Books by Walt Whitman

Book SynopsisA timeless collection of hundreds of poems that resonate to the American spirit.  Leaves of Grass is a timeless collection of poems and essays penned by influential nineteenth-century writer Walt Whitman. This profound compilation explores topics such as nature, mysticism, mortality, transcendentalism, and democracy. Inspired by personal experiences and observations, Whitman spent almost four decades piecing together the complete work, sharing societal ideals and epiphanies about life that still resonate with readers today. This sturdy leather-bound edition of the complete Leaves of Grass also includes Whitman’s preface to the original 1855 edition, in which he expounds on his personal philosophy of writing poetry.

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Book SynopsisWith an Introduction and Bibliography by Stephen Matterson, Trinity College, Dublin. Walt Whitman's verse gave the poetry of America a distinctive national voice. It reflects the unique vitality of the new nation, the vastness of the land and the emergence of a sometimes troubled consciousness, communicated in language and idiom regarded by many at the time as shocking. Whitman's poems are organic and free flowing, fit into no previously defined genre and skilfully combine autobiographical, sociological and religious themes with lyrical sensuality. His verse is a fitting celebration of a new breed of American and includes 'Song of Myself', 'Crossing Brooklyn Ferry', the celebratory 'Passage to India', and his fine elegy for the assassinated President Lincoln, 'When Lilacs Last in the Dooryard Bloom'd'.

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Book SynopsisHarperCollins is proud to present its incredible range of best-loved, essential classics.I believe a leaf of grass is no less than the journey work of the starsFirst published in 1855, and edited, revised and expanded over thirty years, Leaves of Grass' has become one of the most celebrated poetry collections in the history of American literature. A master of free verse, Walt Whitman captures the true spirit of his homeland and its people through his poetry. He explores a wide range of themes, encompassing American identity and cultural values, democracy, nature and the mysteries of the human spirit.Featuring the poems of the original 1855 edition, Leaves of Grass' remains an influential work within the American literary tradition, studied and treasured around the world.Trade Review‘I greet you at the beginning of a great career.’ Letter from Ralph Waldo Emerson to Walt Whitman, 1855 ‘The most extraordinary piece of wit and wisdom that America has yet contributed.’ Ralph Waldo Emerson ‘America's poet… He is America.’ Ezra Pound ‘If you are American, then Walt Whitman is your imaginative father and mother, even if, like myself, you have never composed a line of verse.’ Harold Bloom, literary critic

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Book SynopsisThis new annotated edition inlcudes "Live Oak, with Moss" and prose selections from "Democratic Vistas" and "Specimen Days". The text also presents a collection of Whitman's statements about his role as a poet taken from his notebooks, letters, conversations and newspaper articles.

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Book SynopsisThe most extraordinary piece of wit and wisdom that America has yet contributed. Ralph Waldo Emerson. Inspired by transcendentalism, Whitman''s immortal collection includes some of the greatest poems of modern times, including his masterpiece Song of Myself. Shattering standard conventions of symbolism and allegory, it stands as an unabashed celebration of body and nature.

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Book SynopsisOne Great Author. One Great CD.A poem by Whitman may be whoops and hollers, or beating of drums, or the ebb of the tide singing to itself among the stones, or laments in the night or cries of ecstasy. Indeed, Whitman was the wind which blew poetry from its moorings in tradition and sent it into fresher waters; his poems celebrating the grandness of the human condition are cadenced for the voice and meant to be spoken aloud. In this recording drawn from the Caedmon archives, reader Ed Begley, Sr. performs selections from Whitman’s lifelong work, Leaves of Grass.

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Book SynopsisWalt Whitman was born on 31 May 1819 in Long Island, New York. Without much formal education, he began work at an early age as an office boy, printer and school teacher. His first major collection of poetry, Leaves of Grass, was self-published in 1855. During the American Civil War, Whitman volunteered as a nurse at military hospitals in Washington, and his experiences inspired his next collection, Drum-Taps, published in 1865, and Memoranda During the War (1875). Whitman was an ardent Democrat, and wrote several poems to Abraham Lincoln, including O Captain! My Captain'. His poetry was seen by many as immoral, and was the cause of his dismissal from a post as clerk in the Department of the Interior, but he won praise from his contemporaries Ralph Waldo Emerson and Henry David Thoreau, and his work was enthusiastically received by poetic circles in England. Having survived a paralysing stroke in 1873, Whitman left Washington for Camden, New Jersey, where heTrade ReviewGrand but intimate, earthy but also dreamy * Observer *Whitman had a fluid personality that made him able to ''merge'' invisibly, and with great empathy, with the images of other people and events that lodged in his mind...unprecedented assembling of rhythm, sound, language and images * New York Times *The great unrhymed, long-lined, self-celebratory sensation of the 1850s * Lost Angeles Times *

