Leaves of Grass – 1855 Edition

In July 1855 Ralph Waldo Emerson, America’s foremost philosopher and essayist – and no mean poet – received in the mail a slim book of poetry entitled Leaves of Grass. Though anonymous, the volume bore a copyright notice in the name of Walt Whitman. Whitman, in fact, not only wrote the book, but paid to have it printed. He send one to Emerson hoping for a few friendly words; he received a letter that changed American literary history. Emerson Called the book “the most extraordinary piece of wit and wisdom that America has yet contributed” and hailed Whitman “at the beginning of a great career.” The bardic force of Whitman’s long, all embracing lines was one with which all poets who came after would have to reckon. Whitman would continue to revise and expand Leaves of Grass, but many prefer this first incarnation, twelve untitled poems that charted and championed a new course for American poetry.