Original records created by the Library of Congress; revised and expanded by
The Walt Whitman Archive and the University of
Nebraska-Lincoln Libraries. Encoded Archival Description completed with the assistance of the Gladys
Krieble Delmas Foundation, the University of Nebraska Research Council, the
Institute for Museum and Library Services, and the National Endowment for the Humanities.
Title: Walt Whitman
Literary Manuscripts in The Charles E. Feinberg Collection of the Papers of Walt
Whitman, 1839-1919, Library of Congress, Washington, DC.
Collection Number: MSS18630
Creator:
Whitman, Walt, 1819-1892
Collector:
Feinberg, Charles E.
Repository:
Library of Congress
Abstract:
The Feinberg-Whitman Collection includes materials relating to Walt Whitman's life
and his literary career. Whitman's method of composition can be seen through a wide
variety of material in the collection, including handwritten manuscript drafts,
edited proofs and offprints, notebooks, diaries, and commonplace books. Materials in
the collection illustrate Whitman's development as a writer and provide a strong
foundation for scholarship in multiple areas of investigation.
In addition to a strong focus on Whitman's work, the collection also provides
documents that relate to his personal life, including correspondence among family,
friends, and colleagues. The correspondence includes several hundred letters written
by Whitman as well as those he received. The collection also contains photographs
and personal artifacts, such as Whitman's walking stick.
Charles Feinberg's correspondence relating to the quarterly Walt Whitman Review, documents pertaining to selected
publications about Whitman, and items that detail exhibits based on items from the
collection are also included. The collection also includes the papers of Richard
Maurice Bucke, Charles E. Feinberg, John H. Johnston, William Douglas O'Connor, and
Horace and Anne Montgomerie Traubel.
This catalog includes item-level descriptions of only those documents
deemed poetry and/or prose manuscripts.
Biographical Information:
Charles Evan Feinberg was born on September 27, 1899 in
London, England. He moved with his family to Peterborough, Ontario,
Canada in his youth. As one of Samuel and Jane Stocker
Feinberg's eight children, Feinberg began working at age twelve to help support his family. His
formal education ended after the seventh grade, but he continued to educate himself
independently, and he developed a keen interest in American literature,
including,most significantly, Walt Whitman. He first read Whitman's poetry in
William M. Rossetti's
American Poems, and he began
constructing his vast Whitman collection at age seventeen with the purchase of a
letter for $7.50 (a third of Feinberg's weekly income).
Feinberg emigrated to the United
States in 1923 and found a
home in Detroit, Michigan. His work in the home heating oil
industry provided the resources necessary to develop and expand his Whitman
collection. Feinberg purchased letters, postcards,
notebooks, and other items created by Whitman, which document the poet's life and
literary career. His efforts resulted in the largest and most comprehensive Whitman
collection in the world. In addition to Whitman materials, Feinberg also collected Judaica and the works of many other eminent
writers, including Robert Frost.
Feinberg's independent work as a book collector and scholar earned him honorary
doctorates in humane letters from Southern Illinois University,
Carbondale, the University of Detroit,
and St. Thomas University in Miami, and the S. Y. Agnon Gold
Medal for intellectual achievement from Hebrew University. He
wrote articles on Whitman and regularly guest-lectured in college classrooms.
Feinberg, who claimed to be a "custodian, not
a possessor" of his vast collection, variously sold and donated the materials in
this collection over a number of years. He died in 1988.
Whitman Archive Title: "Summer Duck"
Whitman Archive ID: loc.00158
Series: Notes and Notebooks
Box: 39
Folder: Literary, Before 1855, Wood Drake
Date: Between 1852 and 1855
Genre: poetry, prose
Physical Description: 2 leaves, handwritten
View images: 1 | 2 | 3 | 4
Content: These pages were written by Whitman in the early to mid-1850s. William White described the pages as "torn from a tall notebook" (Daybooks and Notebooks [New York: New York University Press, 1978], 770–773). White noted a possible relationship between the opening words and the first poem of the 1855 edition, eventually titled "Song of Myself." The lines at the end of this manuscript were also reworked and used for a different section of the same poem. For further discussion of the dating and importance of this notebook, see Matt Miller, Collage of Myself: Walt Whitman and the Making of Leaves of Grass (Lincoln: University of Nebraska Press, 2010), 26–29.
Whitman Archive Title: 1645–6
Whitman Archive ID: loc.06010
Series: Oversize
Box: OV 11
Folder: 1888, "Elias Hicks"
Date: about 1888
Genre: prose
Physical Description: 1 leaf, handwritten
View images: 1 | 2
Content: These notes are based on Whitman's reading of the third volume of George
L. Craik and Charles Macfarlane's The Pictorial
History of England (New York: Harper & Brothers, 1848).
He incorporated some of this information into his essay "Notes (such as they are) founded on Elias
Hicks," which was first published in November Boughs (1888) and later
reprinted in Complete Prose Works (1892). Whitman planned to write an essay about Elias Hicks
for many years. While finishing preparations for the printing of November Boughs, Whitman told Horace
Traubel, "Some of these bits were written as many as thirty years ago.
Some of them I have written within the past year. They are a
miscellaneous lot but they all belong in the same stream." (See Traubel,
With Walt Whitman in Camden, 2: 42.) The present manuscript is stored together with many other
manuscripts on the topics of Elias Hicks and Quakerism. Those that
directly contributed to the published essay are described separately.
Those whose relationship to the published essay are unclear are not
included at this stage of our work.
Whitman Archive Title: 51st New York Veterans
Whitman Archive ID: loc.00929
Series: Literary File
Box: 32
Folder: 1864, Oct. 29, "Fifty-First New York Veterans,"
New York Times, Manuscript
draft
Date: 1864
Genre: prose
Physical Description: 1 leaf, handwritten
View images: 1 | 2
Content: A partial draft of "Fifty-first New-York City
Veterans," which appeared in the 29 October
1864 issue of the New-York
Times. The verso of this draft includes snippets of prose,
some of which Whitman included in various Civil War writings. The "Case of
Catholic priest & altar &c at side of dying Irish boy" was
included in Memoranda During the War
(1876). The notes on female nurses during
the war were used in "Female Nurses for
Soldiers," first published under the heading, "A Few Words about Female Nurses for
Soldiers," in "The
Soldiers,"
New-York Times (6 March
1865). This prose piece was reprinted in both Memoranda During the War (1876) and Specimen Days &
Collect (1882).
Whitman Archive Title: 9th av.
Whitman Archive ID: loc.00354
Series: Notes and Notebooks
Box: 38
Folder: Undated Thoughts, Ideas, and Trial lines (3
V.)
Date: between 1854 and 1860
Genre: poetry, prose
Physical Description: 45 leaves, handwritten
View images: 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | 10 | 11 | 12 | 13 | 14 | 15 | 16 | 17 | 18 | 19 | 20 | 21 | 22 | 23 | 24 | 25 | 26 | 27 | 28 | 29 | 30 | 31 | 32 | 33 | 34 | 35 | 36 | 37 | 38 | 39 | 40 | 41 | 42 | 43 | 44 | 45 | 46 | 47 | 48 | 49 | 50 | 51 | 52 | 53 | 54 | 55 | 56 | 57 | 58 | 59 | 60 | 61 | 62 | 63 | 64 | 65 | 66 | 67 | 68 | 69 | 70 | 71 | 72 | 73 | 74 | 75 | 76 | 77 | 78 | 79 | 80 | 81 | 82 | 83 | 84 | 85 | 86 | 87 | 88 | 89 | 90
Content: An early notebook Whitman used for various purposes. William White, in his edition of Whitman's Daybooks and Notebooks (New York: New York University Press, 1978. 3 vols.), noted a relationship between rough drafts of poems in this notebook (called "An Early Notebook" in White's edition) and the 1860 poem eventually titled "Starting from Paumanok." On surface 54 is a passage that seems to have contributed to the 1860 poem that became "Song at Sunset." On surface 85 is a passage that perhaps contributed to the 1855 poem later titled "Song of Myself," and a passage on surface 62 might have been used in the 1856 poem eventually titled "Miracles." Because Whitman wrote entries from both ends of the notebook, the writing on about half of the leaves is upside-down in relation to other leaves. Some leaves have become disbound, and their original positions are uncertain. Our ordering is based on the earliest known transcription, done by Fredson Bowers in 1955.
Whitman Archive Title: ? Last Words
Whitman Archive ID: loc.00212
Series: Literary File
Box: 27
Folder: Last Words (1889). A.MS. drafts.
Date: about
1889
Genre: poetry
Physical Description: 1 leaf, handwritten
View images: 1 | 2
Content: Draft of an unpublished poem which was also titled, in other manuscript
drafts, "The last"
and "Recapitulation." The draft was written on the back of a
letter from D. H. Kenaga, dated April 9, 1889.
Whitman Archive Title: ?Some Hours of a half
Paralytic
Whitman Archive ID: loc.03275
Series: Literary File
Box: 29
Folder: Supplement Hours. A.MS. drafts.
Date: about
1881
Genre: poetry
Physical Description: 1 leaf, handwritten
View images: 1 | 2
Content: Draft and trial lines of a poem unpublished in Whitman's lifetime, though published posthumously as "Supplement Hours." The poem was part of a cluster entitled "Old Age Echoes," included in an edition of Leaves of Grass compiled by Whitman's literary executors and published in 1897 (Boston: Small, Maynard).
Whitman Archive Title: A Book of "Contemporaneous
Notes."
Whitman Archive ID: loc.01035
Series: Literary File
Box: 36
Folder: Undated, "Notes on Richard M. Bucke's Book,"
draft
Date: 1881
Genre: prose
Physical Description: 1 leaf, handwritten
View images: 1 | 2
Content: A draft notice describing Richard M. Bucke's plans to publish a book
titled, Contemporaneous Notes of Walt
Whitman. This notice appeared unsigned in the 2 November 1881 issue of the Boston
Evening Transcript under the heading, "Personal."
Whitman Archive Title: A Christmas
Greeting
Whitman Archive ID: loc.00007
Series: Literary File
Box: 26
Folder: A Christmas Greeting (1889). A.MS.
drafts.
Date: about
1889
Genre: poetry
Physical Description: 1 leaf, 20 x 23.5 cm, handwritten
View images: 1 | 2
Content: This manuscript of "A
Christmas Greeting" was apparently intended for the printer,
as there are few alterations. In right hand corner is notation in red:
"if convenient let me have proof by noon." In left hand corner (in
pencil) is the name "Horace Traubel." The poem was first published in
1889.
Whitman Archive Title: A Christmas
Greeting
Whitman Archive ID: loc.00010
Series: Literary File
Box: 26
Folder: A Christmas Greeting (1889). Proof
Sheets.
Date: about
1889
Genre: poetry
Physical Description: 1 leaf, 13.5 x 18.5 cm, printed, handwritten
View images: 1 | 2
Content: A proof of "A Christmas Greeting" with several
corrections.
Whitman Archive Title: A Christmas
Greeting
Whitman Archive ID: loc.00011
Series: Literary File
Box: 26
Folder: A Christmas Greeting (1889). Proof
Sheets.
Date: about
1889
Genre: poetry
Physical Description: 1 leaf, 13.5 x 18.5 cm, handwritten
View images: 1 | 2
Content: A proof with three emendations and a notation by Horace Traubel: "See notes
1/29/90."
Whitman Archive Title: A Clear Midnight
Whitman Archive ID: loc.00062
Series: Literary File
Box: 26
Folder: A Clear Midnight (1881). A.MS. Draft.
Date: about
1880
Genre: poetry, prose
Physical Description: 1 leaf, 19.5 x 14.5 cm, handwritten
View images: 1 | 2
Content: A draft of "A Clear
Midnight," written on the back of a letter from "A.
Williams" dated December 2, 1880. The poem was first published in 1881.
Whitman Archive Title: A Death-Bouquet
Whitman Archive ID: loc.00187
Series: Literary File
Box: 26
Folder: A Death-Bouquet (1890). A.MS. draft.
Date: about
1890
Genre: poetry
Physical Description: 1 leaf, 25 x 19.5 cm, handwritten
View images: 1 | 2
Content: A five-line draft of a poem, entitled "A Death-Bouquet," which was never published
and has an unknown relationship to Whitman's published work. A subtitle
reads "Fresh pick'd noon time early January, 1890, By Walt Whitman." These
lines bear some relation to Whitman's brief essay of the same name.
Whitman Archive Title: A Kiss to the
Bride
Whitman Archive ID: loc.00207
Series: Literary File
Box: 27
Folder: A Kiss to the Bride (May 21, 1874?). Printed
Copy.
Date: May,
1874
Genre: poetry
Physical Description: 1 leaf, 12.5 x 10 cm, handwritten
View images: 1 | 2
Content: A clipped copy of the poem "A Kiss to the Bride" pasted on a larger sheet with a note in
Whitman's hand reading, "Marriage of Nelly Grant, (Mrs. Sartoris) the
President's daughter, May 2nd, 1874." The poem was first
published in the New York Daily
Graphic, May 21, 1874. This clipping appears to be from the poem's reprinting, two days later, in the same newspaper.
Whitman Archive Title: A Riddle Song
Whitman Archive ID: loc.00015
Series: Literary File
Box: 29
Folder: A Riddle Song (1881). A.MS. drafts.
Date: 1880
Genre: poetry
Physical Description: 1 leaf, 22 x 12 cm, handwritten
View images: 1 | 2
Content: A draft of the first five lines of "A Riddle Song," first published in 1880. The draft is written in ink on a surface made by pasting three smaller pieces together. Another small fourth scrap is pasted to the opposite side.
Whitman Archive Title: A Riddle Song
Whitman Archive ID: loc.00290
Series: Literary File
Box: 29
Folder: A Riddle Song (1881). Proof Sheets.
Date: about
1880
Genre: poetry
Physical Description: 1 leaf, printed, handwritten
View images: 1
Content: Proof sheet of "A Riddle
Song," first published in 1880, with
corrections in Whitman's hand.
Whitman Archive Title: A Sermon Preached in the Central
Reformed Protestant Dutch Church, Brooklyn, on Sabbath Morning, the
27th Day of July, 1851
Whitman Archive ID: loc.03784
Series: Miscellany
Box: 48
Folder: 13
Date: 1851 and about
1862
Genre: prose
Physical Description: , handwritten, printed
View images: 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7
Content: Whitman's copy of this booklet, published in 1851, with handwritten
annotations on several pages. The longest of these notes, which appears
on p. 2 of the appendix, constitutes a draft of a passage that Whitman
incorporated into the ninth number of his "Brooklyniana" series, which was published in the Brooklyn Standard on February 1, 1862. Only those pages bearing Whitman's annotations are currently linked from this record.
Whitman Archive Title: A Thought of
Columbus
Whitman Archive ID: loc.00328
Series: Literary File
Box: 29
Folder: A Thought of Columbus (1892). A.MS.
drafts.
Date: 1892
Genre: poetry
Physical Description: 1 leaf, handwritten
View images: 1 | 2
Content: A complete draft of "A
Thought of Columbus" written on two long strips of various
fragments pasted together and three smaller pieces. According to Horace
Traubel, this was the last poem Whitman wrote. It was published first in
1892.
Whitman Archive Title: A Thought of
Columbus
Whitman Archive ID: loc.00333
Series: Literary File
Box: 29
Folder: A Thought of Columbus (1892). A.MS.
drafts.
Date: about
1892
Genre: poetry
Physical Description: 1 leaf, handwritten
View images: 1 | 2
Content: A draft of lines for "A
Thought of Columbus." According to Horace Traubel, this was
the last poem Whitman wrote. It was published first in 1892.
Whitman Archive Title: A Twilight Song
Whitman Archive ID: loc.00318
Series: Literary File
Box: 30
Folder: A Twilight Song (1890). Proof Sheets.
Date: about
1890
Genre: poetry
Physical Description: 1 leaf, 20.25 x 18.5 cm, handwritten
View images: 1 | 2
Content: Proof of "A Twilight
Song," which was first published in 1890, with
corrections in Whitman's hand and with notes from both Whitman and the printer.
Whitman Archive Title: A Twilight Song
Whitman Archive ID: loc.00351
Series: Literary File
Box: 30
Folder: A Twilight Song (1890). Proof Sheets.
Date: about
1890
Genre: poetry
Physical Description: 1 leaf, 20.25 x 18.5 cm, handwritten
View images: 1 | 2
Content: Proof of "A Twilight
Song," which was first published in 1890, with notes in Whitman's hand.
Whitman Archive Title: A Twilight Song
Whitman Archive ID: loc.00352
Series: Literary File
Box: 30
Folder: A Twilight Song (1890). Proof Sheets.
Date: about
1890
Genre: poetry
Physical Description: 1 leaf, 20.25 x 18.5 cm, handwritten
View images: 1 | 2
Content: Proof of "A Twilight
Song," which was first published in 1890, with a note in Whitman's hand.
Whitman Archive Title: After All, Not to Create
Only
Whitman Archive ID: loc.05680
Series: Literary File
Box: 25
Folder: After All, Not to Create Only (1871). Proof
Sheets
Date: about
1871
Genre: poetry
Physical Description: both 11 leaves, handwritten
View images: 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | 10 | 11 | 12 | 13 | 14 | 15 | 16 | 17 | 18 | 19 | 20 | 21 | 22 | 23 | 24
Content: Proof sheets printed by Pearson, Washington. Whitman made only one
correction (see surface 11). "After All, Not to Create
Only" was first published in 1871. It was
later revised and the title was changed to "Song of the Exposition."
Whitman Archive Title: After Twenty Years
Whitman Archive ID: loc.00176
Series: Literary File
Box: 26
Folder: After Twenty Years (1888). Proof
Sheets.
Date: about
1888
Genre: poetry
Physical Description: 1 leaf, 18.5 x 15.5 cm, handwritten
View images: 1 | 2
Content: Written in ink at the top of a proof of "After Twenty Years," are six words:
"From the English Magazine of Art." This poem was published under the
title "Twenty Years"
in 1888.
Whitman Archive Title: After all, not to create
only
Whitman Archive ID: loc.00382
Series: Literary File
Box: 25
Folder: After All, Not to Create Only (1871). Manuscript
Drafts and Notes.
Date: about
1871
Genre: poetry
Physical Description: 30 leaves, largest 25 x 20 cm, handwritten
View images: 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | 10 | 11 | 12 | 13 | 14 | 15 | 16 | 17 | 18 | 19 | 20 | 21 | 22 | 23 | 24 | 25 | 26 | 27 | 28 | 29 | 30 | 31 | 32 | 33 | 34 | 35 | 36 | 37 | 38 | 39 | 40 | 41 | 42 | 43 | 44 | 45 | 46 | 47 | 48 | 49 | 50 | 51 | 52 | 53 | 54 | 55 | 56 | 57 | 58 | 59 | 60 | 61 | 62
Content: Bound manuscript of "After
all, not to create only." Although the manuscript contains
many revisions, it appears to be relatively near the final draft.
Whitman wrote this poem following a request by the Committee on
Invitations of the American Institute to deliver an original poem at the
opening of the Fortieth Annual Exhibition. "After All, Not to Create Only" was first
published in 1871. It was later revised and the title
changed to "Song of the
Exposition."
Whitman Archive Title: After the Argument
Whitman Archive ID: loc.00001
Series: Literary File
Box: 26
Folder: After the Argument (1891). A.MS.S.
draft
Date: 1890 or
1891
Genre: poetry
Physical Description: 1 leaf, 9.5 x 21.5 cm, handwritten
View images: 1 | 2
Content: A draft of "After the
Argument." The poem was published first in Lippincott's Magazine,
March, 1891.
Whitman Archive Title: After the Dazzle of
Day
Whitman Archive ID: loc.00002
Series: Literary File
Box: 26
Folder: After the Dazzle of Day (1888). A.MS.
draft
Date: 1887 or 1888
Genre: poetry
Physical Description: 1 leaf, 14 x 14.5 cm, handwritten
View images: 1 | 2
Content: This four-line poem was first published in the New York Herald, February 3, 1888. In the lower right-hand corner is the
notation: "For Francis Howard Williams, May 1896, Traubel."
Whitman Archive Title: After the Supper and
Talk
Whitman Archive ID: loc.00004
Series: Literary File
Box: 26
Folder: After the Supper and Talk (1888). A.MS.
drafts
Date: between 1884 and 1888
Genre: poetry, prose
Physical Description: 1 leaf, 28 x 25.5 cm, handwritten
View images: 1 | 2
Content: Signed draft of the poem "After the Supper and Talk," which was first submitted to Harper's in 1885 but was rejected. It was later published in Lippincott's Magazine in November, 1887. This manuscript draft, however, may well have been intended for neither journal because of the reference to "volume" in the bracketed note. In November Boughs (1888) Whitman used "After the Supper and Talk" as the concluding poem in the volume; it was followed by numerous prose pieces. On the reverse of this manuscript leaf is pasted a proof sheet from the poem eventually titled "Song of the Exposition," with one correction.
Whitman Archive Title: After the Supper and
Talk
Whitman Archive ID: loc.00175
Series: Literary File
Box: 26
Folder: After the Supper and talk (1887). Proof
Sheets.
Date: about
1887
Genre: poetry, prose
Physical Description: 1 leaf, 12 x 15 cm, handwritten
View images: 1 | 2
Content: A proof of "After the Supper
and Talk," with corrections (all punctuation) in ink and two
words written in purple pencil: "30 Copies." This poem was published
first in 1887.
Whitman Archive Title: Ah, Not This Granite Dead
and Cold
Whitman Archive ID: loc.00067
Series: Literary File
Box: 26
Folder: Ah, Not This Granite Dead and Cold (1885). Proof
Sheets.
Date: about
1885
Genre: poetry
Physical Description: 1 leaf, 24.5 x 15 cm, handwritten
View images: 1 | 2
Content: Proof with Whitman's holograph corrections. Published first under this
title in 1885. Later published as "Washington's Monument, February, 1885."
