Octavo, cloth, uncut; half-title, title, a First and Last Word, contents, x, pp. 452; advertisements. But 1,000 copies were published. Each copy was to be numbered consecutively, though many are found without the number. Most copies have the signatures of one or all the executors.
The volume contains the following by Walt Whitman:
Walt Whitman and his Poems, pp. 13-21.
Leaves of Grass: a volume of poems just published, pp. 23-26.
An English and an American Poet, pp. 27-32.
Letters in Sickness: Washington, 1873, pp. 73-92.
The first three articles were written by Whitman during 1855-56 and sent to the newspapers anonymously. He insisted that considering the misunderstanding and abuse accorded to Leaves of Grass, he was compelled to resort to these methods to defend his work in columns that would have been otherwise closed to him. The latter was a series of letters to his mother.
[*]1895
The Masterpiece Library. XXVII. Poems by Walt Whitman [quotation]. London: "Review of Reviews," Office Price One Penny.
Duodecimo, orange wrappers, pp. 60; advertisements. No. 27 of the Penny Poets.
Quite scarce.
[*] Date registered British Copyright Office.