Harold B. Lee Library

Early editions and manuscripts

Manuscript Facsimiles

Joel Myerson, ed.  The Walt Whitman archive: a facsimile of the poet’s manuscripts. New York: Garland, 1993-.

Call number: Whitman Collection Quarto PS 3204 .M94 1993

Walt Whitman’s blue book: the 1860-61 Leaves of Grass containing his manuscript additions and revisions. New York: New York Public Library, 1968.

Call number: Whitman Collection PS 3201 1968

Books and Manuscripts

The items listed below represent some of the earliest editions of Whitman’s poetry and prose housed in Special Collections.  Along with the book and manuscript material listed here, the Whitman Collection also contains a number of early pamphlets and copies of original periodicals like The Democratic Review, which published Whitman’s early poems and stories.

Franklin Evans, or The inebriate: a tale of the times. New York: J. Winchester, 1842.

Call number: Vault Collection 811.38 F85 1842

Leaves of Grass (first edition). Brooklyn, NY, 1855.

Call number: Vault Collection 811.38  L46 1855

Leaves of Grass (second edition). Brooklyn, NY, 1856.

Call number: Vault Collection 811.38 L46 1856

Leaves of Grass (third edition). Boston: Thayer and Eldridge, 1860.

Call number: Whitman Collection PS 3201 1860

Leaves of Grass (fourth edition). New-York : W.E. Chapin & Co., printers, 1867.

Call number: Vault Collection 811.38 L46 1867 (presentation copy)

Drum-taps. New York, 1865.

Call number: Vault Collection  811.38 D844 1865

Democratic vistas. New York:  J.S. Redfield, 1871.

Call number: Vault Collection 811.38 D396 1871

Two rivulets: including Democratic vistas, Centennial songs, and Passage to India.  Camden, NJ, 1876.  BYU’s copy 1 is a presentation copy from the author to Mary F. Davis (see above).

Call number: Vault Collection 811.38 T93 1876

“The Prairie States, 1880.” Handwritten and signed poem.

Call number: Vault Manuscript Collection VMSS 356

Specimen days; & Collect. Philadelphia: Rees Welsh & Co., 1882

Call number: Whitman Collection  PS 3220 .A1 1882

November Boughs. Philadelphia: D. McKay, 1888. Inscribed by Whitman and by Thomas B. Harned, his literary executor.

Call number: Vault Collection  811.38 N857 1888

Good-bye my fancy. Philadelphia: David McKay, 1891.

Call number: Whitman Collection  PS 3214 .A1 1891

Calamus: a series of letters written during the years 1868-1880. Boston: Small, Maynard & Co., 1897.

Call number: Whitman Collection  PS 3231 .A2 1897

The complete writings of Walt Whitman. New York; London: G.P. Putnam’s Sons, 1902. 10 volumes; limited edition no. 105 of 300.

Call number: Vault Collection  811.388 C75 1902