Whitman Archive Title: Airs of Lilac Time
Whitman Archive ID: loc.00145
Series: Notes and Notebooks
Box: 39
Folder: Literary, 1870? Airs of Lilac Time
Date: about
1870
Genre: poetry, prose
Physical Description: 4 leaves, handwritten
View images: 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8
Content: A bound notebook with a title page reading "Airs of Lilac Time for 1870, '71,
&c" and two pages with lists of words and a few trial lines.
Whitman Archive Title: America
Whitman Archive ID: loc.00006
Series: Literary File
Box: 26
Folder: America (1888). A.MS. Draft.
Date: between 1870 and 1892
Genre: poetry
Physical Description: 1 leaf, 18.5 x 21.5 cm, handwritten
View images: 1 | 2
Content: Despite the title, this manuscript does not appear to be a draft of the
poem, "America,"
published in 1888, but it has been published
separately and posthumously as "[America]" and begins "No Homer, Shakspere,
Voltaire." This manuscript was likely composed in the last two decades
of Whitman's career (roughly 1870-1892) when he was more apt to
mention other writers explicitly in his poetry.
Whitman Archive Title: America to Old-World
Bards
Whitman Archive ID: loc.00047
Series: Literary File
Box: 26
Folder: America to Old World Bards (1891). A.MS.
drafts.
Date: 1890 or 1891
Genre: poetry
Physical Description: 6 leaves, handwritten
View images: 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | 10 | 11 | 12
Content: Written in ink on the inside of four discarded envelopes, one letter, and
a sheet made by pasting together the insides of three discarded
envelopes (all sent to Whitman in September and October 1890),
entitled "America to
Old-World Bards: A reminiscence from reading Walter Scott,"
published as "Old
Chants" in 1891.
Whitman Archive Title: An Old Man's
Recitatives
Whitman Archive ID: loc.00230
Series: Literary File
Box: 28
Folder: Old Age Recitatives (1891). Proof
Sheets.
Date: about
1890
Genre: poetry, prose
Physical Description: 1 leaf, 36.5 x 19.5 cm, handwritten
View images: 1 | 2
Content: Proofs of four poems pasted together and collected under the main
handwritten title "An Old
Man's Recitatives." The poems included are: "Ancient songs
reciting" (published as "Old Chants" in 1891), "Grand is the seen"
(first published in 1891), "Death dogs my steps" (published as part of
"L. of G.'s
Purport" in 1891), and "For us two, reader dear," first published
in 1891. A note in Whitman's hand in the right margin details
failed attempts to publish this grouping in Scribner's.
Whitman Archive Title: And I say the stars
Whitman Archive ID: loc.00042
Series: Literary File
Box: 29
Folder: Song of Myself (1855). A.MS. draft.
Date: Between 1850 and 1855
Genre: poetry, prose
Physical Description: 1 leaf, handwritten
View images: 1 | 2
Content: Whitman probably drafted this manuscript in the early 1850s as he was composing the first (1855) edition of Leaves of Grass. The lines are similar to lines in the first and third poems in that edition, eventually titled "Song of Myself" and "To Think of Time." Similar draft lines also appear in "Talbot Wilson," an early notebook (loc.00141). On the verso (loc.07869) is a draft of a piece of journalism published on October 20, 1854.
Whitman Archive Title: And there is the meteor-shower
Whitman Archive ID: loc.06006
Series: Notes and Notebooks
Box: 40
Folder: The voice of Walt Whitman
Date: Between 1855 and 1860
Genre: poetry
Physical Description: 1 leaf, handwritten
View images: 1 | 2
Content: One leaf made by pasting together two scraps of pink paper, probably
wrappers from the 1855 edition of Leaves of Grass. This manuscript contains approximately
four poetic lines, written and revised in ink, about the 1833 Leonid meteor shower. It is possible that these lines are related to the poem "Year
of Meteors. (1859–1860)," although other than a mention of meteors and the description of them as "dazzling," the subject of the manuscript seems to have little to do with the subject of the poem, which is mostly about the portents of the Civil War. "Year of Meteors" was first published in Drum-Taps (1865).
Richard Maurice Bucke's transcription of these lines in Notes and Fragments (1899) begins
with another version of these lines and an additional line following
them. It is possible that these lines were present on the manuscript
when he made his transcription but have since been cut off, though it is
also possible that Bucke combined transcriptions from separate leaves.
The now-absent final line of Bucke's transcription reads, "Such have I
in the round house hanging—such pictures name I—and they are
but little." If indeed Whitman wrote this line as part of the present
manuscript, it would connect it with the early poem "Pictures," unpublished during Whitman's
lifetime. Given the use of the 1855 wrapper paper, this was likely composed between late 1855 and 1860. On the reverse side, made up of two different scraps are the trial title "Poem of the Trainer," (loc.06005) which is written in ink, and several
fragmentary lines written in pencil (loc.07550), describing a whale hunt and likely related to "Song of Joys".
Whitman Archive Title: Antietam, Manassas
Whitman Archive ID: loc.01780
Series: Notes and Notebooks
Box: 41
Folder: Undated, War Notes
Date: 1870–1880
Genre: poetry, prose
Physical Description: 1 leaf, handwritten
View images: 1 | 2
Content: A list of Civil War battles that includes a draft of a poetic line with no known connection to Whitman's published work.
Whitman Archive Title: As One by One Withdraw the
Lofty Actors
Whitman Archive ID: loc.00178
Series: Literary File
Box: 26
Folder: As One by One Withdraw the Lofty Actors (1885).
Printed Copy—Camden Post, May 15, 1885.
Date: May 15,
1885
Genre: poetry
Physical Description: 1 leaf, 54.5 x 36 cm, handwritten
View images: 1
Content: A page of The Post,
Camden, N.J., 15
May 1885. Written in pencil in the margin at the top of front
page are five words in Whitman's hand: "As one by one Withdraw." The
Library of Congress's description of the item mentions that page three
of the newspaper includes a reprint from Harper's Weekly of "As One by One Withdraw the
Lofty Actors"; however, only one page of the newspaper is currently in the
folder. "As One by One
Withdraw the Lofty Actors" was later published as "Death of General
Grant."
Whitman Archive Title: As One by One Withdraw the
Lofty Actors
Whitman Archive ID: loc.00179
Series: Literary File
Box: 26
Folder: As One by One Withdraw the Lofty Actors. Proof
Sheets.
Date: about
1885
Genre: poetry
Physical Description: 1 leaf, 16.5 x 15 cm, handwritten
View images: 1 | 2
Content: Written in pencil at the bottom of a proof of "As One by One Withdraw the Lofty Actors," a
thirteen-line poem on President Grant's death, with a printed signature,
four words: "Harper's Weekly, May 16." On the verso in another hand is
"tr Nov 20
1885." Pasted on the verso is a small piece of paper, 5.25 x
10.75 cm, on which is written: "This fragment of Whitman's, Mr. (John)
Burroughs sent me recently, with a lot of old papers & letters. As
it has a memorandum in WW's hand, I know you will like to have it.
C(lara).B(arrus)." This poem, published first in 1885, was also published as "Death of General Grant."
Whitman Archive Title: As One by One Withdraw the
Lofty Actors
Whitman Archive ID: loc.00180
Series: Literary File
Box: 26
Folder: As One by One Withdraw the Lofty Actors. Proof
Sheets.
Date: about
1885
Genre: poetry
Physical Description: 1 leaf, handwritten
View images: 1 | 2
Content: Signed proof of the thirteen-line poem, "As One by One Withdraw the Lofty Actors,"
first published in 1885, later published as "Death of General
Grant."
Whitman Archive Title: As One by One Withdraw the
Lofty Actors
Whitman Archive ID: loc.00492
Series: Literary File
Box: 26
Folder: As One by One Withdraw the Lofty Actors. Proof
Sheets.
Date: about
1885
Genre: poetry
Physical Description: 1 leaf, handwritten
View images: 1 | 2
Content: Annotated proof of the thirteen-line poem, "As One by One Withdraw the Lofty Actors,"
first published in 1885, later published as "Death of General
Grant." This proof includes a notation suggesting the printed
signature be moved to the left and that three words, "in Harper's
Weekly," be inserted.
Whitman Archive Title: As in a Swoon
Whitman Archive ID: loc.00177
Series: Literary File
Box: 26
Folder: As In A Swoon. Proof.
Date: about
1876
Genre: poetry, prose
Physical Description: 1 leaf, 6.5 x 12.5 cm, printed, handwritten
View images: 1 | 2
Content: A proof pasted on another sheet of paper, with seven words in Whitman's
hand: "Walt Whitman, (discarded from last booklet.)" "As in a Swoon" was
published first in 1876.
Whitman Archive Title: As the Greek's Signal
Flame
Whitman Archive ID: loc.00493
Series: Literary File
Box: 26
Folder: As The Greek's Signal Flame (1887). Proof
Sheets.
Date: about
1887
Genre: poetry
Physical Description: 1 leaf, 12 x 15.25 cm, printed, handwritten
View images: 1 | 2
Content: At the top of a proof of "As the Greek's Signal Flame" are nine words: "If convenient put in paper
of Saturday Dec. 17."
Whitman Archive Title: Ashes of
heroes
Whitman Archive ID: loc.00054
Series: Literary File
Box: 26
Folder: Beat! Beat! Drums! (1861). A. MS.
draft.
Date: about
1870-1871
Genre: poetry
Physical Description: 2 leaves, handwritten
View images: 1 | 2 | 3 | 4
Content: Draft of lines which bear a relationship to "Ashes of Soldiers," first published in
1865.
This manuscript was likely composed around 1870-1871, when
Whitman was revising and expanding the poem for republication. This
manuscript appears to be a draft of the first two linegroups of "Ashes of Soldiers."
These linegroups were added in 1871 to a poem first published as "Hymn of Dead Soldiers"
in Drum-Taps (1865). It
was only in 1871 that he added the imagery of ashes to this poem.
Whitman Archive Title: Ashes of Roses
Whitman Archive ID: loc.00050
Series: Literary File
Box: 26
Folder: Ashes of Roses. A.MS. drafts and notes.
Date: between 1868 and
1871
Genre: poetry
Physical Description: 2 leaves, 23.5 x 13.5 and 10 x 13.5 cm, handwritten
View images: 1 | 2 | 3 | 4
Content: Poem draft, parts of which have been printed as "? Ashes of Roses." The
manuscript may bear a relationship to "Ashes of Soldiers," a poem published first
in 1865 as "Hymn
of Dead Soldiers" in Drum-Taps. It was only in 1871 that Whitman added the
imagery of ashes to this poem. The manuscript was likely composed around
1870-1871, when Whitman was revising and expanding the poem for
republication. Alternatively, the manuscript may be a draft of a unique
poetic work unpublished in Whitman's lifetime.
Whitman Archive Title: Autumn Rivulets
Whitman Archive ID: loc.00181
Series: Literary File
Box: 26
Folder: Autumn Rivulets (1881). Proof Sheets.
Date: about
1881
Genre: poetry
Physical Description: 1 leaf, handwritten
View images: 1 | 2
Content: A proof of "As Consequent, Etc.," with cancelled title. This proof is housed at the Library of Congress with another, similarly marked, proof of "As Consequent, Etc." (Whitman Archive ID: loc.00494) and unmarked proofs of the following poems: "From Far Dakota's Cañons,"
"A Farm Picture,"
"What Best I See on
Thee" (U.S. Grant), "The Sobbing of the Bells,"
"Italian Music in
Dakota,"
"By Broad Potomac's
Shore,"
"Excelsior,"
"With All thy
Gifts,"
"To Rich Givers,"
"The Dalliance of the
Eagles,"
"Tears,"
"After the
Sea-Ship,"
"Aboard at a Ship's
Helm," and "Thick-Sprinkled Bunting." "As Consequent, Etc." was
published first in 1881.
Whitman Archive Title: Autumn Rivulets
Whitman Archive ID: loc.00494
Series: Literary File
Box: 26
Folder: Autumn Rivulets (1881). Proof Sheets.
Date: about
1881
Genre: poetry
Physical Description: 1 leaf, handwritten
View images: 1 | 2
Content: A proof of "As Consequent, Etc.," with cancelled title. This proof is housed at the Library of Congress with another, similarly marked, proof of "As Consequent, Etc." (Whitman Archive ID: loc.00181) and unmarked proofs of the following poems: "From Far Dakota's Cañons,"
"A Farm Picture,"
"What Best I See on
Thee" (U.S. Grant), "The Sobbing of the Bells,"
"Italian Music in
Dakota,"
"By Broad Potomac's
Shore,"
"Excelsior,"
"With All thy
Gifts,"
"To Rich Givers,"
"The Dalliance of the
Eagles,"
"Tears,"
"After the
Sea-Ship,"
"Aboard at a Ship's
Helm," and "Thick-Sprinkled Bunting." "As Consequent, Etc." was
published first in 1881.
Whitman Archive Title: Aye, well I know 'tis
ghastly to descend
Whitman Archive ID: loc.00107
Series: Literary File
Box: 26
Folder: Death's Valley (1889). A.MS. drafts and printed
copies.
Date: about
1889
Genre: poetry
Physical Description: 1 leaf, handwritten
View images: 1 | 2
Content: Eight lines evidently written originally as part of "Death's Valley," which
was published first in Harper's
New Monthly Magazine in 1892. The stanza
later was slightly revised and published as "On the Same Picture" (the title was
probably supplied by Traubel) in 1897.
Whitman Archive Title: Beat! beat! drums!
Whitman Archive ID: loc.00051
Series: Literary File
Box: 26
Folder: Beat! Beat! Drums! (1861). A. MS.
draft.
Date: 1861
Genre: poetry
Physical Description: 1 leaf, handwritten
View images: 1 | 2
Content: This manuscript is a draft of the first stanza of the poem "Beat! Beat! Drums!" The poem was first published
simultaneously in both Harper's
Weekly and the New York Leader on September 28,
1861. On the reverse (loc.07461) are poetic lines on the death of Abraham Lincoln.
Whitman Archive Title: Behind this Mask
Whitman Archive ID: loc.00251
Series: Literary File
Box: 28
Folder: Out from Behind This Mask (1876). A.MS.
draft.
Date: between
1873-1876
Genre: poetry
Physical Description: 2 leaves, handwritten
View images: 1 | 2 | 3 | 4
Content: Notes and trial lines for the poem "Out From Behind This Mask," first published
in 1876, written on the verso of a letter to Whitman from
Minnie Vincent, dated Utica, New York, December 11, 1873, asking for
an autograph).
Whitman Archive Title: Bravo, Paris
Exhibition!
Whitman Archive ID: loc.00056
Series: Literary File
Box: 26
Folder: Bravo, Paris Exposition! (1889). A.MS.
drafts.
Date: about
1889
Genre: poetry
Physical Description: 1 leaf, 21 x 27.5 cm, handwritten
View images: 1 | 2
Content: A draft of the poem published as "Bravo, Paris Exposition!" in 1889, with a diagonal line striking through the entire
page.
Whitman Archive Title: Bravo, Paris
Exhibition!
Whitman Archive ID: loc.00057
Series: Literary File
Box: 26
Folder: Bravo, Paris Exposition! (1889). A.MS.
drafts.
Date: about
1889
Genre: poetry
Physical Description: 1 leaf, 21 x 27.5 cm, handwritten
View images: 1 | 2
Content: Signed draft of a poem with a variation in line 1 from the printed
version. On the verso, written in pencil: "Can you use this? Put it
under the "Personal" head like you did a year ago? "The price is $10,
which please send me by mail here." In ink is the start of another
sentence: "If you don't want it." The poem was published under the title
"Bravo, Paris
Exposition!" in 1889.
Whitman Archive Title: Bravo, Paris
Exposition!
Whitman Archive ID: loc.00058
Series: Literary File
Box: 26
Folder: Bravo, Paris Exposition! (1889). Proof
Sheets.
Date: about
1889
Genre: poetry
Physical Description: 1 leaf, 11.5 x 15 cm, handwritten
View images: 1 | 2
Content: A proof sheet of "Bravo,
Paris Exposition!" with corrections in Whitman's hand. "Bravo, Paris
Exposition!" was published in 1889.
Whitman Archive Title: Bravo, Paris
Exposition!
Whitman Archive ID: loc.00059
Series: Literary File
Box: 26
Folder: Bravo, Paris Exposition! (1889). Proof
Sheets.
Date: about
1889
Genre: poetry
Physical Description: 1 leaf, 11.5 x 15 cm, handwritten
View images: 1 | 2
Content: A proof sheet of "Bravo,
Paris Exposition!" with corrections in Whitman's hand. "Bravo, Paris
Exposition!" was published in 1889.
Whitman Archive Title: Bravo, Paris
Exposition!
Whitman Archive ID: loc.00060
Series: Literary File
Box: 26
Folder: Bravo, Paris Exposition! (1889). Proof
Sheets.
Date: about
1889
Genre: poetry
Physical Description: 1 leaf, 11.5 x 15 cm, handwritten
View images: 1 | 2
Content: A proof sheet of "Bravo,
Paris Exposition!" with corrections in Whitman's hand. At the
top is a note reading "See notes, Oct 31, '89." "Bravo, Paris
Exposition!" was published in 1889.
Whitman Archive Title: Bravo, Paris
Exposition!
Whitman Archive ID: loc.00061
Series: Literary File
Box: 26
Folder: Bravo, Paris Exposition! (1889). Proof
Sheets.
Date: about
1889
Genre: poetry
Physical Description: 1 leaf, handwritten
View images: 1 | 2
Content: A proof sheet of "Bravo,
Paris Exposition!" with corrections in Whitman's hand. At the
top is a note in Traubel's hand: "Rec'd from W.W. Sept 30,
'89". "Bravo,
Paris Exposition!" was published in 1889.
Whitman Archive Title: Brooklyn theatres
Whitman Archive ID: loc.04742
Series: Notes and Notebooks
Date: about 1862
Genre: prose
Physical Description: 1 leaf, handwritten
View images: 1 | 2
Content: Two paragraphs, lightly corrected, about the first theater building in
Brooklyn. Whitman used this material in the eighth installment of "Brooklyniana; A Series of Local Articles, on
Past and Present." This series was published in the Brooklyn Standard
between June 3, 1861 and November 1,
1862. "Brooklyniana, No.
8" appeared on January 25, 1862.
Whitman Archive Title: But when a voice in our hearing
Whitman Archive ID: loc.01018
Series: Literary File
Box: 32
Date: Between 1850 and 1855
Genre: prose
Physical Description: 1 leaf, handwritten
View images: 1 | 2
Content: This manuscript discusses the Fugitive Slave Law of 1850 and issues of state sovereignty. It was probably written not long after the law's passage, likely between 1850 and 1855.
Whitman Archive Title: By Thine Own Lips, O
Sea
Whitman Archive ID: loc.00012
Series: Literary File
Box: 26
Folder: By Thine Own Lips, O Sea (1883). A.MS.
draft.
Date: about
1884
Genre: poetry
Physical Description: 1 leaf, 26 x 20.5 cm, handwritten
View images: 1 | 2
Content: An early draft of "With Husky-Haughty
Lips, O Sea!" The poem was published in Harper's Monthly, March, 1884,
Whitman Archive Title: By day the
distant
Whitman Archive ID: loc.00009
Series: Literary File
Box: 26
Folder: By Day the Distant Shadowy Sails (1883). A.MS.
draft.
Date: October,
1883
Genre: poetry
Physical Description: 1 leaf, 17 x 15 cm, handwritten
View images: 1 | 2
Content: Lines that likely constitute an early draft of "With Husky-Haughty Lips, O
Sea!" This poem was published first in Harper's Monthly Magazine, March, 1884.
Whitman Archive Title: Certainties, Faith,
Counterbalances, Alternation
Whitman Archive ID: loc.00075
Series: Literary File
Box: 26
Folder: Certainties, Faith, Counterbalances, Alternation.
A.MS. draft.
Date: about
1887 or 1888
Genre: poetry
Physical Description: 1 leaf, 25 x 20 cm, handwritten
View images: 1 | 2
Content: Written in ink on the back of a discarded letter (cancelled by a
diagonal strike) from Talcott Williams, this draft appears to be trial
lines for the poem later published as "Continuities" in the New York Herald, March 20, 1888.
Whitman Archive Title: Citizens took by mutual agreement
Whitman Archive ID: loc.05704
Series: Notes and Notebooks
Box: 38
Folder: Brooklyniana, n.d.
Date: Between 1853 and 1855
Genre: prose
Physical Description: 1 leaf, handwritten
View images: 1 | 2
Content: A scrap of prose discussing the building of sidewalks in Brooklyn. The writing has no known connection to Whitman's published work. The leaf originally was part of a larger notebook (loc.00024) that probably dates to between 1853 and 1855. The cancelled lines on the back of this leaf (loc.05705) were revised and used in the 1855 edition of Leaves of Grass. Since the poetic lines have been crossed out and the prose has not, it's likely that the prose was written later, but likely not much later, based on the similarity of the handwriting. Therefore, this manuscript was likely written around 1855.
Whitman Archive Title: Cluster of Sonnet
Poems
Whitman Archive ID: loc.00172
Series: Notes and Notebooks
Box: 40
Folder: Literary, Undated, These Days
Date: undated
Genre: poetry, prose
Physical Description: 2 leaves, handwritten
View images: 1 | 2
Content: Notes for a "Cluster of Sonnet Poems" about the "splendor and copiousness
of These Days."
Whitman Archive Title: Columbus
Whitman Archive ID: loc.00335
Series: Literary File
Box: 29
Folder: A Thought of Columbus (1892). A.MS.
drafts.
Date: 1892
Genre: poetry
Physical Description: 1 leaf, handwritten
View images: 1
Content: A brown envelope that Horace Traubel said contained the manuscript of
"A Thought of
Columbus" that Whitman gave him shortly before he died in
1892.
