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That shouldn't need to be changed."
yes, I needed it to know for sure what edition you were talking about. All updated! :)
The ISBN is correct, the cover is the right one, and the publisher (Bandanna Books) and date are correct. However, the title is truncated, and the description is for some other edition (no Malcolm Cowley in this edition).
Title: Leaves of Grass: The Original 1855 Edition
Description:
The original edition of Leaves of Grass had just 95 pages of poetry,
and a lengthy introduction. The only titles were “Leaves of Grass”
or a marker, indicating a new poem. The original book listed no
author, with a small engraving of himself in a loose open shirt
and tipped hat, one hand on hip, the other in his pocket (to “loafe”
at that time meant to be seen idling stylishly about town). The
engraving by Samuel Hollyer was based on a photo by Gabriel
Harrison (a common printing conversion by skilled professionals
in the pre-digital age).
Whitman’s experience as editor of the Brooklyn Eagle
observing the American scene and his patroitic bombast of, for
example, the “America” essay that opens this book, led him to use
the longest breath-line in poetry until Allen Ginsberg and Bob
Dylan. This poetic line allowed him to speak as a visionary poet
of Biblical stature with remarkable candor, and he continues to
stand at the center of American literature a hundred years after
his death.
Why should we read the first edition, long before the
famous Lincoln and Civil War poetry? This edition shows the
freshness of Whitman’s creative breakthrough—for the first
time he finds/invents an appropriate form, and he gets a handle
on his true subject. This book marks his emergence from the
wilderness.
Whitman himself designed the book and set the type for
the first edition. He set no poem titles other than the phrase
“Leaves of Grass,” placed at the heads of major sections, and we
follow that design. This edition retains the universal “he,” which
Whitman uses liberally throughout.
A teaching supplement of this edition of Leaves of Grass, with copious critical and historical comments is also available at www.createspace.com/3678901
Your help with this would be appreciated.