Available Copies from Independent Booksellers
Whitman, Walt. Leaves of Grass. David McKay, 1892.
Price: US$500.00 + shipping
Condition: Good
Description: First thus; first printing of Whitman's 'Deathbed edition,' the result of over thirty years' revision on his masterwork, and the version intended by Whitman as the last and final form - and announced as such shortly before he passed away. Green cloth with gilt spine titling, with light soil and shelf-wear, rubbing edgewear, tiny points of fraying to spine ends and fore-edge corners. Spine square. Rear outer hinge starting, only for about an inch from the spine head; binding sound. Sparse instances of soiling in text, small penciled notation to rear paste down. Interior else clean, pages lightly toned, text unmarked.
Seller: The Book Bin, Salem, OR, U.S.A.
Price: US$575.00 + shipping
Condition: Good
Description: Octavo. Pp. 438. Date on title page: 1891-'2. Called the "Deathbed Edition," as it was the author's final version, published two months before his death. Portrait of the young Whitman at p. 29; there is no frontispiece, and no sign there was one. T.e.g., other edges uncut. Bound in green cloth boards, with title and Whitman signature in gilt to spine. Endpapers split at inner hinges; light wear to extremities and tiny tears to spine ends; gilt "DMcKay" on spine barely visible. Internally clean and on the whole a good copy.
Seller: Bryn Mawr Bookstore, Cambridge, MA, U.S.A.
Price: US$646.63 + shipping
Condition: Good
Description: Title page reads PHILADELPHIA / DAVID MCKAY, PUBLISHER / MANCHESTER / THE LABOUR PRESS SOCIETY, LTD. Not dated. Overleaf copyrights mention 19th May 1891. Portrait plate (with tissue guard) inserted at page 28. 438 pages (fully collated). No printer is mentioned. Book is bound in pale green light card covers lettered on front cover LEAVES OF GRASS Walt Whitman Price 2/6. An original spine label states Leaves of Grass Complete 1892 Walt Whitman. Fairly clean tight text but text edges bit dusty etc. Covers a little marked and PIECE OUT of front cover up to 50 x 15 mm top right. Book is in good double plus condition with noticeable signs of wear and/or age.
Seller: Richard Sylvanus Williams (Est 1976), WINTERTON, United Kingdom
Whitman, Walt. Leaves of Grass (Deathbed Edition). David McKay, 1892.
Price: US$763.54 + shipping
Condition: Good
Description: Deathbed edition. Solid binding. Full leather rebound in 1921. boards have little wear. 438pp and including the Hollyer portrait of Whitman at p.28. The front hinge is cracked. Content mainly clean with even toning. No DJ. Including Sands At Seventy, 1st Annex; Good Bye My Fancy, 2nd Annex; A Backward Glance O'er Travel'd Roads and Portrait from Life.
Seller: BoundlessBookstore, Wallingford, United Kingdom
Price: US$935.00 + shipping
Condition: Near Fine
Description: 8vo. [2], 3-438 pp. Green publisher's cloth with gilt lettering on the spine; top edge gilt. A portrait plate of Whitman inserted after page 28 (image done by Samuel Hollyer). BAL 21441. Myerson A2.7.l2. The latest date noted on this copy's copyright page is 1891, the spine states "Complete 1892" (which corresponds with BAL's C binding of this edition). The binding corresponds with the "D" binding in Myerson, and the contents are similar to Myerson's 1892 printing description except a different address for McKay appears on the title page and no date appears on our copy's title page. This is a later printing of the "Deathbed edition". The author's final arrangement of his magnum opus, done shortly before his death in March of 1892. A pleasing example of this iconic American poem. Minor rubbing to the extremities including a small split to the spine's crown, a later bookplate on the front pastedown.
Seller: Evening Star Books, ABAA/ILAB, Madison, WI, U.S.A.
Price: US$962.45 + shipping
Condition: Very Good
Description: 8vo. Pp 438. Tissue-guarded engraved portrait opposite page 29. Original cloth lettered gilt to spine. Top edge gilt. Short split to the inner edge of the title page. Light uniform wear. Spine lettering dull. No inscriptions. A decent copy.
Seller: Leakey's Bookshop Ltd., Inverness, United Kingdom
Whitman, Walt. Leaves of Grass (Deathbed Edition). David McKay Co, Philadelphia, 1892.
Price: US$1200.00 + shipping
Description: Deathbed Edition. BAL's Binding C with faux signature. (Early printing with no date on title page, second publisher address.) 438 pp. Bound in publisher's green cloth with gilt spine lettering and top edge. Very Good with slight mottling to cloth, bumped corners, professionally repaired front hinge. Contents bright. Whitman's final arrangement of his masterwork, which is technically not an edition. It was produced from the sheets of McKay's 1888 edition with additional annexes tacked on at the end in a race against the poet's declining health.
Seller: Burnside Rare Books, ABAA, Portland, OR, U.S.A.
Whitman, Walt. Leaves of Grass (Deathbed Edition). David McKay Co, Philadelphia, 1892.
Price: US$2000.00 + shipping
Description: Deathbed Edition. BAL's Binding C with faux signature. (Early printing with no date on title page, second publisher address.) 438 pp. Green cloth with gilt spine lettering and top edge. Very Good+ with slightly bumped corners, cloth rubbed along bottom edge, small bookplate on paste down, 1899 gift inscription on second blank, a little tearing to hinge of title page, small horizontal tear to p. 151. An attractive copy. Whitman's final arrangement of his masterwork, which is technically not an edition. It was produced from the sheets of McKay's 1888 edition with additional annexes tacked on at the end in a race against the poet's declining health.
Seller: Burnside Rare Books, ABAA, Portland, OR, U.S.A.