Whitman Archive Title: Columbus Prayer (ad
1503)
Whitman Archive ID: loc.00270
Series: Literary File
Box: 28
Folder: Prayer of Columbus (1874). A.MS. draft and
notes.
Date: about
1874
Genre: poetry
Physical Description: 1 leaf, handwritten
View images: 1 | 2
Content: Notes on the title of the poem that became "Prayer of Columbus," first published in
1874.
Whitman Archive Title: Columbus Prayers (ad
1503)
Whitman Archive ID: loc.00271
Series: Literary File
Box: 28
Folder: Prayer of Columbus (1874). A.MS. draft and
notes.
Date: about
1874
Genre: poetry, prose
Physical Description: 1 leaf, handwritten
View images: 1 | 2
Content: A draft of lines from "Prayer of Columbus," first published in 1874. On the
verso is prose concerning "Nationality" and "Cohesion."
Whitman Archive Title: Come, Muse, migrate from
Greece and Ionia
Whitman Archive ID: loc.00383
Series: Literary File
Box: 25
Folder: After All, Not to Create Only (1871). Manuscript
Drafts and Notes.
Date: about
1871
Genre: poetry
Physical Description: 10 leaves, largest 25 x 20 cm, handwritten
View images: 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | 10 | 11 | 12 | 13 | 14 | 15 | 16 | 17 | 18 | 19
Content: A relatively clean draft titled "Come, Muse, migrate from Greece and Ionia." This material was later incorporated into
"After All, Not to
Create Only," first published in 1871. That poem
was later revised and title changed to "Song of the Exposition."
Whitman Archive Title: Come, Muse, migrate from Greece and Ionia
Whitman Archive ID: loc.00380
Series: Literary File
Box: 25
Folder: After All, Not to Create Only (1871). Manuscript Drafts and Notes.
Date: about
1871
Genre: poetry
Physical Description: 4 leaves, handwritten
View images: 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8
Content: Four pages of lines later revised and included in "After All, Not to Create
Only," first published 1871. That poem was later
revised and the title changed to "Song of the Exposition."
Whitman Archive Title: Come, Said My Soul
Whitman Archive ID: loc.00183
Series: Literary File
Box: 26
Folder: Come, said my Soul… Proof with
signature.
Date: 1881
Genre: poetry
Physical Description: 1 leaf, handwritten
View images: 1 | 2
Content: Signed proof page with no annotations. On verso reads "Copyright 1881, By Walt
Whitman, All rights reserved"
Whitman Archive Title: Complete Poems & Prose of
Walt Whitman
Whitman Archive ID: loc.00044
Series: Literary File
Box: 19
Folder: Complete Poems and Prose (1888), Manuscript drafts,
Title page
Date: about
1888
Genre: prose
Physical Description: 1 leaf, handwritten
View images: 1 | 2
Content: A mock title page for Complete Poems & Prose
of Walt Whitman, 1855–1888 Authenticated & Personal Book
(handled by W.W.) Portraits from Life...Autograph (1888).
Whitman Archive Title: Death Dogs My
Steps
Whitman Archive ID: loc.00120
Series: Literary File
Box: 26
Folder: Death Dogs My Steps (1890). A.MS.
draft.
Date: about March
3, 1890
Genre: poetry
Physical Description: 1 leaf, 12 x 19 cm, handwritten
View images: 1 | 2
Content: Draft of "Death Dogs My
Steps" written in ink on the inside of a discarded and opened
out envelope, addressed to Whitman from England, mailed in London February 21,
1890 and postmarked received in Camden March 3,
1890. The three lines later appeared as part of "L. of G.'s Purport,"
first published in 1891.
Whitman Archive Title: Death's Valley
Whitman Archive ID: loc.00189
Series: Literary File
Box: 26
Folder: Death's Valley (1889). A.MS. drafts and printed
copies.
Date: about
1889
Genre: poetry
Physical Description: 4 leaves, handwritten
View images: 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6
Content: A heavily marked-up draft of "Death's Valley," a poem requested by Harper's Magazine and
submitted in 1889, but not published until 1892.
Whitman Archive Title: Diary in Canada
Whitman Archive ID: loc.00151
Series: Diaries, Diary Notes, and Address Books
Box: 2
Folder: June-Aug. 1880. Diary in Canada Vol.
II.
Date: 1880
Genre: poetry
Physical Description: , handwritten
View images: 1
Content: Whitman's diary from his trip to Canada in 1880. William White, in his edition of
Whitman's Daybooks and Notebooks, noted
a relationship between material in this notebook and the poem "The Pilot in the
Mist."
Whitman Archive Title: Down, down, proud
gorge
Whitman Archive ID: loc.00192
Series: Literary File
Box: 26
Folder: Down, Down, Proud Gorge. A.MS. draft.
Date: about
1889
Genre: poetry
Physical Description: 1 leaf, 28 x 21.5 cm, handwritten
View images: 1 | 2
Content: A draft of a poem titled "Down, down, proud gorge." At the bottom of the same leaf is
another draft of a poem entitled "Are they last words?" These drafts were
later greatly revised and combined when published in 1889 with the
title "To the Year
1889," later re-titled "To the Pending Year."
Whitman Archive Title: Ebb and Flood
Tides
Whitman Archive ID: loc.00195
Series: Literary File
Box: 26
Folder: Ebb and Flood Tides A.MS. draft.
Date: undated
Genre: poetry
Physical Description: 1 leaf, 15 x 24.25 cm, handwritten
View images: 1 | 2
Content: An unpublished poem written in ink on a pale tan piece of paper, heavily
corrected.
Whitman Archive Title: Entering a long farm-lane
Whitman Archive ID: loc.01030
Series: Literary File
Box: 36
Folder: Undated, "A Long Farm-Lane," draft
Date: about
1882
Genre: prose
Physical Description: 2 leaves, handwritten
View images: 1 | 2 | 3 | 4
Content: A draft of "Entering a Long Farm-Lane,"
which first appeared in Specimen Days &
Collect (1882) before being collected in Complete Prose Works (1892).
Whitman Archive Title: Fancies at
Navesink
Whitman Archive ID: loc.00327
Series: Literary File
Box: 27
Folder: Fancies at Navesink (1885). Proof
Sheets.
Date: about
1885
Genre: poetry
Physical Description: 1 leaf, 48 x 15 cm, handwritten
View images: 1
Content: An oversized proof of "Fancies at Navesink," a group of poems first published in
1885. The poems in this cluster are: "The Pilot in the
Mist,"
"Had I the Choice,"
"You Tides with Ceaseless
Swell,"
"Last of Ebb, and Daylight
Waning,"
"Proudly the Flood Comes
In,"
"By That Long Scan of
Waves," and "Then Last of All." In this proof, the poems "Last of Ebb, and Daylight
Waning" and "And
Yet Not You Alone" are not separated, and "And Yet Not You Alone"
appears as the final stanza of the first poem. This proof is grouped
with two others at the Library of Congress. The proofs have no editorial
corrections, but one (pictured here) is signed by Whitman and another
contains a note in another hand reading, "from the papers of Walt
Whitman given to Mosher by Traubel 1906."
Whitman Archive Title: For Queen Victoria's
Birthday
Whitman Archive ID: loc.00198
Series: Literary File
Box: 27
Folder: For Queen Victoria's Birthday (1890). Proof
Sheets
Date: about
1890
Genre: poetry, prose
Physical Description: 1 leaf, 24 x 15 cm, printed, handwritten
View images: 1
Content: Proof of "For Queen
Victoria's Birthday," with correction and note in Whitman's
hand. This item is grouped with another proof at the Library of
Congress, which includes no annotations in Whitman's hand but features a
notation by Horace Traubel at the bottom.
Whitman Archive Title: Free
cider
Whitman Archive ID: loc.00156
Series: Notes and Notebooks
Box: 38
Folder: Brooklyniana, Undated, Free cider and Long Island
character.
Date: Between
1850 and 1860
Genre: prose
Physical Description: 1 leaf, handwritten
View images: 1 | 2
Content: This manuscript contains prose notes about Long Island, potentially related to a piece of journalism that Whitman was considering writing, although the notes contain no known connections to any of his published work. Written at the bottom of the notes are two lines of poetry. The manuscript is written in pencil on both sides of a narrow strip of lined paper, cut from a larger sheet. This manuscript was probably written between 1850 and 1860.
Whitman Archive Title: From My Last Years
Whitman Archive ID: loc.00199
Series: Literary File
Box: 27
Folder: From My Last Years (1876). A.MS. draft.
Date: about
1876
Genre: poetry
Physical Description: 1 leaf, 23.75 x 13.75 cm, handwritten
View images: 1 | 2
Content: A draft of "From My Last
Years" written in ink on a sheet of stationery, with three
lines crossed out with a blue pencil and one of the corrections in blue
pencil. "From My Last
Years" was published only once, in Two Rivulets, 1876.
Whitman Archive Title: From My Last Years
Whitman Archive ID: loc.04092
Series: Literary File
Box: 27
Folder: From My Last Years (1876). Printed
Copies
Date: about
1876
Genre: poetry
Physical Description: 1 leaf, 5 x 13.25 cm, handwritten
View images: 1
Content: Written in pencil on a scrap of paper cut from the bottom of a larger
sheet to which has been attached a clipping of the poem, "From My Last Years,"
with corrections in the margin. The poem was published only in Two Rivulets, 1876, without these corrections.
Whitman Archive Title: From the tips of his
Whitman Archive ID: loc.05705
Series: Notes and Notebooks
Box: 38
Folder: Notes & Nbks Brooklyniana Fulton St
Date: Between 1853 and 1855
Genre: poetry, prose
Physical Description: 1 leaf, handwritten
View images: 1 | 2
Content: This manuscript was probably written between 1853 and 1855, while Whitman was working on the first (1855) edition of Leaves of Grass. Versions of these cancelled and fragmentary lines were used in the first poem in that edition, eventually titled "Song of Myself."
Whitman Archive Title: Future writing about the war
Whitman Archive ID: loc.01770
Series: Notes and Notebooks
Box: 39
Folder: 1847-1869, F
Date: about 1873
Genre: prose, poetry
Physical Description: 1 leaf, handwritten
Images: currently unavailable
Content: Manuscript note in which Whitman seems to be considering the best ways to refer to the two sides in the U.S. Civil War. Though Whitman did, in fact, frequently use the term "Secesh" to refer to the South, he did not habitually apply the corresponding term C"Nationals") to the North. The reverside side of the leaf contains a short letter to Abby Price in which Whitman states that he has a "bad spell," perhaps a reference to his stroke in 1873.
Whitman Archive Title: Go forth, ye twain
Whitman Archive ID: loc.00069
Series: Literary File
Box: 28
Folder: On, On the Same, Ye Jocund Twain! (1891). A.MS.
drafts.
Date: about
1890
Genre: poetry
Physical Description: 3 leaves, handwritten
View images: 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6
Content: An early draft of "On, on
the Same, Ye Jocund Twain!," which was published first in
1891. The draft is written on a letter from Albert Johannsen
(dated March 22,
1890), and two opened envelopes (one postmarked April 27,
1890).
Whitman Archive Title: Go forth, ye twain
Whitman Archive ID: loc.00072
Series: Literary File
Box: 28
Folder: On, On the Same, Ye Jocund Twain! (1891). A.MS.
drafts.
Date: about
1890
Genre: poetry, prose
Physical Description: 1 leaf, handwritten
View images: 1 | 2
Content: A draft of "On, on the Same,
Ye Jocund Twain!," which was published first in 1891. On the verso is a note in Whitman's hand reading "to
my 2d & last Annex for L of G."
Whitman Archive Title: Going Somewhere
Whitman Archive ID: loc.00201
Series: Literary File
Box: 27
Folder: Going Somewhere (1887). Proof Sheets
Date: about
1887
Genre: poetry
Physical Description: 1 leaf, 15 x 16 cm, 15.5 x 15 cm, handwritten
View images: 1 | 2
Content: Proof of "'Going
Somewhere,'" first published in 1887. This proof
has corrections and a note in Whitman's hand.
Whitman Archive Title: Good-Bye My Fancy
Whitman Archive ID: loc.05454
Series: Literary File
Box: OV 2
Folder: Good-Bye My Fancy (1891), Manuscript
draft
Date: about
1891
Genre: poetry
Physical Description: 78 leaves, handwritten, typed
View images: 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | 10 | 11 | 12 | 13 | 14 | 15 | 16 | 17 | 18 | 19 | 20 | 21 | 22 | 23 | 24 | 25 | 26 | 27 | 28 | 29 | 30 | 31 | 32 | 33 | 34 | 35 | 36 | 37 | 38 | 39 | 40 | 41 | 42 | 43 | 44 | 45 | 46 | 47 | 48 | 49 | 50 | 51 | 52 | 53 | 54 | 55 | 56 | 57 | 58 | 59 | 60 | 61 | 62 | 63 | 64 | 65 | 66 | 67 | 68 | 69 | 70 | 71 | 72 | 73 | 74 | 75 | 76 | 77 | 78 | 79 | 80 | 81 | 82 | 83 | 84 | 85 | 86 | 87 | 88 | 89 | 90 | 91 | 92 | 93 | 94 | 95 | 96 | 97 | 98 | 99 | 100 | 101 | 102 | 103 | 104 | 105 | 106 | 107 | 108 | 109 | 110 | 111 | 112 | 113 | 114 | 115 | 116 | 117 | 118 | 119 | 120 | 121 | 122 | 123 | 124 | 125 | 126 | 127 | 128 | 129 | 130 | 131 | 132 | 133 | 134 | 135 | 136 | 137 | 138 | 139 | 140 | 141 | 142 | 143 | 144 | 145 | 146 | 147 | 148 | 149 | 150 | 151 | 152 | 153 | 154 | 155 | 156
Content: This manuscripts contains 78 pages of text numbered by Whitman, and is
housed along with other materials related to
Good-Bye My Fancy. To assemble the manuscript for the printer
Whitman used proof sheets, newspaper clippings, etc., between manuscript
pages, which were written mostly on paper fragments. "A Death Bouquet" was
written on a typewriter and inserted as part of the manuscript.
Throughout, innumerable changes, corrections, and directions for the
printer appear. The poems included are: "Sail Out for Good, Eidólon Yacht!,"
"Lingering Last
Drops,"
"Good-bye My Fancy,"
"On, on the Same, Ye Jocund
Twain!,"
"My 71st Year,"
"Apparitions,"
"The Pallid Wreath,"
"An Ended Day,"
"Old Age's Ship &
Crafty Death's,"
"To the Pending
Year" (earlier title "To the Year 1889" crossed out), "Shakspere-Bacon's
Cipher,"
"Long, Long Hence"
(earlier title "Under These
Poemets" crossed out), "Bravo, Paris Exposition!" (earlier title
"Bravo, Paris
Exhibition!" crossed out), "Interpolation Sounds,"
"To the Sun-Set
Breeze,"
"Old Chants,"
"A Christmas
Greeting,"
"Sounds of the
Winter,"
"A Twilight Song,"
"When the Full-grown Poet
Came,"
"Osceola,"
"A Voice from
Death,"
"A Persian Lesson,"
"The Commonplace,"
"'The Rounded Catalogue
Divine Complete,'"
"Mirages,"
"L. of G.'s Purport"
(which includes three poems originally composed separately, "My task,"
"Death dogs my
steps," and "For
us two, reader dear"), "The Unexpress'd,"
"Grand is the Seen,"
"Unseen Buds,"
"Good-bye My
Fancy!,"
"For Queen Victoria's
Birthday,"
"Death's Valley,"
"After an Interval,"
"As in a Swoon,"
"L. of G.," and
"After the
Argument." Also included are several prose pieces. Also in
this folder are a wrapper addressed to "Ferguson Bros. & Co;
Printers, Phila.," two statements by Ferguson Bros. to Whitman, a
statement dated May 18, 1891, by Grosscup and West, Phila. for the plates of
Whitman's portrait to be included in the book (they had been ordered by
Traubel), two trial title pages, and a proof portrait from the
engraver.
Whitman Archive Title: Good-Bye My Fancy
Whitman Archive ID: loc.05452
Series: Literary File
Box: OV 2
Folder: Good-Bye My Fancy (1891), Manuscript
draft
Date: about
1891
Genre: poetry, prose
Physical Description: about 10 leaves, handwritten, printed
View images: 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | 10 | 11 | 12 | 13 | 14 | 15 | 16 | 17 | 18 | 19 | 20 | 21 | 22 | 23 | 24 | 25
Content: Manuscript and corrected print material that was included in Good-Bye My Fancy (1891).
Whitman Archive Title: Good-Bye My Fancy
Whitman Archive ID: loc.05458
Series: Literary File
Date: 1891
Genre: poetry
Physical Description: 14 leaves, printed, handwritten
View images: 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | 10 | 11 | 12 | 13 | 14 | 15 | 16 | 17 | 18 | 19 | 20 | 21 | 22 | 23 | 24 | 25 | 26 | 27 | 28
Content: Manuscript and corrected print material that was included in Good-Bye My Fancy (1891). Some
leaves are composed of various scraps of paper, including envelopes and pieces of correspondence that have been
pasted together to make larger leaves (see images 15 through 20).
Whitman Archive Title: Hendrik Hudson
Whitman Archive ID: loc.00952
Series: Literary File
Box: 35
Folder: "Brooklyniana: History of Brooklyn and Long
Island," drafts and notes
Date: 1855–1861
Genre: prose
Physical Description: 1 leaf, handwritten
View images: 1 | 2
Content: Notes on Hendrick Hudson that appear to have contributed to "Brooklyniana: A Series of Local Articles, on
Past and Present. No. 2,"
Daily Standard (5 June 1861).
Whitman Archive Title: Hicks (1748–1830)
Whitman Archive ID: loc.03677
Series: Notes and Notebooks
Date: about 1888
Genre: prose
Physical Description: 1 leaf, handwritten
View images: 1 | 2
Content: Notes on the life dates of various famous figures. Whitman used this
information for "Notes (such as they are)
founded on Elias Hicks," an essay that was first published in
November Boughs (1888) and later reprinted in Complete
Prose Works (1892). The fragmentary names at
the top of the list are those of Thomas Jefferson and Johann Heinrich
Pestalozzi. Whitman planned to write an essay about Elias Hicks for many
years. While finishing preparations for the printing of November Boughs, Whitman told Horace
Traubel, "Some of these bits were written as many as thirty years ago.
Some of them I have written within the past year. They are a
miscellaneous lot but they all belong in the same stream." (See Traubel,
With Walt Whitman in Camden, 2: 42.) The present manuscript is stored together with many other
manuscripts on the topics of Elias Hicks and Quakerism. Those that
directly contributed to the published essay are described separately.
Those whose relationship to the published essay are unclear are not
included at this stage of our work.
Whitman Archive Title: Hist Brooklyn
Whitman Archive ID: loc.00963
Series: Literary File
Box: 35
Folder: "Brooklyniana: History of Brooklyn and Long
Island," drafts and notes
Date: about
1862
Genre: prose
Physical Description: 1 leaf, handwritten
View images: 1 | 2
Content: There is no known connection between the recto of this manuscript—treating Washington's
visit to Brooklyn in the 1790s—and Whitman's published work. The verso of this manuscript contains cancelled notes on the
establishment of the Hudson Avenue Hospital in the mid-1840s.
Whitman wrote about the Hudson Avenue Hospital in "Brooklyniana. A Series of Local Articles, on
Past and Present. No. 16," which appeared in the 29 March 1862 issue of the Brooklyn
Standard. Though there are no direct textual links between
the two, it is likely that these notes contributed to this piece of
journalism.
Whitman Archive Title: Hospital book 12
Whitman Archive ID: loc.04695
Series: Diaries, Diary Notes, and Address Books
Box: 1
Folder: Diaries, 1863–1864, hospital notebooks, (2
vols.)
Date: 1864
Genre: prose
Physical Description: 40 leaves, handwritten
View images: 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | 10 | 11 | 12 | 13 | 14 | 15 | 16 | 17 | 18 | 19 | 20 | 21 | 22 | 23 | 24 | 25 | 26 | 27 | 28 | 29 | 30 | 31 | 32 | 33 | 34 | 35 | 36 | 37 | 38 | 39 | 40 | 41 | 42 | 43 | 44 | 45 | 46 | 47 | 48 | 49 | 50 | 51 | 52 | 53 | 54 | 55 | 56 | 57 | 58 | 59 | 60 | 61 | 62 | 63 | 64 | 65 | 66 | 67 | 68 | 69 | 70 | 71 | 72 | 73 | 74 | 75 | 76 | 77 | 78 | 79
Content: A homemade notebook containing hospital and Civil War notes that Whitman
recorded between February and May 1864. The entry which
begins, "I find this in my notes" (see images 35, 36, and 38) was
revised and used in "Some War Memoranda.
Jotted Down at the Time," which appeared in North American Review (January 1887). This piece was reprinted in November Boughs (1888) before
being collected in Complete Prose Works
(1892). The entry which begins, "ah if it
might prove" (see image 64) was used in Memoranda
During the War (1875–1876) and again in
Specimen Days & Collect (1882–1883), in a piece describing Whitman's visit to an army camp hospital in Falmouth, Virginia, in December, 1862, titled "Down at the Front." The essay was later included in Complete Prose Works (1892).
Whitman Archive Title: I Saw Old General at
Bay
Whitman Archive ID: loc.00202
Series: Literary File
Box: 27
Folder: I Saw Old General at Bay (1865). A.MS.
draft.
Date: about
1865
Genre: poetry
Physical Description: 1 leaf, handwritten
View images: 1 | 2 | 3
Content: A draft of "I Saw Old
General at Bay," first published in 1865, written on
two scraps pasted together to create one leaf. Part of one scrap has
been lifted to show the lines written underneath.
Whitman Archive Title: If I Should Need To Name,
O Western World
Whitman Archive ID: loc.04095
Series: Literary File
Box: 27
Folder: If I Should Need to Name, O Western World (1884).
