Frank Shay

“ Lafayette in Brooklyn. By Walt Whitman, with an Introduction by John Burroughs. New York: George D. Smith, 1905.
Octavo, grey boards, paper labels, uncut; half-title, publisher's note and autograph signature portrait on Japan paper, title, contents, list of plates, note, half-title, facsimile of manuscript on Japan paper, note, Lafayette in Brooklyn, notes. No pagination. There is a portrait of Lafayette in the text. The issue was limited to 250 copies, 15 of which were on Imperial Japanese vellum, the balance on hand-made paper. ”

“ The work is extremely scarce considering the great number that were published.
[Pg 15]
1855
Leaves of Grass. Brooklyn, New York. 1855.
First edition. Twelve poems.
Imperial octavo, pink paper wrappers.
"Leaves of Grass" printed in block letters across front wrapper, end wrapper blank. Steel engraved portrait, title, uncaptioned preface, xii, Leaves of Grass, pp. 95, end blank.
The author's name appears only in the copyright notice, and in the first poem: "Walt Whitman, an American, one of the roughs, a kosmos." ”

“ Great Are the Myths.
The preface was later worked into three poems:
By Blue Ontario's Shore.
Song of Prudence.
To a Foil'd European Revolutionaire.
There are three variations of the first edition. The one noted above in pink wrappers is unquestionably the first issue. The second issue is bound in green cloth, gilt edges, and with the title stamped in rustic letters in gilt on the front cover. The last [Pg 16] issue of this edition has all the points of the second issue with eight pages of press notices bound in at the front. ”

“ There is an issue in blue cloth from the same plates, uncut, bearing the imprint of G. P. Putnam's Sons, London, 1892, and some bearing the McKay imprint.
[Pg 32]
1893
In Re Walt Whitman. Edited by his Literary Executors, Horace L. Traubel, Richard Maurice Bucke, Thomas B. Harned [quotation from Lucretius] . Published by the Editors through David McKay, 23 South Ninth Street, Philadelphia, 1893.
Octavo, cloth, uncut; half-title, title, a First and Last Word, contents, x, pp. 452; advertisements. But 1,000 copies were published. ”

“ This and the "Sequel" formed the first and second annexes to the fourth edition, 1867, of Leaves of Grass, and were later incorporated in the Washington, 1871 edition under the title of Drum-Taps. Copies without the "sequel" are exceedingly scarce.
1865
Sequel to Drum-Taps (since the preceding came from the press) . When Lilacs Last in the Dooryard Bloom'd. And Other Pieces. Washington, D. C., 1865-6.
Duodecimo, pp. 24.
It is doubtful if any copies reached the market other than those issued as a part of Drum-Taps. The remaining copies were bound up with second issue of the 1867 edition. ”

“ Calamus. A Series of Letters Written during the Years 1868-1880. By Walt Whitman to a Young Friend [Peter Doyle] . Edited with an introduction by Richard Maurice Bucke, M. D., one of Whitman's literary executors. [Quotation from p. 102, "Leaves of Grass," edition of 1892.] Published by Laurens Maynard at 287 Congress Street in Boston, MDCCCXCVII.
Duodecimo, boards, cloth back, paper label ”

“ Pp. 7, 30, 38, contain articles written and contributed anonymously by Whitman to various New York papers. They were later reprinted in the Fellowship papers and in In Re Walt Whitman, 1893.
It is exceedingly rare.
[Pg 19]
1860
Leaves of Grass. Boston: Thayer and Eldridge, Year '85 of The States. (1860-61.)
Third edition. 154 poems.
Duodecimo, brown cloth, heavily blind embossed. Portrait, at the age of forty, engraved by Schoff, after the painting by Charles Hine, in 1859, on an irregular tinted background, title, contents, pp. iv-456. ”