“America’s Second Declaration Of Independence”: Rare First Edition Of Whitman’s Leaves Of Grass, The Most Important And Influential Volume Of American Poetry—A Beautiful Copy

Extraordinarily scarce and important first edition in original cloth-gilt of the most important volume of American poetry. "In Whitman we have a democrat who set out to imagine the life of the average man in average circumstances changed into something grand and heroic… There has never been a more remarkable poem" (Callow). Whitman personally financed, supervised and even in some sections hand-set the type for the small printing of 795 copies.