Printed Copy—Camden "Post," Oct. 28, 1884.
Date: October 28,
1884
Genre: poetry
Physical Description: 1 leaf, handwritten
View images: 1 | 2
Content: Clipped copy of "If I Should
Need to Name, O Western World" from the Camden, New Jersey,
Post, October 28,
1884, with a note in Whitman's hand. This poem was later
published with the title "Election Day, November, 1884."
Whitman Archive Title: If I should need to name,
O Western World!
Whitman Archive ID: loc.00203
Series: Literary File
Box: 27
Folder: If I Should Need to Name, O Western World (1884).
A.MS. draft and printer's instructions.
Date: October 25,
1884
Genre: poetry, prose
Physical Description: 3 leaves, handwritten
View images: 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6
Content: Draft, lightly corrected, of "If I Should Need to Name, O Western World!"
with a brief note containing instructions to the printer. These were
probably sent to the Philadelphia Press, where, on October 26,
1884, the poem was first published. Whitman later retitled the poem
"Election Day,
November, 1884."
Whitman Archive Title: In his presence
Whitman Archive ID: loc.00483
Series: Notes and Notebooks
Date: Between 1850 and 1855
Genre: prose, poetry
Physical Description: 14 leaves, handwritten
View images: 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | 10 | 11 | 12 | 13 | 14 | 15 | 16 | 17 | 18 | 19 | 20 | 21 | 22 | 23 | 24 | 25 | 26 | 27 | 28
Content: Whitman probably inscribed the material in this notebook in the early 1850s as he was composing the first (1855) edition of Leaves of Grass. Some of Whitman's language about the poet and religion in this notebook is similar to the language and ideas used in the preface to the 1855 edition of Leaves of Grass. Content from leaf 10 verso (see twentieth image) was revised and used in "The Sleepers," the poem eventually titled "The Sleepers," which first appeared in Leaves of Grass (1855), including the following lines: "Now the vast dusk bulk that is the whale's bulk . . . . it seems mine, / Warily, sportsman! though I lie so sleepy and sluggish, my tap is death" (1855, p. 74). The passage likely also relates to the following lines in the poem eventually titled "Song of Myself": "How the flukes splash! / How they contort rapid as lightning, with spasms and spouts of blood!" (1855, p. 48). Content from leaf 13 recto (see twenty-fifth image) may relate to other sections of the poem eventually titled "Song of Myself."
Whitman Archive Title: In writing my history of
Brooklyn
Whitman Archive ID: loc.04741
Series: Notes and Notebooks
Date: about 1862
Genre: prose
Physical Description: 1 leaf, handwritten
View images: 1
Content: Brief note regarding some general aspects of style that Whitman intended
to employ in "Brooklyniana; A Series of Local
Articles, on Past and Present," which was published in the
Brooklyn Standard
between June 3, 1861 and November 1,
1862.
Whitman Archive Title: Instructive, recurring
back
Whitman Archive ID: loc.06084
Series: Oversize
Box: OV 11
Folder: 1888, "Elias Hicks"
Date: about 1888
Genre: prose
Physical Description: 1 leaf, handwritten
View images: 1 | 2
Content: This manuscript about the life of George Fox, written in ink with some
corrections in pencil, appears to be a draft introduction for the
section headed "George Fox (and
Shakspere)" in the essay "Notes
(such as they are) founded on Elias Hicks." This essay was
first published in November Boughs (1888) and later reprinted in Complete
Prose Works (1892). Whitman abandoned the
approach to his topic that is suggested in the first paragraph of the
manuscript, but the paragraph indicated by the pointing hand, at the
bottom of the manuscript, contains the kernel of a key paragraph in the
published version. Whitman planned to write an essay about Elias Hicks
for many years. While finishing preparations for the printing of November Boughs, Whitman told Horace
Traubel, "Some of these bits were written as many as thirty years ago.
Some of them I have written within the past year. They are a
miscellaneous lot but they all belong in the same stream." (See Traubel,
With Walt Whitman in Camden, 2: 42.) The present manuscript is stored together with many other
manuscripts on the topics of Elias Hicks and Quakerism. Those that
directly contributed to the published essay are described separately.
Those whose relationship to the published essay are unclear are not
included at this stage of our work.
Whitman Archive Title: Kentucky
Whitman Archive ID: loc.00206
Series: Literary File
Box: 27
Folder: Kentucky (1861). A.MS. draft.
Date: about
1861
Genre: poetry
Physical Description: 6 leaves, 11.5 x 18.5 cm to 19.5 x 16
cm, handwritten
View images: 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | 10 | 11 | 12
Content: An unfinished poem, entitled "Kentucky," the title given three times,
with "By Walt Whitman" on one of the pages (see image 3). On one of the
pages is a fragment on the Mississippi River, which editors (beginning
with James E. Miller, Jr.) have included as the last stanza of "Kentucky" (see image
1). On the verso of another page is a cancelled portion of a letter
about Jesse Whitman's employment, from which the manuscript can be dated
1861 (see
image 12).
Whitman Archive Title: Last Words
Whitman Archive ID: loc.00209
Series: Literary File
Box: 27
Folder: Last Words (1889). A.MS. drafts.
Date: about
1889
Genre: poetry
Physical Description: 1 leaf, handwritten
View images: 1 | 2
Content: Draft of an unpublished poem which was also titled, in other manuscript
drafts, "The last"
and "Recapitulation." The draft was written on the back of a
letter from Josephine B. Kirtland.
Whitman Archive Title: Last words
Whitman Archive ID: loc.00210
Series: Literary File
Box: 27
Folder: Last Words (1889). A.MS. drafts.
Date: about
1889
Genre: poetry
Physical Description: 1 leaf, handwritten
View images: 1 | 2
Content: Draft of an unpublished poem which was also titled, in other manuscript
drafts, "The last"
and "Recapitulation." The draft was written on the back of a
opened envelope from S. S. McClure postmarked December 8, 1889.
Whitman Archive Title: Latter-Time Hours of a
half-Paralytic
Whitman Archive ID: loc.00305
Series: Literary File
Box: 29
Folder: Supplement Hours. A.MS. drafts.
Date: about
1881
Genre: poetry
Physical Description: 1 leaf, handwritten
View images: 1 | 2
Content: Draft and trial lines of a poem unpublished in Whitman's lifetime, though published posthumously as "Supplement Hours." The poem was part of a cluster entitled "Old Age Echoes," included in an edition of Leaves of Grass compiled by Whitman's literary executors and published in 1897 (Boston: Small, Maynard).
Whitman Archive Title: Leaves of Grass
Whitman Archive ID: loc.04749
Series: Literary File
Box: 21
Folder: L of G (1871). Page Proofs.
Date: 1871
Genre: poetry
Physical Description: 22 leaves, handwritten, printed
View images: 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | 10 | 11 | 12 | 13 | 14 | 15 | 16 | 17 | 18 | 19 | 20 | 21 | 22
Content: Plate proof of the 1871 edition of Leaves of Grass with some corrections in
Whitman's hand. Images of the versos are unavailable.
Whitman Archive Title: Leaves of Grass
Whitman Archive ID: loc.07054
Series: Literary File
Box: 21
Folder: L of G (1871). Plate Proofs.
Date: 1871
Genre: poetry
Physical Description: 3 leaves, handwritten, printed
View images: 1 | 2 | 3 | 4
Content: Plate proof of the 1871 edition of Leaves of Grass with a few corrections in
Whitman's hand. Images of the first two versos are unavilable.
Whitman Archive Title: Life and Death
Whitman Archive ID: loc.00213
Series: Literary File
Box: 27
Folder: Life and Death (1888). A. MS. Draft.
Date: 1888
Genre: poetry
Physical Description: 1 leaf, handwritten
View images: 1 | 2
Content: A draft of "Life and
Death," first published in the New York Herald in 1888.
Whitman Archive Title: Lincoln
Whitman Archive ID: loc.01760
Series: Literary File
Box: 37
Folder: ca. 1878–1890, "Abraham Lincoln"
Date: 1870–1874
Genre: prose
Physical Description: 6 leaves, handwritten, printed
View images: 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | 10 | 11 | 12
Content: Notes on Abraham Lincoln and the political climate leading up to the
"attempted secession," including handwritten corrections of printed
prose. This manuscript contributed to "Origins of Attempted Secession. Not the whole matter, but some
facts worth conning to-day and any day,"
Specimen Days & Collect (1882–1883). "Origins of
Attempted Secession" was first published as part of "'Tis But Ten Years Since [First Paper],"
New York Weekly Graphic (24 January 1874). Portions of this essay
were revised and used in Memoranda During the
War (1875–1876) before appearing in
Specimen Days & Collect. Whitman
included "Origins of Attempted
Secession" in Complete Prose
Works (1892).
Whitman Archive Title: Lofty sirs
Whitman Archive ID: loc.00387
Series: Literary File
Box: 31
Folder: before 1855, "I Am a Born Democrat," draft
Date: Between 1840 and 1855
Genre: prose
Physical Description: 1 leaf, handwritten
View images: 1
Content: Edward Grier concludes that this manuscript was likely written before 1855 because of its similarity to several of the notebooks that Whitman wrote from that period (Notebooks and Unpublished Prose Manuscripts [New York: New York University Press, 1984], 6:2110). Ideas in this manuscript are similar to ideas in the first poem in the 1855 edition of Leaves of Grass, eventually titled "Song of Myself," and lines and phrases from the manuscript appear in another manuscript that may have contributed to the poem eventually titled "Song of Myself": see "I know many beautiful things" (tex.00031.html). The tone of the statements is also consistent with Whitman's early journalistic and editorial persona. Ideas and words from this manuscript are also similar to ideas and words that appeared in the preface to the 1855 Leaves of Grass. There is also a chance this manuscript relates to language in a Whitman-authored review of the 1855 edition of Leaves of Grass, titled "Walt Whitman and His Poems," originally published in the United States Review. An image of the reverse of this manuscript is currently unavailable.
Whitman Archive Title: Mannahatta
Whitman Archive ID: loc.00214
Series: Literary File
Box: 27
Folder: Mannahatta (1888). Newspaper Clipping.
Date: about
1888
Genre: poetry
Physical Description: 1 leaf, 20 x 14.5 cm, handwritten
View images: 1 | 2
Content: A newspaper clipping of the poem "Mannahatta" on a larger page with
corrections and notes in Whitman's hand. This was the second poem that title that Whitman had published (the first "Mannahatta," which begins with the words "I was asking...," first appeared in the 1860 edition of Leaves of Grass). This particular poem was first published in the New York Herald on February 27, 1888 and was later included in the Deathbed edition of Leaves.
Whitman Archive Title: Memoranda
Whitman Archive ID: loc.04433
Series: Notes and Notebooks
Date: about 1883
Genre: prose
Physical Description: 3 leaves, handwritten
View images: 1 | 2 | 3
Content: Three-page draft of "The Attempted Official
Suppression," a section of Part 2, Chapter 1, "History of Leaves of Grass," in Richard
Maurice Bucke's 1883 biography, Walt
Whitman.
Whitman Archive Title: Memories
Whitman Archive ID: loc.00215
Series: Literary File
Box: 27
Folder: Memories (1888). A.MS. draft.
Date: about
1888
Genre: poetry
Physical Description: 1 leaf, 20 x 16 cm, handwritten
View images: 1 | 2
Content: A nearly final draft of the poem "Memories," first published in 1888.
Whitman Archive Title: My 71st Year
Whitman Archive ID: loc.04098
Series: Literary File
Box: 27
Folder: My 71st Year (Nov. 1889). Printed
copies.
Date: November,
1889
Genre: poetry
Physical Description: , printed, handwritten
View images: 1 | 2 | 3
Content: Two copies of the November, 1889 issue of The Century Magazine, (one full, one
partial) which included Whitman's poem "My 71st Year." There are a few small notes,
probably not in Whitman's hand, which read "Nov 1889" and "Mark Twain" (Twain's
"A Connecticut Yankee
in King Arthur's Court" is also serialized in this
issue). Currently, images of only three pages of one of the copies are available (cover, table of contents, and the page on which "My 71st Year" is printed).
Whitman Archive Title: My 71st Year
Whitman Archive ID: loc.00218
Series: Literary File
Box: 27
Folder: My 71st Year (1889). Proof Sheets.
Date: about
1889
Genre: poetry
Physical Description: 1 leaf, 18.75 x 20.25 cm, handwritten
View images: 1 | 2
Content: A proof sheet of "My 71st Year," first published in 1889, with multiple corrections and
notations in Whitman's hand. The proof is printed on the verso of a page titled "Principles of the
Republican and Democratic Parties."
Whitman Archive Title: My 71st Year
Whitman Archive ID: loc.00340
Series: Literary File
Box: 27
Folder: My 71st Year (1889). Proof Sheets.
Date: about
1889
Genre: poetry
Physical Description: 1 leaf, 11.5 x 15 cm, handwritten
View images: 1 | 2
Content: Proof sheet of "My 71st
Year" with revisions. "My 71st Year" was first published in 1889.
Whitman Archive Title: My 71st Year
Whitman Archive ID: loc.02503
Series: Literary File
Box: 27
Folder: My 71st Year (1889). Proof Sheets.
Date: about
1889
Genre: poetry
Physical Description: 1 leaf, 11.5 x 15 cm, handwritten
View images: 1 | 2
Content: Proof sheet of "My 71st
Year" with revisions. "My 71st Year" was first published in 1889.
Whitman Archive Title: My 71st Year
Whitman Archive ID: loc.02504
Series: Literary File
Box: 27
Folder: My 71st Year (1889). Proof Sheets.
Date: about
1889
Genre: poetry
Physical Description: 1 leaf, 11.5 x 15 cm, handwritten
View images: 1
Content: Proof sheet of "My 71st
Year" with revisions. "My 71st Year" was first published in 1889.
Whitman Archive Title: My 71st Year
Whitman Archive ID: loc.02505
Series: Literary File
Box: 27
Folder: My 71st Year (1889). Proof Sheets.
Date: about
1889
Genre: poetry
Physical Description: 1 leaf, 11.5 x 15 cm, handwritten
View images: 1 | 2
Content: Proof sheet of "My 71st
Year" with revisions. This proof has a note by Traubel
reading "see notes, Oct. 31, 1889." "My 71st Year" was
first published in 1889.
Whitman Archive Title: My Captain
Whitman Archive ID: loc.00125
Series: Literary File
Box: 27
Folder: O Captain! My Captain! (1865).
A.MS.drafts.
Date: about
1865
Genre: poetry
Physical Description: 3 leaves, handwritten
View images: 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6
Content: Draft of the poem that would be published as "O Captain! My Captain!" in 1865, titled here "My Captain." On the verso of one page is a
portion of "A March in the
Ranks Hard-Prest, and the Road Unknown" with a line through
it.
Whitman Archive Title: My Seventieth Year
Whitman Archive ID: loc.00217
Series: Literary File
Box: 27
Folder: My 70th Year (1888). A. MS. draft.
Date: about
1888
Genre: poetry
Physical Description: 1 leaf, handwritten
View images: 1 | 2
Content: Draft of a poem later revised and published under the title "Queries to My Seventieth
Year" in 1888.
Whitman Archive Title: My Task
Whitman Archive ID: loc.00219
Series: Literary File
Box: 27
Folder: My Task (1891). A.MS. draft.
Date: about
1891
Genre: poetry
Physical Description: 1 leaf, 28 x 22 cm, handwritten
View images: 1 | 2
Content: Manuscripts of the following four poems, written neatly with slight
corrections: "My
task,"
"L of G's Purport,"
"Death dogs my
steps," and "For
us two, reader dear." All of the verses except "For us two, reader
dear" were fused together and published as one poem entitled
"L. of G.'s
Purport" in 1891.
Whitman Archive Title: Nay tell me not to-day the
publish'd shame
Whitman Archive ID: loc.00222
Series: Literary File
Box: 27
Folder: Nay Tell Me Not To-Day the Publish'd Shame
(Post-1878). Clipping.
Date: about
1878
Genre: poetry
Physical Description: 1 leaf, 14 x 16 cm, printed, handwritten
View images: 1
Content: Clipping from the New York Daily
Graphic of 5 March 1873, with handwritten corrections.
Whitman Archive Title: No doubt the efflux of the soul
Whitman Archive ID: loc.00025
Series: Notes and Notebooks
Box: 38
Folder: Undated Thoughts, Ideas, and Trial lines (3 V.)
Date: Before 1855
Genre: prose, poetry
Physical Description: 14 leaves, handwritten
View images: 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | 10 | 11 | 12 | 13 | 14 | 15 | 16 | 17 | 18 | 19 | 20 | 21 | 22 | 23 | 24 | 25 | 26 | 27 | 28
Content: This notebook consists almost entirely of prose. However, the ideas and language developed throughout the notebook can be linked to a number of poems that appeared in Leaves of Grass, including "Song of Myself," "Great are the Myths" (ultimately shortened to a few lines and titled "Youth, Day, Old Age, and Night"), "Faces," "The Sleepers," and "To Think of Time," versions of which appeared in Leaves of Grass in 1855. One manuscript passage is similar to a passage in the preface to the 1855 edition. Thus, this notebook was almost certainly written before that date. Content from the first several paragraphs of this notebook was also used slightly revised in "Song of the Open Road," first published in the 1856 edition of Leaves as "Poem of the Road."
Whitman Archive Title: Note at Beginning
Whitman Archive ID: loc.02147
Series: Oversize
Box: OV1
Folder: container 19
Date: 1888
Genre: prose
Physical Description: 1 leaf, handwritten
View images: 1 | 2
Content: Manuscript of "Note at Beginning,"
which appeared between the title page and the table of contents of
Whitman's Complete Poems & Prose in
1888. On the other side of the sheet is a deleted manuscript
section from the same volume's "Note at End
of Complete Poems and Prose." Neither of the pieces was
reprinted during Whitman's lifetime.
Whitman Archive Title: Notes where wild bees
flitting hum
Whitman Archive ID: loc.00111
Series: Literary File
Box: 29
Folder: Supplement Hours. A.MS. drafts.
Date: about
1880
Genre: poetry
Physical Description: 1 leaf, handwritten
View images: 1 | 2
Content: This manuscript was likely written around 1880 as Whitman was drafting the poem "A Clear Midnight," first published in Leaves of Grass in 1881. The manuscript consists of two drafts of lines unpublished in Whitman's life, but which appeared in other manuscript drafts with lines that were published as "A Clear Midnight." The lines that appear in this manuscript were published posthumously as part of a poem titled "Supplement Hours." The poem was part of a cluster entitled "Old Age Echoes," included in an edition of Leaves of Grass compiled by Whitman's literary executors and published in 1897 (Boston: Small, Maynard).
Whitman Archive Title: November Boughs
Whitman Archive ID: loc.00031
Series: Literary File
Box: OV 4
Folder: November Boughs, Galley Proofs
Date: about
1888
Genre: poetry, prose
Physical Description: about 14 leaves, handwritten, printed
View images: 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | 10 | 11 | 12 | 13 | 14 | 15 | 16 | 17 | 18 | 19 | 20 | 21 | 22 | 23 | 24 | 25 | 26 | 27
Content: Galley proofs of November
Boughs (1888), with numerous corrections. Also
included is a title page, with printing instructions in Whitman's
hand.
Whitman Archive Title: November Boughs
Whitman Archive ID: loc.00032
Series: Literary File
Box: OV 4
Folder: November Boughs, Galley Proofs
Date: about
1888
Genre: poetry, prose
Physical Description: about 21 leaves, handwritten, printed
View images: 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | 10 | 11 | 12 | 13 | 14 | 15 | 16 | 17 | 18 | 19 | 20 | 21 | 22 | 23 | 24 | 25 | 26 | 27 | 28 | 29 | 30 | 31 | 32 | 33 | 34 | 35 | 36 | 37 | 38 | 39 | 40 | 41 | 42
Content: Galley proofs of November
Boughs (1888), with numerous corrections. Also
included is an uncorrected title page, which seems to incorporate the
changes Whitman requested on the title page in another set of corrected
proofs for November
Boughs; compare the title page for this set of proofs with
the first image of loc.00031.
Whitman Archive Title: November Boughs
Whitman Archive ID: loc.00033
Series: Literary File
Box: OV 4
Folder: November Boughs, Galley Proofs
Date: about
1888
Genre: prose
Physical Description: 2 leaves, handwritten, printed
View images: 1 | 2 | 3 | 4
Content: Galley proofs of November
Boughs (1888), with Whitman's corrections.
Whitman Archive Title: November Boughs
Whitman Archive ID: loc.04206
Series: Literary File
Box: 30
Folder: You Lingering Sparse Leaves of Me (1887). Printed
Copy.
Date: 1887
Genre: poetry
Physical Description: 1 leaf, handwritten
View images: 1 | 2
Content: Clipping from a newspaper of four Whitman poems: "You Lingering Sparse Leaves
of Me,"
"'Going Somewhere,'"
"After the Supper and
Talk," and "Not
Meagre Latent Boughs Alone." At the top is the title "November Boughs." At
the bottom of the clipping is written, in Whitman's hand, "1887." The poems
were published first in Lippincott's Magazine, November,
1887.
Whitman Archive Title: November Boughs
Whitman Archive ID: loc.00326
Series: Literary File
Box: 30
Folder: You Lingering Sparse Leaves of Me (1887). Proof
Sheets.
Date: about
1887
Genre: poetry
Physical Description: 1 leaf, handwritten
View images: 1 | 2
Content: Proof of a collection of four poems ("You Lingering Sparse Leaves of Me,"
"'Going Somewhere,'"
"After the Supper and
Talk," and "Not
Meagre Latent Boughs Alone") under the general title "November Boughs." This
proof is made by pasting together proofs of each poem in the order
desired.
Whitman Archive Title: November Boughs
Whitman Archive ID: loc.02484
Series: Literary File
Box: 30
Folder: You Lingering Sparse Leaves of Me (1887). Proof
Sheets.
