Inscribed first edition of this tribute to Walt Whitman on the occasion of his 70th birthday, a presentation copy from contributor Francis Howard Williams, whose nearby home Whitman described as a favorite refuge.
Very good plus.
Price: $1,750.00
"The history of all truly great movements is a chronicle of long injustice and of final triumph [...] For, years and years Walt Whitman has been the standard-bearer in a movement [and] has borne calumny and misrepresentation from a public which utterly failed to understand him [...] People vilified him, and when he would not answer they searched the 'Leaves of Grass' to find the ground of an accusation." — Francis Howard Williams (page 27)
This collection contains the first appearance of Whitman's "Autobiographic Note" (along with two shorter pieces), as well as contributions and appreciations from Mark Twain, Julian Hawthorne, Richard Watson Gilder, Edward Carpenter, William Rossetti, William Morris, Hamlin Garland, John Burroughs, William Dean Howells, John G. Whittier, Richard Bucke, Edmund Clarence Stedman, and the inscriber of this copy, Francis H. Williams.
Williams, a Philadelphia poet and playwright, was a great defender of Whitman. Williams wrote several essays on the poet; he also corresponded with and visited him in nearby Camden often. Horace Traubel (editor of this volume) mentions Williams frequently in his book WITH WHITMAN IN CAMDEN, where Whitman himself is quoted warmly describing Williams's home as "a sort of asylum (like old churches, temples) when so many homes were closed against me." This copy was presented by Williams to critic and writer Henry S. Pancoast, who discusses Whitman at length in his own INTRODUCTION TO AMERICAN LITERATURE (Holt, 1898). A rare association copy of this book that helped cement Whitman's lasting reputation.
Read more: Myerson, Walt Whitman: A Descriptive Bibliography, D17.
First printing. Philadelphia: David McKay, 1889. 8.25'' x 5.25''. Original full red cloth with gilt-stamped titles. Photographic frontispiece of a bust of Whitman, with tissue overlay. [2], 74 pages. Penciled inscription to title page: "Henry S. Pancoast / with kind regards of / F.W. Williams." Some minor wear to extremities. Handful of minor bumps to cloth. Top board just barely bowed. Foxing to tissue. Else clean and sound.
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