The Collection
The holdings of Walt Whitman editions, and supportive critical and biographical materials, are among the most extensive of the Harris Collection’s holdings. The online catalog lists 1,424 separate entries.
In addition there is the Henry Scholey Saunders Collection, consisting of approximately 15,000 items related to Whitman in the form of scrapbooks compiled over many decades.
Notable items in the collection include four copies of the 1855 first edition of Leaves of Grass (two of the first issue and two of the second issue). Of these, one copy of the first issue is known to have been Whitman’s “desk copy,” and includes numerous items pasted in by Whitman, specifically the scarce broadside printing of Emerson’s letter to Whitman, and galley proofs of early reviews of Leaves of Grass (written by Whitman himself). There are copies of every edition of Leaves of Grass published during Whitman’s lifetime, many with interesting associations. For example, the 1867 edition is Whitman’s inscribed presentation copy to Providence poet Sarah Helen Whitman, who was famously courted in 1848 by Edgar Allan Poe.
These editions are complemented by holdings of the John Hay Collection, including a copy of the 1891/2 “Deathbed” edition, inscribed to John Hay by Walt Whitman, at the request of Horace Traubel, on the day before Whitman’s death.
The Saunders Collection, acquired from the Toronto “Whitmanite” in the 1930s, included not only the extensive scrapbooks cited above, but many editions, translations, biographies, musical settings, and other works related to Whitman. It also included Saunders’ many handmade books, including his Whitman Portraits, and Portraits of Whitmanites.
Manuscript holdings include Whitman’s review of The Anthony Memorial, published in 1886 as the first catalog of what came to be the Harris Collection. Also included in the John Hay Collection is the fair copy of “O Captain My Captain,” written by Whitman at Hay’s request; the manuscript is accompanied by related correspondence.
The holdings of Whitman have been added to steadily throughout the 20th century and into the present day; new editions, critical and biographical works, and fine printing are regularly added to the holdings.
Related Collections
Related Internet Resources
Poet at Work: Recovered Notebooks from the Thomas Biggs Harned Walt Whitman Collection
American Memory, Library of Congress
Walt Whitman: Online Resources at the Library of Congress
Library of Congress
Walt Whitman Archive
Center for Digital Research in the Humanities,
University of Nebraska – Lincoln
MS Lowell 15. Whitman, Walt, 1819-1892. Passage to India : autographed manuscript; Washington, 1870. 21s. (21p.)
Houghton Library, Harvard University.
Walt Whitman
Academy of American Poets
Essential References
Whitman Bibliography
Allen, Gay Wilson
Walt Whitman as man, poet, and legend. With a check list of Whitman publications, 1945-1960, by Evie Allison Allen.
Carbondale, Ill.:, Southern Illinois University Press [1961].
Allen, Gay Wilson
Walt Whitman bibliography, 1918-1934.
Boston, The F.W. Faxon Company, 1935.
Boswell, Jeanetta
Walt Whitman and the critics : a checklist of criticism, 1900-1978.
Metuchen, N.J. : Scarecrow Press, c1980.
Gibson, Brent
An annotated Walt Whitman bibliography, 1976-1985.
Lewiston, N.Y.: Edwin Mellen Press, c2001.
Myerson, Joel
Walt Whitman: a descriptive bibliography.
Pittsburgh, Pa.: University of Pittsburgh Press, 1993.
Tanner, James T. F.
Walt Whitman; a supplementary bibliography, 1961-1967.
[1st ed. Kent, Ohio] Kent State University Press [1968].
Wells, Carolyn
A concise bibliography of the works of Walt Whitman, with a supplement of fifty books about Whitman
New York: B. Franklin [1968].
Whitman at auction, 1899-1972 / compiled by Gloria A. Francis, Artem Lozynsky; introduction by Charles E. Feinberg.
Detroit: Gale Research Co., [c1978].
Whitman Editions
Miller, Edwin Haviland and Miller, Rosalind S.
Walt Whitman’s correspondence; a checklist.
New York: New York Public Library, 1957.
Whitman, Walt.
The complete writings of Walt Whitman. Issued under the editorial supervision of his literary executors, Richard Maurice Bucke, Thomas B. Harned, and Horace L. Traubel; with additional bibliographical and critical material prepared by Oscar Lovell Triggs, Ph.D. 10 vols.
New York, London: G. P. Putnam’s sons [1902].
Whitman History and Criticism
Allen, Gay Wilson.
The new Walt Whitman handbook
New York: New York University Press, 1975.
Allen, Gay Wilson.
Twenty-five years of Walt Whitman bibliography, 1918-1942.
Boston: The F.W. Faxon Company, 1943.
Kummings, Donald D.
Walt Whitman, 1940-1975: a reference guide.
Boston: G.K. Hall, c1982.
Saunders, Henry Scholey.
A gift of unrivaled Whitmania [with Remarks of Mr. Saunders].
In: Brown Alumni Monthly. Providence, R.I., 1932.
Saunders Whitman Collection
Saunders, Henry Scholey.
Collection of Walt Whitman, 1877-1950.
Approximately 15,000 items. Bibliographies, correspondence, drawings, lectures, photographs, scrapbooks, etc., relating to Walt Whitman, to Whitmanites, and to Whitmanists; with references, indexing, bindings, and other original work by Saunders.
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