Date: about
1887
Genre: poetry
Physical Description: 1 leaf, handwritten, printed
View images: 1 | 2
Content: Proofs of a collection of four poems ("You Lingering Sparse Leaves of Me,"
"'Going Somewhere,'"
"After the Supper and
Talk," and "Not
Meagre Latent Boughs Alone") under the general title "November Boughs."
Whitman Archive Title: Occasional Pieces of
Poetry
Whitman Archive ID: loc.03449
Series: Notes and Notebooks
Date: about
1887–1888
Genre: poetry, prose
Physical Description: about 13, printed and handwritten
View images: 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | 10 | 11 | 12 | 13 | 14
Content: Whitman's copy of John G. C. Brainard's Occasional
Pieces of Poetry (1825), many pages of which bear the poet's
handwriting. Whitman appears to have used the volume as a notebook of
sorts, for while some of the writing seems to be related to Brainard's
text most of it does not. Among the handwritten notes are several sets
of ideas for poems that were never published and phrases that also
appear in Whitman's personal correspondence. Some of these are phrases
that Whitman inscribed in the copy of Complete
Poems & Prose (1888) that he gave to Horace
Traubel. On other pages are words from his letter to Anne Gilchrist of
November 11,
1871. These were perhaps copied into the Brainard volume as
he worked to write a poem in Gilchrist's honor, though they did not make
it into "Going Somewhere," the poetic
tribute that Whitman published in the November
1887 issue of Lippincott's
Magazine (without individual title, but in a group of four
poems collectively labelled "November
Boughs"). A draft of "Going
Somewhere" appears elsewhere in this volume. Also
present is a draft of "The Dismantled
Ship," which was first published in the New York Herald on February 23,
1888. Both poems were later included in November Boughs (1888) and in
subsequent printings of Leaves of Grass.
Only those pages with Whitman's handwritten notes are linked from this
record. For a more complete discussion of this item, see Nicole Gray,
"Walt Whitman's Marginalia as Occasional
Practice,"
The Papers of the Bibliographical Society of
America 107 (December 2013),
467–494.
Whitman Archive Title: Of That Blithe Throat of
Thine
Whitman Archive ID: loc.02372
Series: Literary File
Box: 27
Folder: Of That Blithe Throat of Thine (1884). Proof
Sheets.
Date: between
1884-1888
Genre: poetry
Physical Description: 1 leaf, handwritten
View images: 1 | 2
Content: This proof is grouped with other copies of proof sheets that represent
different stages of the printing. "Of That Blithe Throat of Thine" was
published first in January, 1885.
Whitman Archive Title: Of That Blithe Throat of
Thine
Whitman Archive ID: loc.02371
Series: Literary File
Box: 27
Folder: Of That Blithe Throat of Thine (1884). Proof
Sheets.
Date: between
1884-1888
Genre: poetry
Physical Description: 1 leaf, handwritten
View images: 1 | 2
Content: This proof is grouped with other copies of proof sheets that represent
different stages of the printing. "Of That Blithe Throat of Thine" was
published first in January, 1885.
Whitman Archive Title: Of That Blithe Throat of
Thine
Whitman Archive ID: loc.02370
Series: Literary File
Box: 27
Folder: Of That Blithe Throat of Thine (1884). Proof
Sheets.
Date: between
1884-1888
Genre: poetry
Physical Description: 1 leaf, handwritten
View images: 1 | 2
Content: This proof is grouped with other copies of proof sheets that represent
different stages of the printing. "Of That Blithe Throat of Thine" was
published first in January, 1885.
Whitman Archive Title: Of That Blithe Throat of
Thine
Whitman Archive ID: loc.02369
Series: Literary File
Box: 27
Folder: Of That Blithe Throat of Thine (1884). Proof
Sheets.
Date: between
1884-1888
Genre: poetry
Physical Description: 1 leaf, handwritten
View images: 1 | 2
Content: This proof is grouped with other copies of proof sheets that represent
different stages of the printing. Whitman has also written instructions
to the printer on this proof sheet. "Of That Blithe Throat of Thine" was
published first in January, 1885.
Whitman Archive Title: Of That Blithe Throat of
Thine
Whitman Archive ID: loc.00227
Series: Literary File
Box: 27
Folder: Of That Blithe Throat of Thine (1884). Proof
Sheets.
Date: between
1884-1888
Genre: poetry
Physical Description: 1 leaf, handwritten
View images: 1 | 2
Content: This proof is grouped with other copies of proof sheets that represent
different stages of the printing. "Of That Blithe Throat of Thine" was
published first in January, 1885.
Whitman Archive Title: Of that blithe throat of
thine
Whitman Archive ID: loc.00226
Series: Literary File
Box: 27
Folder: Of That Blithe Throat of Thine (1884). A.MS.
draft.
Date: about
1884
Genre: poetry
Physical Description: 1 leaf, 28 x 22 cm, handwritten
View images: 1 | 2
Content: Signed, late draft of "Of
That Blithe Throat of Thine" which was published first in
January, 1885. On the verso is a letter
from Folger McKinney to Whitman dated June 10, 1884.
Whitman Archive Title: Old Age Echoes
Whitman Archive ID: loc.00228
Series: Literary File
Box: 28
Folder: Old Age Echoes (1891). Proof Sheet.
Date: about
1891
Genre: poetry
Physical Description: 1 leaf, 28.5 x 16.5 cm, 6 x 14 cm
attached, printed, handwritten
View images: 1 | 2
Content: Proof sheet of "Old Age
Echoes" with many corrections written in ink and
pencil. "Old Age
Echoes" is a general heading for four poems: "Sounds of the Winter,"
"The Unexpress'd,"
"Sail Out for Good, Eidólon
Yacht!," and "After the Argument."
Whitman Archive Title: Old Age Recitatives
Whitman Archive ID: loc.00229
Series: Literary File
Box: 28
Folder: Old Age Recitatives (1891). A.MS.
draft.
Date: about
1890
Genre: poetry, prose
Physical Description: 1 leaf, 30 x 20 cm, handwritten
View images: 1 | 2
Content: Draft titled "Old Age
Recitatives" written on the verso of an envelope and a letter
(author unknown) stuck together. Beneath the main title and Whitman's
signature is another title, "Sail out for good, Eidólon yacht!" The text
of the poem is identical to the published version of "Sail Out for Good, Eidólon
Yacht!" (1891). Whitman has
written a note about Arena magazine's rejection of the poem in the top right
margin.
Whitman Archive Title: Old Age's Lambent
Peaks
Whitman Archive ID: loc.00233
Series: Literary File
Box: 28
Folder: Old Age's Lambent Peaks (1888). Proof
Sheets.
Date: about
1888
Genre: poetry
Physical Description: 2 leaves, 33 x 15 cm; envelope 10.5 x 13
cm, handwritten
View images: 1 | 2
Content: An edited proof sheet with three poems: "Old Age's Lambent Peaks,"
"A Carol Closing
Sixty-Nine,"
"To Get the Final Lilt of
Songs," all published first in 1888. In addition
to corrections, Whitman has written a note to the printer at the top of
the page. Also included is an envelope with "printer's proofs, short
poems, Walt Whitman, 1888, (autographic)" written on it.
Whitman Archive Title: Old Age's Ship and Crafty
Death's
Whitman Archive ID: loc.00235
Series: Literary File
Box: 28
Folder: Old Age's Ship and Crafty Death's (1890). Proof
Sheets.
Date: between
1890-1891
Genre: poetry
Physical Description: 1 leaf, handwritten
View images: 1 | 2
Content: Corrected proof of "Old
Age's Ship and Crafty Death's" with notations in Whitman's
hand.
Whitman Archive Title: Old Age's Ship and Crafty
Death's
Whitman Archive ID: loc.00236
Series: Literary File
Box: 28
Folder: Old Age's Ship and Crafty Death's (1890). Proof
Sheets.
Date: between
1890 and 1891
Genre: poetry
Physical Description: 1 leaf, printed, handwritten
View images: 1 | 2
Content: Corrected proof of "Old
Age's Ship and Crafty Death's" with notations in Whitman's
hand.
Whitman Archive Title: Old Age's Ship and Crafty
Death's
Whitman Archive ID: loc.02391
Series: Literary File
Box: 28
Folder: Old Age's Ship and Crafty Death's (1890). Proof
Sheets.
Date: between
1890-1891
Genre: poetry
Physical Description: 1 leaf, printed, handwritten
View images: 1 | 2
Content: Corrected proof of "Old
Age's Ship and Crafty Death's" with notations in Whitman's
hand.
Whitman Archive Title: Old Age's Ship and Crafty
Death's
Whitman Archive ID: loc.02392
Series: Literary File
Box: 28
Folder: Old Age's Ship and Crafty Death's (1890). Proof
Sheets.
Date: between
1890-1891
Genre: poetry
Physical Description: 1 leaf, printed, handwritten
View images: 1 | 2
Content: Corrected proof of "Old
Age's Ship and Crafty Death's" with notations in Whitman's
hand.
Whitman Archive Title: Old Age's Ship and Crafty
Death's
Whitman Archive ID: loc.02393
Series: Literary File
Box: 28
Folder: Old Age's Ship and Crafty Death's (1890). Proof
Sheets.
Date: between
1890-1891
Genre: poetry
Physical Description: 1 leaf, printed, handwritten
View images: 1 | 2
Content: Corrected proof of "Old
Age's Ship and Crafty Death's" with notations in Whitman's
hand.
Whitman Archive Title: Old Salt Kossabone
Whitman Archive ID: loc.00068
Series: Literary File
Box: 28
Folder: Old Salt Kossabone (1880). A.MS. draft.
Date: late 1887 or early
1888
Genre: poetry
Physical Description: 1 leaf, 28 x 21.5 cm, handwritten
View images: 1 | 2
Content: Late draft of "Old Salt
Kossabone," first published in the New York Herald on February 25, 1888. There is a note on the reverse of the manuscript
in another hand (Ellen Terry).
Whitman Archive Title: Old War-Dreams
Whitman Archive ID: loc.00238
Series: Literary File
Box: 28
Folder: Old War-Dreams (1865-66). Proof.
Date: about
1881
Genre: poetry
Physical Description: 1 leaf, handwritten
View images: 1 | 2
Content: Proof of "Old
War-Dreams" with note at bottom in Whitman's hand: "Walt
Whitman's New Book." This poem was published first, in a different form,
as "In Clouds Descending,
in Midnight Sleep" in 1865-1866.
In 1871 it
appeared under the title "In Midnight Sleep." The title "Old War-Dreams" was first applied in 1881.
Whitman Archive Title: Old-Age
Recitatives
Whitman Archive ID: loc.00232
Series: Literary File
Box: 28
Folder: Old Age Recitatives (1891). Proof
Sheets.
Date: about
1891
Genre: poetry
Physical Description: 2 leaves, 28 x 21 cm, handwritten
View images: 1 | 2 | 3 | 4
Content: Proof pages of six poems collected under the general title "Old-Age Recitatives."
The poems included are: "Old Chants" (1891), "On, On the Same,Ye Jocund
Twain!" (1891), "Sail Out for Good, Eidólon
Yacht!" (1891), "L. of G.'s Purport"
(only two lines of the twelve-line poem of the same title first
published in 1891), "My task" (published as part of "L. of G.'s Purport" in
1891), and "For
us two, reader dear" (1891). At the top of the first page is a note to the printer
in Whitman's hand.
Whitman Archive Title: Old-Age Recitatives
Whitman Archive ID: loc.00231
Series: Literary File
Box: 28
Folder: Old Age Recitatives (1891). Proof
Sheets.
Date: between
1890-1891
Genre: poetry, prose
Physical Description: 1 leaf, 30.5 x 16 cm, handwritten
View images: 1 | 2
Content: A galley proof of a group of six poems titled "Old-Age Recitatives." The poems included
are: "Sail out for good,
Eidolon yacht!" (first published in 1891), "My task" (published as
part of "L. of G.'s
Purport" in 1891), "L. of G.'s Purport" (only the first two
lines of the poem of the same title published in 1891),
"Death dogs my
steps" (published as part of "L. of G.'s Purport" in 1891), "For us
two, reader dear" (first published in 1891), and "Grand is the seen" (first published in 1891). On the verso is a note to the printer.
Whitman Archive Title: On, On the Same, Ye Jocund
Twain!
Whitman Archive ID: loc.00240
Series: Literary File
Box: 28
Folder: On, On the Same, Ye Jocund Twain! (1891). Proof
Sheets.
Date: about
1891
Genre: poetry
Physical Description: 3 leaves, 24 x 15 cm, handwritten
View images: 1 | 2
Content: Three proof sheets of "On,
On the Same, Ye Jocund Twain!," first published in 1891. One proof has several corrections and a note for the
printer; the other two proofs have no annotations.
Whitman Archive Title: On, on awhile ye jocund
twain
Whitman Archive ID: loc.00074
Series: Literary File
Box: 28
Folder: On, On the Same, Ye Jocund Twain! (1891). A.MS.
drafts.
Date: about
1890
Genre: poetry
Physical Description: 1 leaf, handwritten
View images: 1 | 2
Content: A draft of "On, on the Same,
Ye Jocund Twain!," which was published first in 1891.
Whitman Archive Title: On, on the same, ye jocund
twain!
Whitman Archive ID: loc.00239
Series: Literary File
Box: 28; 28
Folder: On, On the Same, Ye Jocund Twain! (1891). A.MS.
drafts.; On, On the Same, Ye Jocund Twain! (1891). A.MS.
drafts.
Date: May 10,
1890
Genre: poetry
Physical Description: 1 leaf, 28 x 22 cm, handwritten
View images: 1 | 2
Content: A late draft of "On, on the
Same, Ye Jocund Twain!," which was published first in 1891. This draft is signed and dated May 10,
1890.
Whitman Archive Title: Our Old Feuillage
Whitman Archive ID: loc.00242
Series: Literary File
Box: 28
Folder: Our Old Feuillage (1860). A.MS. corrected
pages.
Date: between
1876-1881
Genre: poetry
Physical Description: 6 leaves, 20.5 x 12.5 cm, handwritten
View images: 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | 10 | 11
Content: A bound copy of six leaves (the poem "American Feuillage") from the 1876 edition of
Leaves of Grass
with multiple corrections and revisions, including the change of the
title to "Our Old
Feuillage." The revisions reflect the poem as it appeared in
the 1881
edition of Leaves of
Grass. "Our Old
Feuillage" has also been titled "A Chant of National Feuillage" and "Chants Democratic" No.
4.
Whitman Archive Title: Out From Behind This
Mask
Whitman Archive ID: loc.00252
Series: Literary File
Box: 28
Folder: Out From Behind this Mask (1876). Printed
Copy.
Date: about
1876
Genre: poetry
Physical Description: 1 leaf, 15.5 x 13.5 cm, handwritten
View images: 1 | 2
Content: A corrected copy of "Out
From Behind This Mask," cut from pages 24 and 25 of Two Rivulets and pasted
together to make one page.
Whitman Archive Title: Out From This Mask
Whitman Archive ID: loc.00246
Series: Literary File
Box: 28
Folder: Out from Behind This Mask (1876). A.MS.
draft.
Date: between
1873-1876
Genre: poetry
Physical Description: 2 leaves, handwritten
View images: 1 | 2 | 3 | 4
Content: Draft of the poem "Out From
Behind This Mask," first published in 1876, written on two leaves. On the verso is a draft of a letter Whitman sent to Webster Elmes on 14 August 1873, arranging for a substitute, following his stroke, to cover his work as a clerk in Washington, D. C.
Whitman Archive Title: Out from behind this
Mask
Whitman Archive ID: loc.00244
Series: Literary File
Box: 28
Folder: Out from Behind This Mask (1876). A.MS.
draft.
Date: between
1873-1876
Genre: poetry
Physical Description: 2 leaves, handwritten
View images: 1 | 2 | 3 | 4
Content: Draft of the poem "Out From
Behind This Mask," first published in 1876.
Whitman Archive Title: Out from behind this
Mask
Whitman Archive ID: loc.00247
Series: Literary File
Box: 28
Folder: Out from Behind This Mask (1876). A.MS.
draft.
Date: between
1873-1876
Genre: poetry
Physical Description: 1 leaf, handwritten
View images: 1 | 2
Content: Draft of the poem "Out From
Behind This Mask," first published in 1876. The title is written in blue pencil.
Whitman Archive Title: Out from this Mask
Whitman Archive ID: loc.00245
Series: Literary File
Box: 28
Folder: Out from Behind This Mask (1876). A.MS.
draft.
Date: between
1873-1876
Genre: poetry
Physical Description: 1 leaf, handwritten
View images: 1 | 2
Content: Draft of the poem "Out From
Behind This Mask," first published in 1876.
Whitman Archive Title: Over and through the
burial chant
Whitman Archive ID: loc.00253
Series: Literary File
Box: 28
Folder: Over and Through the Burial Chant (1888). Printed
Copy.
Date: 1888
Genre: poetry
Physical Description: 1 leaf, printed, handwritten
View images: 1 | 2
Content: Clipped-out copy of "Over
and Through the Burial Chant" from the August 12, 1888 issue of the New York Herald, with notations in Whitman's hand.
The poem was later published as "Interpolation Sounds."
Whitman Archive Title: Passage to India
Whitman Archive ID:
Series: Literary File
Box: 23
Folder: Passage to India. Page Proofs.
Date: about
1871
Genre: poetry
Physical Description: , printed, handwritten
Images: currently unavailable
Content: Page proofs of Walt Whitman's book of 1871, Passage to India, with
several (mostly minor) corrections in Whitman's hand.
Whitman Archive Title: Patroling Barnegat
Whitman Archive ID: loc.00258
Series: Literary File
Box: 28
Folder: Patroling Barnegat (1880). Proof
Sheets.
Date: about
1881
Genre: poetry
Physical Description: 1 leaf, 12 x 16 cm, handwritten
View images: 1 | 2
Content: A proof sheet of "Patroling
Barnegat," with a correction in Whitman's hand. The poem was
first published as "Patrolling Barnegat" in the April 1881 issue of Harper's Monthly Magazine.
Whitman Archive Title: Patroling Barnegat
Whitman Archive ID: loc.02403
Series: Literary File
Box: 28
Folder: Patroling Barnegat (1880). Proof
Sheets.
Date: about
1881
Genre: poetry
Physical Description: 1 leaf, 12 x 16 cm, handwritten
View images: 1 | 2
Content: A proof sheet of "Patroling
Barnegat," with a correction in Whitman's hand. The poem was
first published as "Patrolling Barnegat" in the April 1881 issue of Harper's Monthly Magazine.
Whitman Archive Title: Paumanok
Whitman Archive ID: loc.00259
Series: Literary File
Box: 28
Folder: Paumanok (1888). A.MS. copy.
Date: about
1888
Genre: poetry
Physical Description: 1 leaf, 12 x 21 cm, handwritten
View images: 1 | 2
Content: Written in ink on a sheet of white paper, cut from a larger sheet, is a
late draft of "Paumanok," first published in 1888. It is
signed in full at bottom. The word "personal" is partially encircled in the upper
right-hand corner. In pencil on verso in another hand: "Feb 18,
1888."
Whitman Archive Title: Paumanok
Whitman Archive ID: loc.00260
Series: Literary File
Box: 28
Folder: Paumanok (post-1888). Newspaper
clipping.
Date: about
1888
Genre: poetry
Physical Description: 1 leaf, 22 x 14.5 cm, handwritten
View images: 1 | 2
Content: A small newspaper clipping of "Paumanok" pasted onto a larger sheet of
paper, with notes and corrections in Whitman's hand. "Paumanok" was first
published in the New York Herald in 1888.
Whitman Archive Title: Pioneers! O
Pioneers!
Whitman Archive ID: loc.00263
Series: Literary File
Box: 28
Folder: Pioneers! O Pioneers! (1865). A.MS.
draft.
Date: about
1865
Genre: poetry
Physical Description: 1 leaf, 21 x 16.5 cm, handwritten
View images: 1 | 2
Content: A draft of the first two stanzas of "Pioneers! O Pioneers!," which was first
published in 1865, written in ink on a rough, bluish
piece of paper. On the verso is a note in pencil concerning wounded
soldiers.
Whitman Archive Title: Poem of the Trainer
Whitman Archive ID: loc.06005
Series: Notes and Notebooks
Box: 40
Folder: The voice of Walt Whitman
Date: Betwee late 1855 and 1860
Genre: poetry
Physical Description: 1 leaf, handwritten
View images: 1 | 2
Content: One leaf made by pasting together two scraps of pink paper, probably
wrappers from the 1855 edition of Leaves of Grass. This portion of the manuscript contains the title "Poem of the Trainer," written in ink. This title is not known to have any relationship to Whitman's published
works. Whitman's titling of poems as "Poem of..." began with the 1856 edition of Leaves and was retained, although to a lesser extent, in future editions. Given this, and the use of the 1855 wrapper paper, this note was likely written sometime between late 1855 and 1860. This scrap is attached to another scrap (loc.07550) that contains several
fragmentary lines written in pencil describing a whale hunt, likely related to lines on the same
topic in "A Song of Joys." On the reverse of the two scraps (loc.06004) are approximately
four lines, written and revised in ink, about the 1833 Leonid meteor shower, likely related to the poem "Year
of Meteors. (1859–1860)."
Whitman Archive Title: Pourtraiture of
Columbus
Whitman Archive ID: loc.00279
Series: Literary File
Box: 28
Folder: Prayer of Columbus (1874). A.MS. draft and
notes.
Date: about
1874
Genre: poetry
Physical Description: 1 leaf, handwritten
View images: 1 | 2
Content: Prose notes concerning Whitman's idea for the poem "Prayer of Columbus,"
first published in 1874.
Whitman Archive Title: Pourtray Columbus
Whitman Archive ID: loc.00280
Series: Literary File
Box: 28
Folder: Prayer of Columbus (1874). A.MS. draft and
notes.
