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I celebrate myself, And what I assume you shall assume, For every atom belonging to me as good belongs to you.
This special volume will be a must-have keepsake for fans of Whitman and lovers of American poetry..
There is also an appendix containing the early responses to the volume, including Emerson's letter, Whitman's three self-reviews, and the twenty other known reviews published in various newspapers and magazines.
The volume also boasts an afterword by Whitman authority David Reynolds, in which he discusses the 1855 edition in its social and cultural contexts: its background, its reception, and its contributions to literary history.
Today's readers get a sense of the "ur-text" of Leaves of Grass, the first version of this historic volume, before Whitman made many revisions of both format and style.
This Anniversary Edition captures the typeface, design and layout of the original edition supervised by Whitman himself.
The 1855 edition broke new ground in its relaxed style, which prefigured free verse; in its sexual candor; in its images of racial bonding and democratic togetherness; and in the intensity of its affirmation of the sanctity of the physical world.
Everything about it-the unusual jacket and title page, the exuberant preface, the twelve free-flowing, untitled poems embracing every realm of experience-was new.
Ralph Waldo Emerson judged the book "the most extraordinary piece of wit and wisdom America has yet contributed."
Nothing like the volume had ever appeared before.
The publication of Leaves of Grass in July 1855 was a landmark event in literary history.
I loafe and invite my soul, I lean and loafe at my ease....observing a spear of summer grass."
So begins Leaves of Grass, the first great American poem and indeed, to this day, the greatest and most essentially American poem in all our national literature. "
I celebrate myself, And what I assume you shall assume, For every atom belonging to me as good belongs to you
