Available Copies from Independent Booksellers
Whitman, Walt. Two Rivulets; Author's Edition. Camden, New Jersey, 1876.
Price: US$5750.00 + shipping
Condition: Very Good
Description: FIRST EDITION, FIRST PRINTING. One of only 100 copies. The Second Printing, by contrast, consisted of 600-650 copies. BAL's Binding B (no priority) of Half brown leather over orange cloth boards, with green embossed endpapers. All edges gilt. With a frontispiece photograph of Whitman, SIGNED in black ink: Walt Whitman / born May 31 1819. Complete with the single terminal leaf of publisher's advertisements. There is some wear to the forecorners and spine tips and some minor overall soiling. Some of the dark brown leather spine label is missing, though the gilt lettering is preserved, and there are signs of a bookplate removal from the pastedowns . A Very Good copy, very clean internally. Scarce. Myerson A9.1b.
Seller: Clarel Rare Books, Los Angeles, CA, U.S.A.
Price: US$9200.00 + shipping
Description: Scarce first edition, first issue with the blank leaf between 'As a Strong Bird' and 'Memoranda' and single leaf of advertisements for Whitmanâs books inserted between the back flyleaves. One of only 100 copies. Octavo, bound in full morocco with gilt titles and elaborate gilt tooling to the spine in six compartments within raised gilt bands, triple gilt ruling to the panels, gilt turn-ins and inner dentetlles, gilt top stain, marbled endpapers. With the frontispiece sepia photograph of Whitman signed and dated by him, "Walt Whitman 1881." From the library of Richard Hoe Lawrence with an autograph note by Whitman tipped in. Addressed to Lawrence and dated March 11, 1881, the note reads, "Dear Sir yours of 10th enclosing #10 received - Walt Whitman." Richard Hoe Lawrence served as president of the Grolier Club from 1906-1908. He was the great-nephew of Grolier Club co-founder and renowned bibliophile Robert Hoe III. With Lawrence's bookplates to the pastedown. In near fine condition. âOn 2 May 1875, Whitman announced: âI shall⦠bring out a volume this summer, partly as my own contribution to our National Centennial. It is to be called Two Rivulets - (i.e. two flowing chains of prose and verse, emanating the real and ideal)[.] It will embody much that I had previously written & that you know, but about one-third, as I guess, that is freshâ (Myerson, 196). The work contains Two Rivulets, Democratic Vistas, Centennial Songs-1876, As a Strong Bird on Pinions Free, Memoranda During the War and Passage to India.
Seller: Raptis Rare Books, Palm Beach, FL, U.S.A.
Price: US$9375.00 + shipping
Description: Bound in full green polished calf leather by Bayntun Riviere with double gilt rules, gilt spine decorations with the date in gilt at the bottom, contrasting gilt-lettered morocco spine labels, five raised bands, gilt dentelles, all edges gilt, marbled endpapers, ad leaf at rear for Whitman's Works. Also included, listed in the Contents but not on the title page, are AS A STRONG BIRD ON PINIONS FREE and MEMORANDA DURING THE WAR. BAL 21413; MYERSON A.9.1.b. First and only edition, second printing of 600 or 650 copies printed, with numerous revisions, after the first printing which consisted of only 100 copies. With a photographic frontispiece of Whitman. Most copies, as with this, were SIGNED by the poet on the photograph with the additional notation in Whitman's hand: "born May 31/1819." In addition this is INSCRIBED by the poet to "Clement Templeton/from the author" on the original yellow free endpaper. Clement Templeton was a British concert master who in the 1870s presided over the Harrow Music School's efforts to promote good music through inexpensive concerts. He was considered a socialist for his attempts to interest working people in music associated at the time with the upper classes. In a letter dated 5 October [1877] to Edward Carpenter, Whitman mentions sending Templeton this volume (WALT WHITMAN. THE CORRESPONDENCE. Volume III: 1876-1885. #835, page 100). Templeton's ownership signature on a front blank. Bright, clean copy beautifully bound. Fine in a Fine green cloth slipcase
Seller: Charles Agvent, est. 1987, ABAA, ILAB, Fleetwood, PA, U.S.A.