Date: about
1874
Genre: poetry
Physical Description: 1 leaf, handwritten
View images: 1 | 2
Content: Prose notes concerning Whitman's idea for the poem "Prayer of Columbus,"
first published in 1874.
Whitman Archive Title: Prayer of Columbus
Whitman Archive ID: loc.00266
Series: Literary File
Box: 28
Folder: Prayer of Columbus (1874). A.MS. corrected
pages.
Date: 1881
Genre: poetry
Physical Description: 3 leaves, handwritten
View images: 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6
Content: Bound corrected proofs of "Prayer of Columbus," which was published first in 1874. The
title page, which follows Whitman's portrait, reads "Prayer of Columbus,
by Walt Whitman, The Poet's Corrected Proof, 1881." The corrections are most
likely for the 1881 edition of Leaves of Grass.
Whitman Archive Title: Priests!
Whitman Archive ID: loc.00013
Series: Literary File
Box: 28
Folder: Priests! (1855). A.MS. draft.
Date: Between 1850 and 1855
Genre: poetry
Physical Description: 1 leaf, 10 x 20 cm, handwritten
View images: 1 | 2
Content: Whitman probably drafted this manuscript in the early 1850s as he was composing the first (1855) edition of Leaves of Grass. The general theme of this manuscript, as well as the specific wording of one of the lines, resembles a portion of the second poem in that edition, eventually entitled "A Song for Occupations": "When the sacred vessels or the bits of the eucharist, or the lath and plast, procreate as effectually as the young silvermiths or bakers, or the masons in their overalls / ... / I intend to reach them my hand and make as much of them as I do of men and women" (1855, p. 64). Language and ideas from this manuscript appear in other manuscripts that relate to the first poem in the 1855 edition of Leaves of Grass, ultimately titled "Song of Myself." See in particular the lines: "The supernatural of no account . . . . myself waiting my time to be one of the supremes, / The day getting ready for me when I shall do as much good as the best, and be as prodigious, / Guessing when I am it will not tickle me much to receive puffs out of pulpit or print" (1855, p. 46). Based on its similarity to other manuscripts, this manuscript may also relate to lines 39-43 in "Debris," a cluster published in the 1860 edition of Leaves of Grass: "I WILL take an egg out of the robin's nest in the orchard, / I will take a branch of gooseberries from the old bush in the garden, and go and preach to the world; / You shall see I will not meet a single heretic or scorner, / You shall see how I stump clergymen, and confound them, / You shall see me showing a scarlet tomato, and a white pebble from the beach" (1860, p. 424). On the verso (loc.07512) is a proposition for a poem "embodying the sentiment of perfect happiness." Pin marks and leftover bits of glue near the bottom of the leaf suggest it was at one point attached to something else.
Whitman Archive Title: Recapitulation
Whitman Archive ID: loc.00208
Series: Literary File
Box: 27
Folder: Last Words (1889). A.MS. drafts.
Date: about
1889
Genre: poetry
Physical Description: 1 leaf, handwritten
View images: 1 | 2
Content: Draft of an unpublished poem which was also titled, in other manuscript
drafts, "Last Words"
and "The last." The
draft was written on the back of an opened envelope from W. F.
Woodruff.
Whitman Archive Title: Rel.
Whitman Archive ID: loc.00170
Series: Notes and Notebooks
Box: 40
Folder: Literary, Undated, Religion
Date: undated
Genre: poetry
Physical Description: 2 leaves, handwritten
View images: 1 | 2 | 3 | 4
Content: Two leaves of notes entitled "Rel." and discussing issues related to
religion. A note in another hand in the top margin declares that the
note is from before the Civil War.
Whitman Archive Title: Resurgemus
Whitman Archive ID: loc.00289
Series: Literary File
Box: 29
Folder: Resurgemus (1850). Clipping.
Date: about
1884
Genre: poetry
Physical Description: 2 leaves, 24.5 x 14.5 cm, handwritten
View images: 1 | 2 | 3 | 4
Content: A clipping from the September, 1884 issue of the London magazine To-Day. Printed in the
issue is Whitman's poem "Resurgemus," and in Whitman's hand are some corrections and
a bibliographic notation. The publication history of this poem is
unusual: it was published first as "Resurgemus" in 1850, then
untitled in the 1855 edition of Leaves of Grass, then as "Poem of The Dead Young Men of
Europe, the 72nd and 73rd Years of These States" in the 1856 edition, and as "Europe, The 72nd and 73rd Years of These
States" in the 1860 and subsequent editions.
The appearance of the poem in an 1884 periodical under an old title is
highly unusual.
Whitman Archive Title: Returning to my pages'
front once
Whitman Archive ID: loc.00088
Series: Literary File
Box: 28
Folder: Out from Behind This Mask (1876). A.MS.
draft.
Date: between
1871 and 1876
Genre: poetry
Physical Description: 1 leaf, handwritten
View images: 1 | 2
Content: Draft of the poem "Out From
Behind This Mask," first published in the New York Tribune on February 19, 1876.
Whitman Archive Title: Rule in all addresses
Whitman Archive ID: loc.00163
Series: Notes and Notebooks
Box: 39
Folder: Literary, Rule in All Addresses.
Date: Before 1856
Genre: prose, poetry
Physical Description: 1 leaf, handwritten
View images: 1 | 2
Content: Lines and phrases on both the recto and verso of this manuscript contributed to portions of the poem eventually titled "Song of Myself," and possibly to other sections of the 1855 Leaves of Grass, suggesting a composition date before 1855. However, this manuscript also includes lines that probably contributed to "Sun-Down Poem" (later retitled "Crossing Brooklyn Ferry") in the 1856 edition of Leaves of Grass. It is possible that some of these poetic lines contributed to the prose preface to the 1855 edition of Leaves of Grass. A line in this manuscript is similar to the following line, in the poem later titled "Song of Myself": "I am the mate and companion of people, all just as immortal and fathomless as myself" (1855, p. 17). Another line is similar to the lines "And nothing, not God, is greater to one than one's-self is" (1855, p. 53) and "And I say it is as great to be a woman as to be a man" (1855, p. 26). Another manuscript line is similar to the line "Maternal as well as paternal, a child as well as a man" (1855, p. 23). And several manuscript lines are similar to the lines beginning "Not merely of the New World but of Africa Europe or Asia . . . . a wandering savage, / A farmer, mechanic, or artist . . . . a gentleman, sailor, lover or quaker, / A prisoner, fancy-man, rowdy, lawyer, physician or priest" (1855, p. 24). Three other lines are similar to: "Storming enjoying planning loving cautioning, / Backing and filling, appearing and disappearing, / I tread day and night such roads" (1855, p. 38). Edward Grier speculates that Whitman's note "Don't forget the bombardment" relates to the "bombardment" of the "old artillerist" in "Song of Myself": "I am an old artillerist, and tell of some fort's bombardment . . . . and am there again" (1855, p. 40). (See Notebooks and Unpublished Prose Manuscripts [New York: New York University Press, 1984], 1:165). Several phrases of the prose on the verso were probably later used, in somewhat revised form, in the following lines from "Sun-down Poem" in the 1856 edition of Leaves of Grass: "The best I had done seemed to me blank and suspicious, / My great thoughts, as I supposed them, were they not in reality meagre? Would not people laugh at me?" (1856, p. 216). The poem was later titled "Crossing Brooklyn Ferry." It is possible that some of the poetic lines on the verso contributed to the prose preface to the 1855 edition of Leaves of Grass. The lines "I am too great to be a mere President or Major General / I remain with my fellows—with mechanics, and farmers and common people" may relate to the sentence from the preface that reads: "Other states indicate themselves in their deputies....but the genius of the United States is not best or most in its executives or legislatures, nor in its ambassadors or authors or colleges or churches or parlors, nor even in its newspapers or inventors...but always most in the common people" (1855, p. iii). The line "I remain with them all on equal terms" may also be related to the following line in the preface: "The messages of great poets to each man and woman are, Come to us on equal terms" (1855, p. vii). The line "In me are the old and young the fool and the wise thinker" may be related to a similar phrase in the poem eventually titled "Who Learns My Lesson Complete?": "The stupid and the wise thinker" (1855, p. 92). The phrase "mother of many children" appears in both the preface and in the poem later titled "Faces."
Whitman Archive Title: Sail forth O mystic yacht
of me
Whitman Archive ID: loc.00040
Series: Literary File
Box: 29
Folder: Sail Out for Good, Eidólon Yacht! (1888). A.MS.
drafts and notes.
Date: about
1890
Genre: poetry, prose
Physical Description: 1 leaf, handwritten
View images: 1 | 2
Content: Trial lines for "Sail Out
for Good, Eidólon Yacht!," which was published first in 1891. On part of the page is prose that appears to be a
journal entry. The rest, though, is dedicated to a draft of the poem,
with the title written half way down the page: "Sail forth O mystic yacht of
me." On the verso is written "Walt Whitman, July 30
1890" twice.
Whitman Archive Title: Sail out for Good Eidolon yacht
Whitman Archive ID: loc.00041
Series: Literary File
Box: 29
Folder: Sail Out for Good, Eidolón Yacht! (1888). A.MS.
drafts and notes.
Date: about
1891
Genre: poetry
Physical Description: 1 leaf, handwritten
View images: 1 | 2
Content: Note regarding "Sail Out for
Good, Eidólon Yacht!," which was published first in 1891. Written on this small white sheet are the title of the
poem ("Sail out for good
Eidólon yacht") and trial phrases for what appears to be a
subtitle.
Whitman Archive Title: Salut Au Monde
Whitman Archive ID: loc.00292
Series: Literary File
Box: 29
Folder: Salut Au Monde (1886). A.MS. corrected
pages.
Date: about 1881
Genre: poetry
Physical Description: 13 leaves, handwritten, printed
View images: 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | 10 | 11 | 12 | 13 | 14 | 15 | 16 | 17 | 18 | 19 | 20 | 21 | 22 | 23 | 24 | 25 | 26
Content: Pages of"Salut Au Monde!" as printed in the 1871–72 edition of Leaves of Grass, heavily corrected for publication in the 1881–82 edition This poem had originally been published in 1856 under the title "Poem of Salutation."
Whitman Archive Title: Sands at Seventy
Whitman Archive ID: loc.00174
Series: Literary File
Box: 22
Folder: L of G (1888). Page Proofs—Sands at
Seventy
Date: about
1888
Genre: poetry
Physical Description: 20 leaves, 28.5 x 19.7 cm, handwritten, printed
View images: 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | 10 | 11 | 12 | 13 | 14 | 15 | 16 | 17 | 18 | 19 | 20 | 21
Content: Proof of Sands at
Seventy with some notes in Whitman's hand and in another,
unidentified hand. The notes mostly regard pagination and the insertion
of the poem "Old Age's
Lambent Peaks."
Whitman Archive Title: See'st thou
Whitman Archive ID: loc.00162
Series: Notes and Notebooks
Box: 40
Folder: Literary, Undated, The Voice of Walt
Whitman.
Date: Between 1850 and 1855
Genre: poetry
Physical Description: 1 leaf, handwritten
View images: 1 | 2
Content: Whitman probably drafted this manuscript in the early 1850s as he was composing the first (1855) edition of Leaves of Grass. It probably relates to the seventh poem in that edition, originally untitled, part of which eventually became "Song of the Answerer." The manuscript is collected in a bound volume with other manuscripts.
Whitman Archive Title: Shakspere-Bacon's
Cipher
Whitman Archive ID: loc.00294
Series: Literary File
Box: 29
Folder: Shakspere-Bacon's Cipher (1891). Proof
Sheets.
Date: about
1887
Genre: poetry
Physical Description: 1 leaf, 15 x 14.5 cm, printed, handwritten
View images: 1 | 2
Content: Proof of "Shakspere-Bacon's
Cipher," which was published first in 1887.
Whitman Archive Title: Shakspere-Bacon's
Cipher
Whitman Archive ID: loc.02413
Series: Literary File
Box: 29
Folder: Shakspere-Bacon's Cipher (1891). Proof
Sheets.
Date: about
1887
Genre: poetry
Physical Description: 1 leaf, 15 x 14.5 cm, printed, handwritten
View images: 1 | 2
Content: Proof of "Shakspere-Bacon's
Cipher," which was published first in 1887.
Whitman Archive Title: Shakspere-Bacon's
Cipher
Whitman Archive ID: loc.02414
Series: Literary File
Box: 29
Folder: Shakspere-Bacon's Cipher (1891). Proof
Sheets.
Date: about
1887
Genre: poetry
Physical Description: 1 leaf, 15 x 14.5 cm, printed, handwritten
View images: 1 | 2
Content: Proof of "Shakspere-Bacon's
Cipher," which was published first in 1887.
Whitman Archive Title: Shakspere-Bacon's
Cipher
Whitman Archive ID: loc.04122
Series: Literary File
Box: 29
Folder: Shakspere-Bacon's Cipher (1891). Proof
Sheets.
Date: about
1887
Genre: poetry
Physical Description: 1 leaf, 15 x 14.5 cm, printed, handwritten
View images: 1 | 2
Content: Proof of "Shakspere-Bacon's
Cipher," which was published first in 1887.
Whitman Archive Title: So Loth to Depart!
Whitman Archive ID: loc.00003
Series: Literary File
Box: 26
Folder: After the Supper and Talk (1888). A.MS.
drafts
Date: about
1887
Genre: poetry, prose
Physical Description: 1 leaf, 26 x 20 cm, handwritten
View images: 1 | 2
Content: Draft of poem later revised and published as "After the Supper and Talk" in 1887. On verso detached from Leaves of Grass, part of "Poem of Joys," first
published in the 1860 edition of Leaves of Grass, and later published as
"A Song of
Joys." The title "Poem of Joys" is in Whitman's hand.
Whitman Archive Title: Song of the
Redwood-Tree
Whitman Archive ID: loc.00297
Series: Literary File
Box: 29
Folder: Song of the Redwood-Tree (1874). Proof
Sheet.
Date: about
1874
Genre: poetry
Physical Description: 2 leaves, 40.5 x 25.5 cm, handwritten
View images: 1 | 2 | 3 | 4
Content: A proof sheet of "Song of
the Redwood-Tree," first published in 1874, with minor corrections and a note on the verso in
Whitman's hand.
Whitman Archive Title: Song of the Open
Road
Whitman Archive ID: loc.00847
Series: Literary File
Box: 29
Folder: Song of the Open Road (1856). A.MS. corrected
pages.
Date: about
1881
Genre: poetry
Physical Description: 12 leaves, handwritten
View images: 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | 10 | 11 | 12 | 13 | 14 | 15 | 16 | 17 | 18 | 19 | 20 | 21 | 22 | 23
Content: These corrected pages of "Song of
the Open Road" contributed to the 1881 edition of Leaves of Grass.
Whitman Archive Title: Songs of Parting
Whitman Archive ID: loc.00298
Series: Literary File
Box: 29
Folder: Songs of Parting. A.MS. corrected
pages.
Date: about
1881
Genre: poetry
Physical Description: 18 leaves, handwritten
View images: 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | 10 | 11 | 12 | 13 | 14 | 15 | 16 | 17 | 18 | 19 | 20 | 21 | 22 | 23 | 24 | 25 | 26 | 27 | 28 | 29 | 30 | 31 | 32 | 33 | 34 | 35 | 36
Content: Corrected pages, many originally appearing in the 1876 Leaves of Grass, of cluster "Songs of Parting," containing 17 poems.
Opposite a portrait of Whitman, the title page reads, "Songs of Parting,
by Walt Whitman, The Poet's Corrected Proof." These corrections were
probably intended for the 1881–82 edition of Leaves of Grass. The 17 poems included
are: "As the Time Draws
Nigh,"
"Ashes of Soldiers,"
"Years of the
Modern,"
"Thoughts,"
"Song at Sunset,"
"My Legacy,"
"Pensive on Her Dead
Gazing, I Heard the Mother of All,"
"Camps of Green,"
"Bathed in War's
Perfume,"
"Now Finalé to the
Shore,"
"As they Draw to a
Close,"
"The Untold Want,"
"Portals,"
"These Carols,"
"To the Reader at
Parting,"
"Joy, Shipmate,
Joy!," and "So
Long."
Whitman Archive Title: Spirit That Form'd This
Scene
Whitman Archive ID: loc.00131
Series: Literary File
Box: 29
Folder: Spirit That Form'd This Scene (1881). A.MS.
draft.
Date: between
1879-1881
Genre: poetry
Physical Description: 1 leaf, handwritten
View images: 1 | 2
Content: Draft of "Spirit That Form'd
This Scene" written in ink, with a few changes, on a writing surface
made by pasting together various strips cut from larger
sheets. The poem was published in 1881.
Whitman Archive Title: Spirit that form'd this
scene
Whitman Archive ID: loc.00300
Series: Literary File
Box: 29
Folder: Spirit That Form'd This Scene (1881). A.MS.
drafts.
Date: about
1881
Genre: poetry
Physical Description: 1 leaf, 20 x 12 cm, handwritten
View images: 1 | 2
Content: A late draft of "Spirit That
Form'd this Scene," which was first published in 1881, written in ink on one side of a sheet and signed in
full.
Whitman Archive Title: Spirit that form'd this
scene
Whitman Archive ID: loc.00615
Series: Literary File
Box: 29
Folder: Spirit That Form'd This Scene (1881). A.MS.
drafts.
Date: about
1881
Genre: poetry
Physical Description: 1 leaf, 20 x 12 cm, handwritten
View images: 1 | 2
Content: A draft of "Spirit That
Form'd this Scene," which was first published in 1881, written in ink on sheets made from pasting together
five strips pasted onto another sheet of paper. The date 1881 appears at
the top of the sheet.
Whitman Archive Title: Starting from
Paumanok
Whitman Archive ID: loc.00301
Series: Literary File
Box: 29
Folder: Starting from Paumanok (1880). A.MS. corrected
pages.
Date: about
1881
Genre: poetry
Physical Description: 15 leaves, handwritten
View images: 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | 10 | 11 | 12 | 13 | 14 | 15 | 16 | 17 | 18 | 19 | 20 | 21 | 22 | 23 | 24 | 25 | 26 | 27 | 28 | 29 | 30
Content: Bound proof corrected extensively in Whitman's hand. This correction was
probably for the 1881 edition of Leaves of Grass. Opposite a portrait of Whitman, the title
page reads, "Starting From Paumanok, by Walt Whitman, The Poet's
Corrected Proof—." "Starting From Paumanok" was first published as "Proto-Leaf"in 1860.
Whitman Archive Title: Supplement Hours
Whitman Archive ID: loc.00302
Series: Literary File
Box: 29
Folder: Supplement Hours. A.MS. drafts.
Date: about
1880
Genre: poetry
Physical Description: 1 leaf, handwritten
View images: 1 | 2
Content: Draft and trial lines probably written around 1880. These lines are directly related to "A Clear Midnight," first published in Leaves of Grass in 1881. The lines that appear in this manuscript also were published posthumously as "Supplement Hours," a poem that formed part of a cluster entitled "Old Age Echoes," included in an edition of Leaves of Grass compiled by Whitman's literary executors and published in 1897 (Boston: Small, Maynard). The first line begins "Sane, easy, homely."
Whitman Archive Title: Supplement Hours
Whitman Archive ID: loc.00303
Series: Literary File
Box: 29
Folder: Supplement Hours. A.MS. drafts.
Date: about
1881
Genre: poetry
Physical Description: 1 leaf, handwritten
View images: 1 | 2
Content: Draft and trial lines of a poem unpublished in Whitman's lifetime, though published posthumously as "Supplement Hours." The poem was part of a cluster entitled "Old Age Echoes," included in an edition of Leaves of Grass compiled by Whitman's literary executors and published in 1897 (Boston: Small, Maynard). The first line begins "The lesson done."
Whitman Archive Title: Supplement Hours
Notes
Whitman Archive ID: loc.00304
Series: Literary File
Box: 29
Folder: Supplement Hours. A.MS. drafts.
Date: about
1881
Genre: poetry
Physical Description: 1 leaf, handwritten
View images: 1 | 2
Content: Draft and trial lines of a poem unpublished in Whitman's lifetime, though published posthumously as "Supplement Hours." The poem was part of a cluster entitled "Old Age Echoes," included in an edition of Leaves of Grass compiled by Whitman's literary executors and published in 1897 (Boston: Small, Maynard). The subtitle reads "Notes by a half-paralytic."
Whitman Archive Title: Sword-Calls
Whitman Archive ID: loc.00308
Series: Literary File
Box: 29
Folder: Sword Calls (1863-64). A.MS. draft and
notes.
Date: between
1863-1864
Genre: poetry
Physical Description: 2 leaves, handwritten
View images: 1 | 2 | 3 | 4
Content: Draft and notes for an unpublished poem titled "Sword-Calls" written
in ink on a large sheet from a notebook (second sheet blank), and in
pencil (with "Sword-Calls" in red ink) on another smaller leaf.
Whitman Archive Title: Talk with Mr. Hartshorn
Whitman Archive ID: loc.07017
Series: Notes and Notebooks
Box: 38
Folder: Notes 1847–1891, Brooklyniana, undated, Guy's picture of Brooklyn
Date: 1855-1861
Genre: prose
Physical Description: 1 leaf, handwritten
View images: 1 | 2 | 3
Content: These notes discuss the authenticity of a painting by Francis Guy. Whitman wrote about Guy and one of his paintings in the installment of his "Brooklyniana" series published in the Brooklyn Standard on 28 December 1861. The piece is titled "Brooklyniana No. 3," but was actually the fourth installment to appear; an installment also titled "No. 3" had appeared in the Standard on 12 June 1861.
Whitman Archive Title: Thanks in Old Age
Whitman Archive ID: loc.01116
Series: Literary File
Box: 29
Folder: Thanks in Old Age (1887). Printed Copy.