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Book SynopsisAs Malcolm Cowley says in his introduction, the first edition of Leaves of Grass ''might be called the buried masterpiece of American writing'', for it exhibits ''Whitman at his best, Whitman at his freshest in vision and boldest in language, Whitman transformed by a new experience.'' Mr Cowley has taken the first edition from its narrow circulation among scholars, faithfully edited it, added his own introduction and Whitman''s original introduction (which never appeared in any other edition during Whitman''s life), and returned it to the common readership to whom the great poet really speaks.Trade Review“Whitman, the great poet, has meant so much to me. Whitman the one man breaking a way ahead. Whitman the one pioneer . . . Ahead of Whitman, nothing. Ahead of all poets, pioneering into the wilderness of unopened life, Whitman. Beyond him, none.” —D. H. Lawrence

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Book SynopsisFrom Leaves of Grass to Song of Myself, all of Whitman's poetry in one volumeIn 1855 Walt Whitman published Leaves of Grass, the work that defined him as one of America’s most influential voices and that he added to throughout his life. A collection of astonishing originality and intensity, it spoke of politics, sexual emancipation, and what it meant to be an American. From the joyful “Song of Myself” and “I Sing the Body Electric” to the elegiac “When Lilacs Last in the Dooryard Bloom’d,” Whitman’s art fuses oratory, journalism, and song in a vivid celebration of humanity. Containing all Whitman’s known poetic work, this edition reprints the final, or “deathbed,” edition of Leaves of Grass (1891–92). Earlier versions of many poems are also given, including the 1855 “Song of Myself.”   • Features a completely new—and fuller&md

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Book SynopsisContains twelve free-flowing, untitled poems which embrace almost every realm of experience.Trade Review"Whitman's best poems have that permanent quality of being freshly painted, of not being dulled by the varnish of the years."--Malcolm Cowley

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Book SynopsisIn December of 1862, having read his brother''s name in a casualty list, Walt Whitman rushed from Brooklyn to the war front, where he found his brother wounded but recovering. But Whitman also found there a new world, a world dense with horror and revelation. Memoranda During the War is Whitman''s testament to the anguish, heroism, and terror of the Civil War. The book consists of journal entries extending from Whitman''s arrival on the front in 1862 through to the war''s conclusion in 1865. Whitman details his encounters with soldiers and doctors, meditates on particular battles and on the meanings of the war for the nation, and recounts his wordless though peculiarly intimate public exchanges with President Lincoln, a man Whitman saw often on the streets of Washington and by whom he was deeply fascinated. The book offers an astounding amalgam of death portraits, anecdotes of battle, last words, messages to distant loved ones, and remarkably restrained and muted descriptions of pain,Trade ReviewCoviello has done an excellent job here: the text itself, and the wonderfully argued and informative introduction to it, will, without doubt, help redirect studies of Whitman by throwing his post-Civil War writings into clearer contexts and a much sharper focus. * Nick Selby, Modern Languages Review, vol 102, part 1 *

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Book SynopsisA collectible new Penguin Classics series: stunning, clothbound editions of ten favourite poets, which present each poet''s most famous book of verse as it was originally published. Designed by the acclaimed Coralie Bickford-Smith and beautifully set, these slim, A format volumes are the ultimate gift for poetry lovers. In 1855 Walt Whitman published his first collection of poetry, Leaves of Grass. The volume received great praise from leading Transcendentalist poet Ralph Waldo Emerson. This encouraged what would become a lifelong project as Whitman expanded and rewrote the volume until his death in 1892. Whitman''s innovative use of free verse and the quotidian achieved his aim of reaching out to the everyday American. This edition, based on the earliest published version of 1855, features Whitman''s most famous poem ''Song of Myself'', an American epic inspired by his personal experiences.

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Book SynopsisA giftable, illustrated collection of quotes and pithy advice--equal parts self-help and grooming guide--by quintessential American poet and writer Walt Whitman.In 1858, famed American author Walt Whitman penned a series of newspaper columns under a pseudonym on the subject of “manly health and training,” shortly before his landmark third edition of Leaves of Grass was published. Recently discovered for the first time in 150 years, the fascinating manifesto contains the renowned poet’s advice and musings on topics such as diet, exercise, grooming, alcohol, dancing, sports, and more. This short collection presents more than 75 of his best quips, quotes, and extracts on healthy living, all in Whitman’s signature lyrical prose style.

