Available Copies from Independent Booksellers
Walt Whitman, Valenti Angelo (illstr). Leaves of Grass. The Grabhorn Press, 1930.
Price: US$2900.00 + shipping
Condition: Good
Description: Number 79 of only 400 such copies produced, comprising all the poems written by Walt Whitman following the arrangement of the edition of 1891-92. Folio, half red morocco over oak boards lettered in black on spine. Woodcuts by Valenti Angelo throughout, and signed by him. Often considered the finest production of the Grabhorn Press. Some rubbing and superficial cracking on leather spine, along with a few light spots and scuffs. Outside edges of pages discolored from age, clean and unmarked throughout inside.
Seller: Moe's Books, Berkeley, CA, U.S.A.
Price: US$3750.00 + shipping
Description: Folio (9-3/4" x 14-1/2") in original red half-morocco and bevel-edged Philippine mahogany boards with the publisher's device engraved on the front board, five raised bands on the spine where the title is stamped in black. Illustrated with 37 woodcuts by Valenti Angelo. Copy #198 of 400 copies printed by Edwin and Robert Grabhorn in handset Goudy New Style type on unbleached Arnold paper. The finest printing of LEAVES OF GRASS and a masterpiece of the Grabhorn Press, taking over a year to print. About ten pages with a small, dark stain at the very top margin, far from the text; light rubbing to the raised bands at the edge of the spine which is a bit sunned. Near Fine
Seller: Charles Agvent, est. 1987, ABAA, ILAB, Fleetwood, PA, U.S.A.
Whitman, Walt. Leaves of Grass. Random House (Grabhorn Press), New York [San Francisco], 1930.
Price: US$4250.00 + shipping
Condition: Very Good
Description: Illustrated by Valenti Angelo. Printed by the Grabhorn Press (of San Francisco) in an edition of 400 copies, this number 133. A Very Good+ copy with some wear to the Oak boards at the corners, and some superficial rubbing to the morocco spine at the extremities. Internal contents generally clean and in excellent condition with just the odd page with a bit of foxing. With an original, signed letter from Bennett A. Cerf of Random House describing the binding for the original owner (and directing his inquiry about the paperstock to Ed Grabhorn). Perhaps the most important collection of poetry in American Literature. Although Leaves of Grass was first greeted with derision and even shock - Boston's district attorney attempted to have some of the poems suppressed as obscene and Whitman was fired from his job - it eventually claimed its rightful place in the American canon. Whitman wrote the collection after he was inspired by Emerson and the Transcendentalist movement, and the poems in Leaves of Grass are noted for their sensualist focus on nature and the human form. They include some of Whitman's most famous works, including Song of Myself and I Sing of the Body Electric. Despite the collection's fame and success, Whitman re-wrote and edited the collection many times, with the final edition containing over 400 poems. Whitman himself helped pay for the printing of the first edition, the run of which contained only 800 copies, most of which were unbound. Very Good +.
Seller: Whitmore Rare Books, Inc. -- ABAA, ILAB, Pasadena, CA, U.S.A.