Date: November 24,
1887
Genre: poetry
Physical Description: 1 leaf, printed, handwritten
View images: 1
Content: A clipping from the November 24, 1887 issue of The Republican with
Whitman's poem "Thanks in
Old Age." The date of the issue is noted in Whitman's hand in
the margin.
Whitman Archive Title: Thanks in Old Age
Whitman Archive ID: loc.01081
Series: Literary File
Box: 29
Folder: Thanks in Old Age (1888). Proof Sheets.
Date: about
1887
Genre: poetry
Physical Description: 2 leaves, handwritten
View images: 1
Content: A proof sheet of "Thanks in
Old Age" that features a single correction—a comma added after the word "retrospective." The poem was
published first in 1887.
Whitman Archive Title: The Beauty of the
Ship
Whitman Archive ID: loc.00499
Series: General Correspondence
Box: 4
Folder: Buchanan, Robert. Apr. 1876-Jan 1877, &
undated.
Date: 1876
Genre: poetry
Physical Description: 1 leaf, handwritten
View images: 1 | 2
Content: A cancelled, early draft of "The Beauty of the Ship"written on the verso of an 1876 letter from
Whitman to Robert Buchanan.
Whitman Archive Title: The Buried Army
Whitman Archive ID: loc.00108
Series: Literary File
Box: 26
Folder: The Buried Army (After Sept. 1885). A.MS.
draft.
Date: about
1885
Genre: poetry
Physical Description: 1 leaf, 18 x 16 cm, handwritten
View images: 1 | 2
Content: Trial lines, possibly for "A
Twilight Song,"first published in 1890 and subtitled
"For unknown buried soldiers, North and South."
Whitman Archive Title: The Commonplace
Whitman Archive ID: loc.00076
Series: Literary File
Box: 26
Folder: The Commonplace (1891). A.MS. draft.
Date: about
1890
Genre: poetry
Physical Description: 1 leaf, 27 x 19 cm, handwritten
View images: 1 | 2
Content: On one side is a draft of "The Commonplace," which was first published in manuscript
facsimile in 1891. On the other side is a cancelled
early draft of "Osceola," a poem first published in 1890.
Whitman Archive Title: The Commonplace
Whitman Archive ID: loc.04077
Series: Literary File
Box: 26
Folder: The Commonplace (Mar. 1891). Printed
Copy.
Date: March,
1891
Genre: poetry
Physical Description: 1 leaf,
View images: 1 | 2
Content: A copy of the March,
1891, issue of Munson's Magazine, which includes, in manuscript facsimile,
"The
Commonplace."
Whitman Archive Title: The Dalliance of the
Eagles
Whitman Archive ID: loc.00023
Series: Literary File
Box: 26
Folder: The Dalliance of the Eagles (1880). A.MS.
drafts.
Date: about
1880
Genre: poetry
Physical Description: 4 leaves, 21.5 x 20 cm, handwritten
View images: 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8
Content: On a surface made by pasting together six scraps of paper (back of a discarded
envelope from Geo. S. Woodhull and Son, Law Offices, Camden, postmarked
Apr 6; back of a discarded letter, dated New York, March 29,
1880; and other scraps), a late draft of the poem "The Dalliance of the
Eagles," about 120 words, showing a few minor variations from
the first-published version of 1880.
Whitman Archive Title: The Dalliance of the
Eagles
Whitman Archive ID: loc.00184
Series: Literary File
Box: 26
Folder: The Dalliance of the Eagles (1880). Proof
Sheets.
Date: about
1880
Genre: poetry
Physical Description: 1 leaf, 25.8 x 18.6 cm, handwritten
View images: 1 | 2
Content: Written in ink on a proof of "The Dalliance of the Eagles,"
"Ah, little knows the
Laborer,"
"Hast never come to thee an
hour?," and "My
Picture-Gallery," are 14 words of notations in Whitman's
hand. The proof has been pasted to a heavy piece of paper, on the verso
of which is "A Riddle
Song," part of "Italian Music in Dakota," and a clipped headline reading
"The Society Articles Save Labor. Lighten the Labor for Mother."
Whitman Archive Title: The Dead Tenor
Whitman Archive ID: loc.00185
Series: Literary File
Box: 26
Folder: The Dead Tenor (1884). Proof Sheets.
Date: about
1884
Genre: poetry, prose
Physical Description: 2 leaves, 24 x 15 cm, 10.5 x 16.5 cm, handwritten
View images: 1 | 2
Content: Written in pencil on a small page from a notebook, on which is pasted a
clipping from a newspaper about the funeral of Signor Brignoli and the
reaction of Patti, pinned to an unmarked proof of "The Dead Tenor,"
thirty words: "I heard the earliest singing of Patti, (in 1860 if I
remember right)—heard her many times, Brignoli sang with her at her
first appearance in NY in 1859." The poem was first published in
1884.
Whitman Archive Title: The Dead Tenor
Whitman Archive ID: loc.00186
Series: Literary File
Box: 26
Folder: The Dead Tenor (1884). Proof Sheets.
Date: about
1884
Genre: poetry
Physical Description: 1 leaf, 21 x 15 cm, 20.5 x 15.25 cm, 24.25 x 15
cm, handwritten
View images: 1 | 2
Content: Proof of "The Dead
Tenor," with notations and corrections in Whitman's hand. The
poem was first published in 1884.
Whitman Archive Title: The Dead Tenor
Whitman Archive ID: loc.00497
Series: Literary File
Box: 26
Folder: The Dead Tenor (1884). Proof Sheets.
Date: about
1884
Genre: poetry
Physical Description: 1 leaf, 21 x 15 cm, 20.5 x 15.25 cm, 24.25 x 15
cm, handwritten
View images: 1 | 2
Content: Proof of "The Dead
Tenor," with notations and corrections in Whitman's hand. The
poem was first published in 1884.
Whitman Archive Title: The Dismantled
Ship
Whitman Archive ID: loc.00191
Series: Literary File
Box: 26
Folder: The Dismantled Ship (1888). A.MS.
draft.
Date: about
1888
Genre: poetry
Physical Description: 1 leaf, handwritten
View images: 1 | 2
Content: A draft of "The Dismantled
Ship," first published in 1888, written on
the inside of an opened envelope (postmark date unclear). At the bottom
of the page in a note in Whitman's hand: "probably printed in Herald
19th Feb.
'88."
Whitman Archive Title: The Dying Veteran
Whitman Archive ID: loc.00193
Series: Literary File
Box: 26
Folder: The Dying Veteran (1887). A.MS. draft.
Date: June 23,
1887
Genre: poetry, prose
Physical Description: 1 leaf, 28 x 21.5 cm, handwritten
View images: 1 | 2
Content: A dated, signed draft of "The Dying Veteran," first published in 1887. A note at end reads: "Given to Thomas Mosher by Horace
Traubel, 1900."
On verso of the page is a note by Whitman to "Mr. Curtz" (type setter)
asking for a finished proof by the middle of the afternoon,
Wednesday.
Whitman Archive Title: The Hicksite separation
appears
Whitman Archive ID: loc.06058
Series: Oversize
Box: OV 11
Folder: 1888, "Elias Hicks"
Date: about 1888
Genre: prose
Physical Description: 1 leaf, handwritten
View images: 1 | 2
Content: The information on this small scrap was used for a note, headed "Note.—The Separation," included in the
essay "Notes (such as they are) founded on
Elias Hicks." This essay was first published in November Boughs (1888) and later
reprinted in Complete Prose Works (1892). Whitman planned to write an essay about Elias Hicks
for many years. While finishing preparations for the printing of November Boughs, Whitman told Horace
Traubel, "Some of these bits were written as many as thirty years ago.
Some of them I have written within the past year. They are a
miscellaneous lot but they all belong in the same stream." (See Traubel,
With Walt Whitman in Camden, 2: 42.) The present manuscript is stored together with many other
manuscripts on the topics of Elias Hicks and Quakerism. Those that
directly contributed to the published essay are described separately.
Those whose relationship to the published essay are unclear are not
included at this stage of our work.
Whitman Archive Title: The Mystic Cipher
Whitman Archive ID: loc.00220
Series: Literary File
Box: 27
Folder: The Mystic Cipher. A.MS. draft.
Date: 1887
Genre: poetry
Physical Description: 1 leaf, 9.5 x 21.5 cm, handwritten
View images: 1 | 2
Content: A draft of a poem later revised and published as "Shakspere-Bacon's
Cipher" in 1887.
Whitman Archive Title: The Patrol at
Barnegat
Whitman Archive ID: loc.00254
Series: Literary File
Box: 28
Folder: Patroling Barnegat. (1880). A.MS.
drafts.
Date: 1880
Genre: poetry
Physical Description: 3 leaves, handwritten
View images: 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6
Content: An early draft entitled "The
Patrol at Barnegat," containing trial lines for the poem first published as "Patroling Barnegat" in the June 1880 issue of The American. On the
reverse of one leaf is a letter to Whitman from E. H. Hames & Co. of The Literary World magazine dated May 12,
1880.
Whitman Archive Title: The Patrol at
Barnegat
Whitman Archive ID: loc.00255
Series: Literary File
Box: 28
Folder: Patroling Barnegat. (1880). A.MS.
drafts.
Date: about 1881
Genre: poetry
Physical Description: 3 leaves, handwritten
View images: 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6
Content: A draft entitled "The Patrol
at Barnegat," containing trial lines for the poem first published as "Patrolling Barnegat" in the April 1881 issue of Harper's Monthly Magazine. The draft was originally
titled "The Sea Beach
Patrol," then "The Sea Shore Patrol," and finally "The Patrol at
Barnegat." On the verso of the draft are two receipts from
the Philadelphia Y.M.C.A., dated March 22, 1880 and April 15,
1880, and an unfinished letter from Whitman to John
Burroughs, dated August
20.
Whitman Archive Title: The Patrol at
Barnegat
Whitman Archive ID: loc.00256
Series: Literary File
Box: 28
Folder: Patroling Barnegat. (1880). A.MS.
drafts.
Date: about
1881
Genre: poetry
Physical Description: 1 leaf, handwritten
View images: 1 | 2
Content: A heavily-corrected draft of the poem published as "Patrolling Barnegat" in the
April 1881 issue of Harper's Monthly Magazine.
Whitman Archive Title: The Play-Ground
Whitman Archive ID: loc.00264
Series: Literary File
Box: 28
Folder: The Play-Ground (1846). A.MS. draft.
Date: About 1846
Genre: poetry
Physical Description: 1 leaf, 20 x 16.5 cm, handwritten
View images: 1 | 2
Content: A draft of the early poem "The Play-Ground," nearly as it appeared in the Brooklyn Daily Eagle on June 1, 1846 (during Whitman's editorship of the paper). On the verso is a page of prose in Whitman's hand.
Whitman Archive Title: The Poetry of the War at last
Whitman Archive ID: loc.00165
Series: Notes and Notebooks
Box: 39
Folder: c. 1880, Poetry of the War At Last
Date: about 1880
Genre: prose
Physical Description: 1 leaf, handwritten
View images: 1 | 2
Content: A prose draft entitled "The Poetry of the War at last," used for the essay "Poetry To-Day in America—Shakspere—the Future," which was published in the "Collect" section of Specimen Days & Collect (1882–1883).
Whitman Archive Title: The Singing Thrush
Whitman Archive ID: loc.00019
Series: Literary File
Box: 29
Folder: The Singing Thrush (1873). A.MS. draft.
Date: February 28,
1873
Genre: poetry
Physical Description: 1 leaf, 12 x 19 cm, handwritten
View images: 1 | 2
Content: A draft of "The Singing
Thrush"(first published in 1873 and later published under the title
"Wandering at
Morn") written in pencil, with corrections and changes (some
in ink) on a folded sheet of stationery. The draft is signed and dated
Washington, February 28, 1873.
Whitman Archive Title: The Sleepers
Whitman Archive ID: loc.00295
Series: Literary File
Box: 29
Folder: The Sleepers (1855). A.MS. corrected
pages.
Date: about
1881
Genre: poetry
Physical Description: 12 leaves, 11.5 x 20.5 cm, handwritten
View images: 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | 10 | 11 | 12 | 13 | 14 | 15 | 16 | 17 | 18 | 19 | 20 | 21 | 22 | 23 | 24
Content: A bound copy of corrected pages of "The Sleepers"from the 1876 edition of Leaves of Grass. The
corrections are written in ink, purple ink (faded red?) and blue pencil
on every page and are for the 1881 edition of Leaves of Grass. There is
a portrait of Whitman opposite a title page reading "Sleepers, by Walt
Whitman, The Poet's Corrected Proof."
Whitman Archive Title: The Sobbing of the
Bells
Whitman Archive ID: loc.00020
Series: Literary File
Box: 29
Folder: The Sobbing of the Bells (1881). A.MS.
drafts.
Date: 1881
Genre: poetry
Physical Description: 1 leaf, handwritten
View images: 1 | 2
Content: Draft of "The Sobbing of the
Bells," first published in the Boston Daily Globe on September 27,
1881. On the verso is a letter from John Boyle O'Reilly to Whitman that has been cut up and pasted together.
Whitman Archive Title: The Sobbing of the
Bells
Whitman Archive ID: loc.00022
Series: Literary File
Box: 29
Folder: The Sobbing of the Bells (1881). A.MS.
drafts.
Date: September 1881
Genre: poetry
Physical Description: 1 leaf, handwritten
View images: 1 | 2
Content: Draft of "The Sobbing of the
Bells," first published in the Boston Daily Globe on September 27, 1881. The poem was composed sometime between September 19, 1881, when President James Garfield died, and the publication date. This clean draft is encased in
mylar and housed with five clippings and descriptive cards.
Whitman Archive Title: The Sobbing of the
Bells
Whitman Archive ID: loc.00021
Series: Literary File
Box: 29
Folder: The Sobbing of the Bells (1881). A.MS.
drafts.
Date: 1881
Genre: poetry
Physical Description: 1 leaf, handwritten
View images: 1 | 2
Content: Draft of "The Sobbing of the
Bells," first published in 1881. On the verso is prose in Whitman's hand.
Whitman Archive Title: The Trail
Whitman Archive ID: loc.00617
Series: Literary File
Box: 30
Folder: The Trail (1872). A.MS. draft and
notes.
Date: about
1872
Genre: poetry
Physical Description: 3 leaves, 25 x 20 cm, handwritten
View images: 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6
Content: Notes and drafted lines of an unpublished poem, which Whitman had
tentatively titled "The
Trail." The lines were written while Whitman was reading
The Oregon Trail by
Francis Parkman, for he has noted it at the top of the first page. The
title, written near the bottom of the first page, and "The Emigration to
California 1846
'7," on the third page, are written in red ink. The
relationship of this draft to Whitman's published work is unknown. All
versos are blank.
Whitman Archive Title: The Unexpress'd
Whitman Archive ID: loc.00319
Series: Literary File
Box: 30
Folder: The Unexpress'd (1890). A.MS. draft.
Date: about
1889
Genre: poetry
Physical Description: 1 leaf, 22 x 17 cm, handwritten
View images: 1 | 2
Content: A heavily corrected draft of the poem "The Unexpress'd," which was published first
in 1891, written on the verso of a cancelled letter from
Marjorie Cook, dated September 25, 1889.
Whitman Archive Title: The Voice of the
Rain
Whitman Archive ID: loc.00322
Series: Literary File
Box: 30
Folder: The Voice of the Rain (1885). Proof
Sheets.
Date: about
1885
Genre: poetry
Physical Description: 1 leaf, handwritten
View images: 1 | 2
Content: Proof sheet of the poem "The
Voice of the Rain," which was published first in 1885, with
notations in Whitman's hand.
Whitman Archive Title: The Voice of the
Rain
Whitman Archive ID: loc.02466
Series: Literary File
Box: 30
Folder: The Voice of the Rain (1885). Proof
Sheets.
Date: about
1885
Genre: poetry
Physical Description: 1 leaf, handwritten
View images: 1 | 2
Content: Proof sheet of the poem "The
Voice of the Rain," which was published first in 1885, with
notations and corrections in Whitman's hand (including a rejected title
and a notation on the verso).
Whitman Archive Title: The division took place
Whitman Archive ID: loc.06070
Series: Oversize
Box: OV 11
Folder: 1888, "Elias Hicks"
Date: about 1888
Genre: prose
Physical Description: 1 leaf, handwritten
View images: 1 | 2
Content: The writing on this small scrap, regarding the so-called "Hicksite
Separation" within the Religious Society of Friends, forms part of a
note, headed "Note.—The Separation,"
included in the essay "Notes (such as they
are) founded on Elias Hicks." This essay was first published
in November Boughs (1888) and later reprinted in Complete
Prose Works (1892). Whitman planned to write
an essay about Elias Hicks for many years. While finishing preparations
for the printing of November Boughs,
Whitman told Horace Traubel, "Some of these bits were written as many as
thirty years ago. Some of them I have written within the past year. They
are a miscellaneous lot but they all belong in the same stream." (See
Traubel, With Walt Whitman in Camden,
2: 42.) The present manuscript is stored together with many
other manuscripts on the topics of Elias Hicks and Quakerism. Those that
directly contributed to the published essay are described separately.
Those whose relationship to the published essay are unclear are not
included at this stage of our work.
Whitman Archive Title: The endless Catalogue
Divine
Whitman Archive ID: loc.00291
Series: Literary File
Box: 29
Folder: The Rounded Catalogue Divine Complete (1891). A.
MS. drafts.
Date: about
1891
Genre: poetry
Physical Description: 1 leaf, 25 x 19.5 cm, handwritten
View images: 1 | 2
Content: A badly stained draft of a poem published as "The Rounded Catalogue Divine Complete" in
1891.
Whitman Archive Title: The genuine miracles of Christ
Whitman Archive ID: loc.01019
Series: Literary File
Box: 36
Folder: Undated, "The Genuine Miracles of Christ," draft
Date: Between 1850 and 1855
Genre: prose, poetry
Physical Description: 1 leaf, handwritten
View images: 1 | 2
Content: This cancelled prose manuscript was probably written between 1850 and 1855. Language in the manuscript was used in the 1855 edition of Leaves of Grass, in the poem that was eventually titled "Song of Myself." Segments of the manuscript also resemble language that appeared in the preface to the 1855 Leaves of Grass and in the 1856 "Poem of Perfect Miracles," later titled "Miracles." The wording of "the vast elemental sympathy, which, only the human soul is capable of generating and emitting in steady and limitless floods," was used, slightly revised, in "A Song of Joys," which first appeared in the 1860 edition of Leaves of Grass as "Poem of Joys."
Whitman Archive Title: The idea that in the
Whitman Archive ID: loc.00389
Series: Literary File
Box: 32
Folder: "Ideas of Punishment-Reward, Woman, Liberty," draft
Date: Between 1854 and 1888
Genre: prose
Physical Description: 1 leaf, handwritten
View images: 1 | 2
Content: This manuscript is written on the back of a City of Williamsburgh tax form. A later note, in Whitman's hand, claims that the manuscript was written in 1855. It is possible that one of the lines relates to the following segment from the prose preface of the 1855 Leaves of Grass: "the perfect equality of the female with the male . . . ." (1855, p. iv). Scholars, following Fredson Bowers, have generally assumed that Whitman used the Williamsburgh tax forms from 1857 to 1860, while he was working at the Brooklyn Daily Times. The city of Williamsburgh was incorporated with Brooklyn effective January 1855, so the forms would have been obsolete after that date (Whitman's Manuscripts: Leaves of Grass [1860] [Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1955], xli–xliii). Most of the manuscripts Whitman wrote on the tax forms can be dated to the late 1850s. Bowers also notes, however, that Whitman may have used the forms over a considerable span of time, and that "it is not impossible that Whitman had picked up these tax forms for scrap paper at Rome Brothers at some unknown date in 1854 or early 1855, or later" (xliii). At least two of the tax forms Whitman used were dated 1854 (see, for instance, "Vast national tracts" [loc.05354.html]), but as Edward Grier points out, this may not correspond to the date of Whitman's writing (Notebooks and Unpublished Prose Manuscripts [New York: New York University Press, 1984], 5:1946). Whitman may have found a stack of obsolete Williamsburgh forms in 1857 that included discarded draft forms dated earlier. This manuscript is thus difficult to date conclusively, but it was almost certainly written after 1854 and probably before 1860. Based on a transcription of the manuscript in Horace Traubel's With Walt Whitman in Camden, the later note about the date of the manuscript must have been added before September 1888 ([New York: Mitchell Kennerley, 1915], 246).
Whitman Archive Title: The last
Whitman Archive ID: loc.00211
Series: Literary File
Box: 27
Folder: Last Words (1889). A.MS. drafts.
Date: about
1889
Genre: poetry
Physical Description: 1 leaf, handwritten
View images: 1 | 2
Content: Draft of an unpublished poem which was also titled, in other manuscript
drafts, "Last Words"
and "Recapitulation." The draft was written on the back of a
letter from R. M. Bucke, dated December 3, 1889.
Whitman Archive Title: The mystic
Trumpeter
Whitman Archive ID: loc.04099
Series: Literary File
Box: 27
Folder: The Mystic Trumpeter (1873). Printed copies in
Hungarian
Date: January 19,
1873
Genre: poetry
Physical Description: 1 leaf, 43.5 x 30 cm, handwritten
View images: 1
Content: A copy of the Budapest newspaper Fovarosi Lapok of January 19, 1873 containing Whitman's
poem "The Mystic
Trumpeter" in Hungarian and an interview with the poet by
Liptay Pal. At the top, written in pencil, are notes in Whitman's
hand.
Whitman Archive Title: The policy of the War Department
in not exchanging prisoners
Whitman Archive ID: loc.00930
Series: Literary File
Box: 32
Folder: ca. 1864, "The Policy of the War Department in Not
Exchanging Prisoners"
Date: 1864
Genre: prose
Physical Description: 1 leaf, handwritten
View images: 1 | 2
Content: A short draft on the exchange of the prisoners of war, the last paragraph
of which was revised and printed on 27 December
1864 in both "The
Prisoners"
New-York Times and "What Stops the General Exchange of Prisoners of
War?—Three-fourths of Our Men Already Exchanged by Death, or
Mental and Bodily Ruin, and the Rest will Soon Follow"
Brooklyn Daily Eagle.