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Book SynopsisThis sourcebook includes the full text of Song of Myself. Since 1855, Walt Whitman's Song of Myself has been enjoyed, debated, parodied and imitated by readers, critics and artists crossing national and linguistic boundaries. Many argue that it is the most influential poem ever written by an American. This sourcebook and critical edition provides easy access to: *information on the contexts of Whitman's work, including biographical details and a chronology *an overview of the critical reception of the poem and extracts from important criticism, reprinted with clear introductory headnotes *key passages from the original 1855 edition, with commentary and annotation *the full 'final' 1881 edition of the poem. Cross-references link the critical, contextual and textual sections of the volume, encouraging an integrated understanding of this creative and controversial text. Complementing a wealth of material with suggestions for further reading

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Book SynopsisIt was with this first version of "Song of Myself," from the 1855 edition of Leaves of Grass, that Whitman first made himself known to the world. Readers of revised editions will find this version surprising, and often superior. A selection of the Common Core State Standards Initiative.

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Book SynopsisOne of the great innovative figures in American letters, Walt Whitman created a daringly new kind of poetry that became a major force in world literature. Leaves Of Grass is his one book.  First published in 1855 with only twelve poems, it was greeted by Ralph Waldo Emerson as 'the wonderful gift . . . the most extraordinary piece of wit and wisdom that America has yet contributed.'  Over the course of Whitman's life, the book reappeared in many versions, expanded and transformed as the author's experiences and the nation's history changed and grew.  Whitman's ambition was to creates something uniquely American.  In that he succeeded.  His poems have been woven into the very fabric of the American character.  From his solemn masterpieces 'When Lilacs Last in the Dooryard Bloom'd' and 'Out of the Cradle Endlessly Rocking' to the joyous freedom of 'Song of Myself,' 'I Sing the Body Electric,' and 'Song of the Open Road,'

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Book SynopsisAbraham Lincoln read it with approval, but Emily Dickinson described its bold language and themes as 'disgraceful.' Ralph Waldo Emerson found it 'the most extraordinary piece of wit and wisdom that America has yet produced.' Published at the author's expense on July 4, 1855, Leaves of Grass inaugurated a new voice and style into American letters and gave expression to an optimistic, bombastic vision that took the nation as its subject. Unlike many other editions of Leaves of Grass, which reproduce various short, early versions, this Modern Library Paperback Classics 'Death-bed' edition presents everything Whitman wrote in its final form, and includes newly commissioned notes.

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Book SynopsisAbraham Lincoln read it with approval, but Emily Dickinson described its bold language and themes as 'disgraceful.' Ralph Waldo Emerson found it 'the most extraordinary piece of wit and wisdom that America has yet produced.' Published at the author''s expense on July 4, 1855, Leaves of Grass inaugurated a new voice and style into American letters and gave expression to an optimistic, bombastic vision that took the nation as its subject. Unlike many other editions of Leaves of Grass, which reproduce various short, early versions, this Modern Library Paperback Classics 'Death-bed' edition presents everything Whitman wrote in its final form, and includes newly commissioned notes.

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Book SynopsisProduced in a numbered limited edition of 350, this is a full-sized facsimile of Wharton Esherick's prototype of Walt Whitman's Song of the Broad-Axe. Each page is as produced by the artist, with hand lettering and illumination. Esherick illustrated the work with eighteen woodblock images that represent the artist's vision and skill. Available for the first time to the public, this book is work of art, interpreting the power of Whitman''s words in Esherick''s unique and beautiful style. Each book is accompanied by a separate 8 x 11 restrike of his original woodcut Welcome are all the earth''s lands, suitable for framing. Also included is an illustrated essay by Paul Eisenhauer, Curator of the Wharton Esherick Museum in Paoli, Pennsylvania, which gives a brief biography of Esherick and the historical background the book. All is contained in a custom cloth case to ensure its longevity as a treasured keepsake.