Price: US$11000.00 + shipping
Description: The so-called "Author's Edition," actually the third printing of the fifth edition (600 copies). Second issue, with integral title leaf. Signed by Whitman in ink on title page; additionally inscribed in Whitman's hand on front free endpaper: "Henry King / from the author." Original cream leather spine and corners over marbled boards; bright yellow coated endpapers; 384,[3] + 1pp ads. Evidence of old professional strengthening to front and rear joints (external); leather spine and corners have darkened to tan, as usual; a few leaves with brief marginal tears, not affecting text. A generally clean, Very Good copy in the original binding. BAL 21412. MYERSON A.2.5.c.(2). The Author's edition of Leaves of Grass was issued uniform with Two Rivulets in August, 1876, and the two titles were advertised for purchase separately or as a set. Many if not most copies were signed by Whitman on the title page, and it is not altogether uncommon to find copies with additional presentation inscriptions on the front endpaper. The current copy carries an obscure but pleasing association: it is inscribed to the Topeka, Kansas journalist Henry King, founder and editor of the Kansas Magazine which, though short-lived (1872-73) was one of the most ambitious western literary periodicals of its time. King's ambition was for his magazine to rival the Atlantic Monthly in both quality of content and popularity, but with an emphasis on the "New West;" to this end he solicited original contributions from leading midwestern writers, and especially writers from the Great Plains. One of the few eastern writers published by King was Whitman, whose poems "The Mystic Trumpeter" and "Virginia - The West" [Myerson E2517 & E2518] first appeared in its pages in February and March, respectively, of 1872; the magazine also published a pseudonymous prose piece, "Walt Whitman in Europe" [E2523], actually written by Whitman, in December of that year. The oddity of Whitman's inclusion in a periodical primarily focused on writers (and audiences) from the prairies has been commented on by at least one critic: ".Whitman's inclusion suggests that King (if no one else) saw in him a cultural figure, both well-known and different enough from the mainstream literary establishment in the East to help the editor achieve his own goals of promoting literature and negotiating a specific literary and cultural identity distinct from that of cultural centers in the East" (see Vaness Steinroetter, "Walt Whitman in the Early Kansas Press;" Kansas History: A Journal of the Central Plains, Summer 2016, pp 182ff). After the failure of his literary journal, King would go on to become editor of the prominent midwestern news daily, the St. Louis Globe-Democrat, but that Whitman chose to inscribe the current work to him suggests that he may have kept at least one foot in the literary world.
Seller: Lorne Bair Rare Books, ABAA, Winchester, VA, U.S.A.
Price: US$17050.00 + shipping
Description: THE AUTHOR'S EDITION, was the fifth overall, third printing, second issue,with integral title-page (600 copies). A SIGNED, INSCRIBED, PRESENTATION COPY FROM WALT WHITMAN TO CHARLES OSCAR GRIDLEY. For the Author's Edition, Whitman signed his name beautifully in ink on the title-page. In this copy he has inscribed the book to "Charles Oscar Gridley / From the Author." Gridley's handsome engraved bookplate is opposite on the front pastedown. In an 1885 letter to Herbert Gilchrist, Whitman referred to Gridley as a "friend of L of G. and W. W." With the engraved Samuel Hollyer portrait of Walt Whitman and the W.J. Linton engraved portrait of Walt Whitman from the G. C. Potter photograph, both on inserted plates. 8vo, in the original binding designed and executed for Whitman by James Arnold of Philadelphia, this being three-quarter tan calf over marbled boards, the spine blind-tooled in a hatch grillwork motif and a single brown morocco label gilt lettered and ruled, coated yellow endpapers. vi, 384, [2], [1 ads.] pp. Very well preserved internally, the text-block clean and tight, the binding with some wear to the extremities, front board tender at the hinge, an important survival of an Whitman association item. AN INSCRIBED PRESENTATION COPY OF WHITMAN'S "AUTHOR'S EDITION" OF LEAVES OF GRASS, and a copy with a pleasing association as well. Whitman presents this copy to Charles Oscar Gridley. Gridley was the secretary of the Carlyle Society and had visited Whitman in April 1884. Afterwards, Gridley privately published a pamphlet called "Notes on America" describing the visit with Whitman just after he moved to his Mickle Street home and giving his impression of the poet's personality, appearance, opinions, and philosophy. The following year Gridley contributed to William Michael Rossetti and Herbert Gilchrist's fundraiser for Whitman. Whitman called Gridley a "friend of L of G. and W. W." in a letter to Gilchrist of September 15, 1885. Later, Gridley would publish his own collection of poetry under the title "Ivy Leaves", perhaps inspired by the title of Whitman's great body of work. This edition was printed from the important fifth edition of LEAVES OF GRASS. In early may 1876 Whitman wrote printer Samuel W. Green to order 600 copies. Whitman then had Green send these to his chosen binder, James Arnold. He would distribute them over the next several years Whitmans LEAVES OF GRASS is, arguably, the greatest work in all of American literature. LEAVES OF GRASS portrayed America at the crossroads between an old world, soon to be caste off, and the new world of our future present. With the publication of LEAVES OF GRASS in 1855, Whitman, the poet of democracy, ushered in a new era in American letters, describing specifically American experiences in a distinctly American idiom. From its first publication in 1855, he had complete confidence in the greatness of both the book and its author. "Always the champion of the common man, Whitman is both the poet and the prophet of democracy. The whole of LEAVES OF GRASS is imbued with the spirit of brotherhood and a pride in the democracy of the young American nation. In a sense, it is Americas second Declaration of Independence: that of 1776 was political, this of 1855 intellectual. .The poems are saturated with a vehemence of pride and audacity of freedom necessary to loosen the mind of still-to-be-formed America from the folds, the superstitions, and all the long, tenacious, and stifling anti-democratic authorities of Asiatic and European past. To the young nation, only just becoming aware of an individual literary identity distinct from its European origins, Whitmans message and his outspoken confidence came at a decisive moment. LEAVES OF GRASS was Whitmans favorite child. From the time of its original publication,.until the year of his death, he continued revising and enlarging it. If (his) reputation has fluctuated over the years and his position among, if indeed not at the head of, the list of great American poets was not assured until some time after his death, there was never any doubt of the matter in his own mind. I know I am deathless, he wrote. Whether I come to my own today or in ten thousand or ten million years, I can cheerfully take it now, or with equal cheerfulness I can wait. Time has vindicated his conviction." PMM
Seller: Buddenbrooks, Inc., Newburyport, MA, U.S.A.