Life," a limited edition, Illustrated by Stan Hunter, one of the FIRST EDITION SOCIETY series, published in 1980. Bound in hunter green leather, the book has green moire silk end leaves, hubbed spine, satin book marker, acid-free paper, Symth-sewn binding, gold gilding on three edges--- in near FINE condition---except for a 'blank' attached bookplate on inside moire silk fly leaf. Walter Whitman, who lived from 1819-1892, was born on Long Island, New York. When Whitman published the first edition, privately printed copy of "Leaves of Grass," in 1855, the book did not sell well, but RALPH WALDO EMERSON praised the "Leaves" as the most original poem he had read in years. Whitman tried a variety of occupations: printing, public school teaching, and handyman. Whitman was passionately opposed to slavery, but refused to fight in the Civil War because he was a pacifist. His "Drum Tap" poems about the Civil War are the finest in American Literature. Whitman adored Abraham Lincoln and wrote "O, Captain, My Captain," "When Lilacs Last in the Dooryard Bloom'd," "Hushed Be the Camps To-Day," and others as tributes to the assassinated 16th President of the U.S. Whitman is the urban poem with many poems praising his native Manhattan, namely "Crossing Brooklyn Ferry," "Paumanok," and "Out of the Cradle Endlessly Rocking." In 1866, a biography was published with the title "The Good Gray Poet" and the characterization has been applied since then. Whitman never "came out of the closet," but many people suspected he was gay and he was fired from a government position because of this accusation. His homo erotic poems are still controversial---even in the 21st century. In 1884 at the age of sixty-five, Whitman bought his first house in CAMDEN, NEW JERSEY. There he lived with his brother George and George's wife, Louisa. In George's view, "Leaves of Grass" was either a prank or an aberration. He thought his brother's poems celebrating the love of men and women, in particular the cluster titled "Children of Adam," were "of the whorehouse order" and had brought the worst kind of notoriety. Walt never explained his work to his family. In Camden, Whitman was visited by JOHN BURROUGHS, OSCAR WILDE, DR. RICHARD BUCKE, EDWARD CARPENTER, and others. Kaplan writes that "Whitman stood among the great loners of American letters along with EMILY DICKINSON and HERMAN MELVILLE." Miss Dickinson told Higginson that she never read Whitman's book "but was told he was disgraceful." Whitman was possibly bisexual. ELLEN O'CONNOR claimed she was in love with the poet and that they had enjoyed an active sex life. In Camden, he was driven through the streets by his young male lover, PETER DOYLE. When Whitman died, Thomas Eakins and a pupil made a death mask. Whitman's literary executors, Traubel, Bucke, and Harned, took possession of his papers and packed them into barrels. George Whitman refused to allow an autopsy. At the March 30, 1892, funeral people swarmed to Mickle Street waiting to file into the parlor and look at Whitman in his polished-oak coffin. At the cemetery, readings from Confucius, Buddha, Plato, the Koran, the Bible, and "Leaves of Grass" were read. Whitman was buried in Harleigh Cemetery marked by a "plain massive stone temple" of unpolished Quincy granite that Whitman had designed. 428 pages. I offer combined shipping.