Specimen Days & Collect [Unrecorded] by WHITMAN, Walt (1819-1892) - 1882

Philadelphia [London]: David McKay [Trübner & Co.], 1882. First Edition. Decorative Cloth. Fine-. Second Printing (per BAL, not, as often described, second issue), with sepia photograph printed (not pasted on stiff coated paper, as in the first printing) of Whitman and a butterfly tipped in at p. 122. (The first printing only appeared under the Rees Welsh imprint; later printings were published by McKay, who bought out Rees Welsh in November, 1882. Additionally, our copy bears the rubber-stamped imprint of London publisher and bookseller Trübner & Co., founded by Nicholas Trübner (1817-1884), who had "business connections with leading American writers and publishers." (DNB LVII, pp. 262-63.). Small 8vo: vi,7-374pp, with final advertisement leaf. Original mustard-yellow S cloth, spine and front cover lettered, ruled and decorated in gilt, mottled blue end papers, all edges trimmed. BAL Binding C. A tight, nearly Fine copy (apparently unread), pages just barely toned, else clean and bright throughout. BAL 21422 and 21627. Myerson A11.1.b2. Wells, pp. 27-28. A collected assortment of prose, including youthful reminiscences, early tales, travel diaries, nature notes, and observations made during the Civil War, together with a few poems, his essay the 'Death of Abraham Lincoln,' and the prose stream from Two Rivulets. The book was another Whitman compendium, bringing together between one set of covers a diverse group of writings. "He thought of it as a prose volume to match his Leaves of Grass, and Rees Welsh published it in a matching binding so that buyers could own an attractive set of Whitman's work." (Folsom, Whitman Making Books/Books Making Whitman) The photograph appears opposite a page where Whitman talks of the "white butterflies" that he sees on one of his trips to Timber Creek in New Jersey: "You can even tame such insects," he writes; "I have one big and handsome moth down here, knows and comes to me, likes me to hold him up on my extended hand." N. B. With few exceptions (always identified), we only stock books in exceptional condition, carefully preserved in archival, removable mylar sleeves. All orders are packaged with care and posted promptly. Satisfaction guaranteed. (Fine Editions Ltd is a member of the Independent Online Booksellers Association, and we subscribe to its codes of ethics.).