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Book SynopsisA collection of nearly 3,000 letters written over a half century that reveals Whitman. It includes the poet's correspondence from Washington, DC, during the Civil War, where he nursed wounded and dying soldiers.Trade ReviewPraise for the original edition: "These letters ... are indispensable for the serious student of American literature." -Library Journal

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Book SynopsisDiscussing letter-writing, this collection of nearly 3,000 letters written over a half century reveals Whitman. It covers the last seven years of Whitman's life, giving an almost day-by-day account of his long struggle with various ailments, and his stoical acceptance of constant pain.Trade Review"Praise for the original edition:These letters . . . are indispensable for the serious student of American literature." * Library Journal *

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Book SynopsisDiscussing letter-writing, this collection of nearly 3,000 letters written over a half century reveals Whitman. It contains an insert featuring sketches and facsimile pages from the letters.Trade ReviewPraise for the original edition: "These letters ... are indispensable for the serious student of American literature." -Library Journal

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Book SynopsisA two-volume set which aims to prove that Whitman's prose has a quality no less original and distinctive than his poetry.Trade ReviewPraise for the original edition: "Indispensable for the serious student of American literature, these volumes should be purchased by every college, university, and large public library." -Library Journal

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Book SynopsisA two-volume set which aims to prove that Whitman's prose has a quality no less original and distinctive than his poetry.Trade ReviewPraise for the original edition: "Indispensable for the serious student of American literature, these volumes should be purchased by every college, university, and large public library." -Library Journal

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Book SynopsisA collection that outlines the events of the Whitman's life which gave rise to his many letters and literary reminiscences. It records the poet's daily activities.Trade ReviewPraise for the original edition: "These are important books for serious study of Whitman's life and work and need to be present in every graduate and research library." -Choice

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Book SynopsisA collection that outlines the events of the Whitman's life which gave rise to his many letters and literary reminiscences. It records the poet's daily activities.Trade ReviewPraise for the original edition: "These are important books for serious study of Whitman's life and work and need to be present in every graduate and research library." -Choice

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Book SynopsisA collection that outlines the events of the Whitman's life which gave rise to his many letters and literary reminiscences. It records the poet's daily activities.Trade ReviewPraise for the original edition: "These are important books for serious study of Whitman's life and work and need to be present in every graduate and research library." -Choice

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Book SynopsisGathers Whitman's autobiographical notes, his views on contemporary politics, and the writings he made as he educated himself in ancient history, religion and mythology, health (including phrenology), and word-study.Trade ReviewPraise for the original edition: "Every teacher of graduate students in Whitman and American literature in general will wish to have this edition in his university and perhaps home library." -American Literature

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Book SynopsisGathers Whitman's autobiographical notes, his views on contemporary politics, and the writings he made as he educated himself in ancient history, religion and mythology, health (including phrenology), and word-study.Trade ReviewPraise for the original edition: "Every teacher of graduate students in Whitman and American literature in general will wish to have this edition in his university and perhaps home library." -American Literature

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Book SynopsisGathers Whitman's autobiographical notes, his views on contemporary politics, and the writings he made as he educated himself in ancient history, religion and mythology, health (including phrenology), and word-study.Trade ReviewPraise for the original edition: "Every teacher of graduate students in Whitman and American literature in general will wish to have this edition in his university and perhaps home library." -American Literature

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Book SynopsisGathers Whitman's autobiographical notes, his views on contemporary politics, and the writings he made as he educated himself in ancient history, religion and mythology, health (including phrenology), and word-study.Trade ReviewPraise for the original edition: "Every teacher of graduate students in Whitman and American literature in general will wish to have this edition in his university and perhaps home library." -American Literature

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Book SynopsisGathers Whitman's autobiographical notes, his views on contemporary politics, and the writings he made as he educated himself in ancient history, religion and mythology, health (including phrenology), and word-study.Trade ReviewPraise for the original edition: "Every teacher of graduate students in Whitman and American literature in general will wish to have this edition in his university and perhaps home library.&8221; -American Literature

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Book SynopsisGathers Whitman's autobiographical notes, his views on contemporary politics, and the writings he made as he educated himself in ancient history, religion and mythology, health (including phrenology), and word-study.Trade ReviewPraise for the original edition: "Every teacher of graduate students in Whitman and American literature in general will wish to have this edition in his university and perhaps home library." -American Literature

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Book SynopsisA collection of Walt Whitman's poems from 1855 to 1897.

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Book SynopsisIncludes various variants, from the collection's in 1855 through the posthumous "Old Age Echoes" annex printed in 1897. This volume contains introductory material, including a chronology of the poems and a summary of various editions and annexes, along with the poems from 1855 and 1856. It includes the poems from 1860 through 1867.

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Book SynopsisIncludes various variants, from the collection's in 1855 through the posthumous "Old Age Echoes" annex printed in 1897. This volume contains introductory material, including a chronology of the poems and a summary of various editions and annexes, along with the poems from 1855 and 1856. It includes the poems from 1860 through 1867.

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