Leaves of Grass; Two Rivulets. by WHITMAN, Walt - 1876

Camden, NJ: , 1876. Signed set Signed copies of the Centennial edition (which overall comprising the first edition, second printing of Two Rivulets, and fifth edition, third printing, second issue of Leaves of Grass), of which around 800 and 600 copies respectively were printed. The portrait of Whitman in Two Rivulets is signed and dated by the author; the title page of Leaves of Grass also signed by the author. In addition this copy includes an inscribed sheet (tipped to the front free endpaper) and inscribed in Whitman's bold and distinctive hand: "Centennial Ed'n Two Vols Leaves of Grass & Two Rivulets bound in half leather & Italian boards Containing Autograph Portraits (three from life) Personal Memoranda in Secession War & 'Democratic Vistas'". Whitman was personally involved in the printing of this Centennial Edition. "Leaves of Grass and Two Rivulets... formed a complex, multi-faceted centennial offering that provided trenchant commentary on the century-old country, mixing indictment and praise, offsetting despair at failures with hope for the future, and juxtaposing prose and poetry" (Folsom & Price, Re-Scripting Walt Whitman, p. 106). 2 works, octavo. Original cream half calf, blind patterned spines, light brown labels lettered in gilt, marbled boards, yellow endpapers. Housed in green linen chemises and dark green morocco-backed linen slipcases. 2 portraits in Leaves of Grass, albumen photograph frontispiece portrait in Two Rivulets. Some stripping of leather, spines rubbed and worn at extremities, joints split (boards of Two Rivulets holding on lower cords), spines of slipcases sunned with one of the chemises almost split; internally clean and complete with the terminal advertisement leaf in each volume. Myerson A2.5.c2 & 9.1.b.