Whitman Archive Title: The real earthly catalogue
divine, 'complete'
Whitman Archive ID: loc.00017
Series: Literary File
Box: 29
Folder: The Rounded Catalogue Divine Complete (1891). A.
MS. drafts.
Date: about
1891
Genre: poetry
Physical Description: 1 leaf, handwritten
View images: 1 | 2
Content: A draft of a poem published as "The Rounded Catalogue Divine Complete" in
1891, written in ink on a piece of paper to that of "The endless Catalogue Divine" (loc.00291), with a discarded envelope (addressed to Miss Olive Percival, 214
W. 2nd St., Los Angeles, CA) opened out and pasted to the bottom of the
piece, and some corrections in both pencil and ink.
Whitman Archive Title: The th Presidency
Whitman Archive ID: loc.06002
Series: Notes and Notebooks
Box: 40
Folder: Literary, Undated, The Voice of Walt
Whitman.
Date: 1855 or 1856
Genre: prose
Physical Description: 1 leaf, handwritten
View images: 1 | 2
Content: A manuscript draft of the title and opening lines of "The Eighteenth Presidency!" a political pamphlet about the 1856 Presidential election that remained unpublished in Whitman's lifetime, but was written in late 1855 or 1856. The manuscript is collected in a bound
book under the general title Walt Whitman: A Series of Six
Pieces, Original Holograph Manuscripts.
Whitman Archive Title: The village of
Jericho
Whitman Archive ID: loc.06029
Series: Oversize
Box: OV 11
Folder: 1888, "Elias Hicks"
Date: between 1858 and
1888
Genre: prose
Physical Description: 1 leaf, handwritten
View images: 1 | 2
Content: This one-page prose draft regarding the birthplace of Elias Hicks was
likely one of the manuscripts from which Whitman fashioned his 1888 essay "Notes (such as they
are) founded on Elias Hicks," first published in November Boughs and later reprinted in
Complete Prose Works (1892). The reference to Elias Hicks's daughter Martha Hicks
Aldrich as "still living" suggests that Whitman began writing this
manuscript before 1862, the year of Martha's death. The reference, in
the revision of this passage, to her death "a year or two ago," "about
1863," would seem to indicate that at least that portion of the
manuscript was written around 1865. Whitman planned to write an essay
about Elias Hicks for many years. While finishing preparations for the
printing of November Boughs, Whitman told
Horace Traubel, "Some of these bits were written as many as thirty years
ago. Some of them I have written within the past year. They are a
miscellaneous lot but they all belong in the same stream." (See Traubel,
With Walt Whitman in Camden, 2: 42.) The present manuscript is stored together with many other
manuscripts on the topics of Elias Hicks and Quakerism. Those that
directly contributed to the published essay are described separately.
Those whose relationship to the published essay are unclear are not
included at this stage of our work.
Whitman Archive Title: The wild gander leads his
Whitman Archive ID: loc.00507
Series: Literary File
Box: 20
Folder: L of G (1855). Manuscript Page.
Date: Between 1850 and 1855
Genre: poetry
Physical Description: 1 leaf, handwritten
View images: 1 | 2
Content: This manuscript was probably written between 1850 and 1855, while Whitman was working on the first (1855) edition of Leaves of Grass. The lines in the manuscript appear in the first poem in that edition, eventually titled "Song of Myself." John C. Broderick has described this manuscript as the last surviving page of "the original manuscript of the first edition of Leaves of Grass" ("The Greatest Whitman Collector and the Greatest Whitman Collection," The Quarterly Journal of the Library of Congress, 27.2 [April 1970], 109–128), a claim echoed by Arthur Golden in "The Ending of the 1855 Version of 'Song of Myself,'" Walt Whitman Quarterly Review, 3.4 (Spring 1986), 30n6. The page number at the top of the manuscript is not inconsistent with the possible positioning of these lines as part of a printer's copy, but lacking further evidence it would be difficult to confirm the claim. On the reverse side (loc.07428) is a long list of words, many of which are found in the poem eventually "Song of the Broad-Axe."
Whitman Archive Title: This first page will be
Whitman Archive ID: loc.00030
Series: Literary File
Box: OV 4
Folder: November Boughs, Galley Proofs
Date: about
1888
Genre: poetry, prose
Physical Description: about 62 leaves, printed, handwritten
View images: 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | 10 | 11 | 12 | 13 | 14 | 15 | 16 | 17 | 18 | 19 | 20 | 21 | 22 | 23 | 24 | 25 | 26 | 27 | 28 | 29 | 30 | 31 | 32 | 33 | 34 | 35 | 36 | 37 | 38 | 39 | 40 | 41 | 42 | 43 | 44 | 45 | 46 | 47 | 48 | 49 | 50 | 51 | 52 | 53 | 54 | 55 | 56 | 57 | 58 | 59 | 60 | 61 | 62 | 63 | 64 | 65 | 66 | 67 | 68 | 69 | 70 | 71 | 72 | 73 | 74 | 75 | 76 | 77 | 78 | 79 | 80 | 81 | 82 | 83 | 84 | 85 | 86 | 87 | 88 | 89 | 90 | 91 | 92 | 93 | 94 | 95 | 96 | 97 | 98 | 99 | 100 | 101 | 102 | 103 | 104 | 105 | 106 | 107 | 108 | 109 | 110 | 111 | 112 | 113 | 114 | 115 | 116 | 117 | 118 | 119 | 120 | 121 | 122 | 123 | 124
Content: Sixty-two pages of galley proofs of November Boughs (1888), with
numerous corrections.
Whitman Archive Title: This young man in bed 25
Whitman Archive ID: loc.00928
Series: Literary File
Box: 32
Folder: ca. 1863, "A Connecticut Case," New York Weekly Graphic, draft
Date: ca.
1863
Genre: prose
Physical Description: 1 leaf, handwritten
View images: 1 | 2
Content: A revised draft of "A Connecticut
Case," a piece of Civil War memoranda which was first
included in Memoranda During the War
(1875–76) and later reprinted in Specimen Days & Collect (1882.
Whitman Archive Title: Thou Vast Rondure,
Swimming in Space
Whitman Archive ID: loc.00309
Series: Literary File
Box: 29
Folder: Thou Vast Rondure, Swimming in Space (1868?).
Offprint.
Date: between
1868-1869
Genre: poetry
Physical Description: 1 leaf, 32 x 13.5 cm, printed, handwritten
View images: 1 | 2
Content: An offprint of "Thou Vast
Rondure, Swimming in Space," with note at the top reading "J.
T. Trowbridge, from W. W." and a note on the verso reading "is to app.
in London Fortnightly for April." Though the poem was submitted in
either 1868 or
1869, it
was never published in the Fortnightly. It was later incorporated in the poem "Passage to India,"
which was first published in 1871. "Thou Vast Rondure, Swimming
in Space" was not published as a separate poem.
Whitman Archive Title: Thou West that gave'st him to us
Whitman Archive ID: loc.07461
Series: Literary File
Box: 26
Folder: Beat! Beat! Drums! (1861). A. MS.
draft.
Date: 1865
Genre: poetry
Physical Description: 1 leaf, handwritten
View images: 1 | 2
Content: This manuscript consists of poetic lines on the death of Abraham
Lincoln, lines that begin with the words "Thou
West that gave'st him to us." The lines were not published during Whitman's lifetime, and although they focus on Lincoln's death, do not share direct similarities with "When Lilacs Last in the Dooryard Bloom'd" or other poems in the "Memories of President Lincoln" cluster. The lines were posthumously published in a
Facsimile Edition of Drum-Taps in 1959. On the reverse of this leaf (loc.00051) is a draft of the first stanza of the poem "Beat! Beat! Drums!"
Whitman Archive Title: Thou Who Hast Slept All
Night Upon the Storm
Whitman Archive ID: loc.00314
Series: Literary File
Box: 30
Folder: To the Man-of-War-Bird (1876). Printed
Copies.
Date: between
1876-1878
Genre: poetry
Physical Description: 1 leaf, handwritten
View images: 1 | 2
Content: Printed copy of "Thou Who
Hast Slept All Night Upon the Storm" with bibliographic notations and
corrections in Whitman's hand. This clipping is from the Philadelphia
Progress (November 16, 1878). The poem had been published earlier as
"The
Man-of-War Bird" in the 1 April 18 issue of The Athenæum. It was eventually titled "To the Man-of-War-Bird."
Whitman Archive Title: Thou Who Hast Slept All
Night Upon the Storm
Whitman Archive ID: loc.02938
Series: Literary File
Box: 30
Folder: To the Man-of-War-Bird (1876). Printed
Copies.
Date: between
1876 and 1878
Genre: poetry
Physical Description: 1 leaf, handwritten
View images: 1 | 2
Content: Proof of "Thou Who
Hast Slept All Night Upon the Storm," with
corrections in Whitman's hand. The poem was first published as
"The
Man-of-War Bird" in the 1 April 18 issue of The Athenæum and finally titled "To the Man-of-War-Bird."
Whitman Archive Title: Thou Who Hast Slept All
Night Upon the Storm
Whitman Archive ID: loc.02939
Series: Literary File
Box: 30
Folder: To the Man-of-War-Bird (1876). Printed
Copies.
Date: between
1876 and 1878
Genre: poetry
Physical Description: 1 leaf, handwritten
View images: 1 | 2
Content: Proof of "Thou Who
Hast Slept All Night Upon the Storm," with bibliographic notations and
corrections in Whitman's hand. The poem was first published as
"The
Man-of-War Bird" in the 1 April 18 issue of The Athenæum and finally titled "To the Man-of-War-Bird."
Whitman Archive Title: Thou Who Hast Slept All
Night Upon the Storm
Whitman Archive ID: loc.02940
Series: Literary File
Box: 30
Folder: To the Man-of-War-Bird (1876). Printed
Copies.
Date: between
1876-1878
Genre: poetry
Physical Description: 1 leaf, handwritten
View images: 1 | 2
Content: Printed copy of "The Man-of-War Bird" (later published as
"To the
To the Man-of-War-Bird") with a bibliographic notation in Whitman's hand. This page is from the London Athenæum (April 1, 1876).
Whitman Archive Title: Though all the breeds
Whitman Archive ID: loc.06086
Series: Oversize
Box: OV 11
Folder: 1888, "Elias Hicks"
Date: about 1868
Genre: prose
Physical Description: 1 leaf, handwritten
View images: 1 | 2
Content: The manuscript fragment on the recto of this leaf appears to have been
drafted for the unpublished essay "Orbic
Literature," which Whitman combined with two essays published
in The Galaxy ("Democracy" [December
1867] and "Personalism [May 1868]") as Democratic Vistas in 1871. "Democratic Vistas" was reprinted in
Two Rivulets (1876), Specimen Days & Collect (1882–1883), Democratic Vistas,
and Other Papers (1888), and Complete
Prose Works (1892). The writing on the verso, concerning
George Fox and Quakerism, is part of an apparently unrelated two-page
manuscript.
Whitman Archive Title: To Get the Final Lilt of
Songs
Whitman Archive ID: loc.00311
Series: Literary File
Box: 30
Folder: To Get the Final Lilt of Songs (1888). Proof
Sheets.
Date: about
1888
Genre: poetry
Physical Description: 1 leaf, handwritten
View images: 1 | 2
Content: Proof sheet of "To Get the
Final Lilt of Songs," which was first published in 1888. A note in Whitman's hand, "publ'd in Herald April 16
'88," is at the bottom of the page. On the verso is Whitman's prose note serving to coordinate the sharing of proof slips and correspondence within his circle of acquaintance.
Whitman Archive Title: To Printer
Whitman Archive ID: loc.02147
Series: Oversize
Box: OV1
Folder: container 19
Date: 1888
Genre: prose
Physical Description: 1 leaf, handwritten
View images: 1 | 2
Content: Manuscript of "Note at end of Complete Poems
and Prose," published in Complete
Poems & Prose (1888) and not
reprinted during Whitman's lifetime.
Whitman Archive Title: To a Locomotive in Winter
Whitman Archive ID: loc.04614
Series: Literary File
Box: 30
Folder: To a Locomotive in Winter (1876). A.MS.
draft.
Date: 1876
Genre: poetry
Physical Description: 7 leaves, handwritten
View images: 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | 10 | 11 | 12 | 13 | 14
Content: Draft lines and notes for the poem, "To a
Locomotive in Winter," first published in the 19 February 1876 issue of the New
York Daily Tribune, under the heading "Extracts from Two Rivulets."
"To a Locomotive in Winter" was
reprinted in the "Two Rivulets"
section of Two Rivulets (1876 before being included in Leaves
of Grass in 1881.
Whitman Archive Title: To the Sunset
Breeze
Whitman Archive ID: loc.00315
Series: Literary File
Box: 30
Folder: To the Sunset Breeze (1890). Proof
Sheets.
Date: about
1890
Genre: poetry
Physical Description: 1 leaf, printed, handwritten
View images: 1 | 2
Content: Proof of "To a Sunset
Breeze" with notations in Whitman's hand. The
poem was first published in 1890.
Whitman Archive Title: To the Sunset
Breeze
Whitman Archive ID: loc.02444
Series: Literary File
Box: 30
Folder: To the Sunset Breeze (1890). Proof
Sheets.
Date: about
1890
Genre: poetry
Physical Description: 1 leaf, printed, handwritten
View images: 1 | 2
Content: Proof of "To a Sunset
Breeze" with notations in Whitman's hand. The
poem was first published in 1890.
Whitman Archive Title: To the Sunset
Breeze
Whitman Archive ID: loc.02445
Series: Literary File
Box: 30
Folder: To the Sunset Breeze (1890). Proof
Sheets.
Date: about
1890
Genre: poetry
Physical Description: 1 leaf, handwritten
View images: 1 | 2
Content: Proof of "To a Sunset
Breeze" with notations and corrections in Whitman's hand. The
poem was first published in 1890.
Whitman Archive Title: To the Sunset
Breeze
Whitman Archive ID: loc.02446
Series: Literary File
Box: 30
Folder: To the Sunset Breeze (1890). Proof
Sheets.
Date: about
1890
Genre: poetry, prose
Physical Description: 1 leaf, printed, handwritten
View images: 1 | 2
Content: Proofs of "To a Sunset
Breeze" with notations in Whitman's hand. The
poem was first published in 1890.
Whitman Archive Title: To the Year 1889
Whitman Archive ID: loc.00077
Series: Literary File
Box: 30
Folder: To the Year 1889 (1889). A.MS. draft.
Date: about
1888
Genre: poetry
Physical Description: 1 leaf, 19 x 21.25 cm, handwritten
View images: 1 | 2
Content: An early draft of "To the
Year 1889," first published in January 5,
1889. The poem was later published under the title "To the Pending Year."
Whitman Archive Title: To the Year 1889
Whitman Archive ID: loc.00316
Series: Literary File
Box: 30
Folder: To the Year 1889 (1889). Proof Sheet
Date: about
1889
Genre: poetry
Physical Description: 1 leaf, printed, handwritten
View images: 1 | 2
Content: Proof sheet of "To the Year
1889" (first published in 1889 and later
under the title "To the
Pending Year") with a bibliographic notation in Whitman's
hand.
Whitman Archive Title: Twilight
Whitman Archive ID: loc.00317
Series: Literary File
Box: 30
Folder: Twilight (1889). Proof on birch bark.
Date: June,
1889
Genre: poetry
Physical Description: 1 leaf, 11.5 x 17 cm, handwritten
View images: 1 | 2
Content: Written in ink, with one line in pencil, are notes on a proof of "Twilight," which is
printed on a piece of tan birch bark. The notes, in Whitman's hand,
read: "Walt Whitman, June 1889" "on birch bark," and "a
curio, on birch bark, Walt Whitman." "Twilight" was first published in 1887.
Whitman Archive Title: Twilight
Whisperings
Whitman Archive ID: loc.01078
Series: Literary File
Box: 36
Folder: Undated, "Twilight Whisperings," draft
Date: 1870–1882
Genre: poetry, prose
Physical Description: 1 leaf, handwritten
View images: 1 | 2
Content: This manuscript contains notes for a potential poem or prose piece, with
two possible titles "Twilight Whisperings" and "Chants at Early Candle Light." The
relationship of this note to Whitman's published work is unknown.
Whitman Archive Title: Unveil Thy Bosom, Faithful
Tomb
Whitman Archive ID: loc.00320
Series: Literary File
Box: 30
Folder: Unveil Thy Bosom, Faithful Tomb (1865). A.MS.
draft.
Date: April,
1865
Genre: poetry
Physical Description: 1 leaf, 7.5 x 17 cm, handwritten
View images: 1 | 2
Content: A draft of an unpublished burial lyric for the death of Lincoln entitled
"Unveil thy bosom,
faithful tomb" and dated April, 1865, written in pencil on a
scrap of paper torn from a larger sheet.
Whitman Archive Title: Up, Lurid Stars!
Whitman Archive ID: loc.00321
Series: Literary File
Box: 30
Folder: Up, Lurid Stars! (1865). A.MS. draft.
Date: about
1865
Genre: poetry
Physical Description: 1 leaf, 16 x 20 cm, handwritten
View images: 1 | 2
Content: Draft of a poem entitled "Up, Lurid Stars!" which was never published in Whitman's
lifetime. It is related to the poem "World Take Good Notice," which was first
published in 1865.
Whitman Archive Title: Veil with their lids thine
eyes, O Soul
Whitman Archive ID: loc.00312
Series: Literary File
Box: 30
Folder: To the Man-of-War-Bird (1876). A.MS.
drafts.
Date: between
1867-1876
Genre: poetry, prose
Physical Description: 3 leaves, handwritten
View images: 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6
Content: One of the notebooks commonly known as the "Penitenzia" notebooks
because that word is written in red ink on the covers. It includes
drafts and trial lines of the poem "Penitenzia," (published
posthumously as "Mask with Their Lids"). loc.02901 is another "Penitenzia" notebook that also has drafts and trial lines for the poem.
Whitman Archive Title: Walt Whitman's Book
Whitman Archive ID: loc.00344
Series: Notes and Notebooks
Box: 41
Folder: Miscellany, Undated, Walt Whitman's
books
Date: 1888
Genre: prose, prose
Physical Description: leaves, handwritten, printed
View images: 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | 10 | 11 | 12 | 13 | 14 | 15 | 16 | 17 | 18 | 19 | 20 | 21 | 22 | 23 | 24 | 25 | 26 | 27 | 28 | 29 | 30 | 31 | 32 | 33 | 34 | 35 | 36 | 37 | 38 | 39 | 40 | 41 | 42 | 43 | 44 | 45 | 46 | 47 | 48 | 49 | 50 | 51 | 52 | 53 | 54 | 55 | 56 | 57 | 58 | 59 | 60 | 61 | 62 | 63 | 64 | 65 | 66 | 67 | 68 | 69 | 70 | 71 | 72 | 73 | 74 | 75 | 76 | 77 | 78 | 79 | 80 | 81 | 82 | 83 | 84 | 85 | 86 | 87 | 88 | 89 | 90 | 91 | 92 | 93 | 94 | 95 | 96 | 97 | 98 | 99 | 100 | 101 | 102 | 103 | 104 | 105 | 106 | 107 | 108 | 109 | 110 | 111 | 112 | 113 | 114 | 115 | 116
Content: A collection of papers, some of which are print proofs with handwritten
comments, some of which are small scraps of handwriting, relating to
both poetry and prose from November
Boughs (1888).
Whitman Archive Title: Western Nicknames
Whitman Archive ID: loc.07052
Series: Notes and Notebooks
Box: 39
Folder: 1847-1869, words and nicknames
Date: about
1885
Genre: prose
Physical Description: 1 leaf, handwritten
Images: currently unavailable
Content: On one side of the manuscript leaf are notes about demonyms for the
people of various places in North America. Whitman made use of this list
in his essay "Slang in America," which
was first published in the November 1885 issue of The North American Review and later
collected in November Boughs
(1888) and Complete Prose
Works (1892). The other side, which has been
cancelled, contains a partial draft of an article written in response to
an unidentified author who had apparently found fault with American
politics and newspaper literature. It is unknown whether the writing on
this side led to publication. No images of this item are currently
available.
Whitman Archive Title: What is Poetry?
Whitman Archive ID: loc.01070
Series: Literary File
Box: 36
Folder: What is Poetry
Date: 1841-1892
Genre: poetry
Physical Description: 2 leaves, handwritten
View images: 1 | 2 | 3 | 4
Content: Whitman has annotated, "What
is Poetry?," a holograph by George D. Prentice.
Whitman Archive Title: Whispers of Heavenly
Death
Whitman Archive ID: loc.00323
Series: Literary File
Box: 30
Folder: Whispers of Heavenly Death (1870). A.MS. and
printed copy.
Date: about
1870
Genre: poetry
Physical Description: 15 leaves, 20 x 13 cm, handwritten
View images: 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | 10 | 11 | 12 | 13 | 14 | 15 | 16 | 17 | 18 | 19 | 20 | 21 | 22 | 23 | 24 | 25 | 26 | 27 | 28 | 29 | 30
Content: Mostly mounted clippings of poems taken from Leaves of Grass, stitched and tied with
ribbon by Walt Whitman. An autograph title page is followed by pages
numbered in red pencil 469-484. One poem, "Joy, Shipmate, Joy!," on p. 481 is written
entirely in Walt Whitman's hand (see image 23), and other corrections
and additions are in Whitman's hand throughout. The poems included are:
"Whispers of Heavenly
Death,"
"Yet, Yet Ye Downcast
Hours,"
"As Nearing
Departure" (later published, in a different form, as "As the Time Draws
Nigh"), "Darest
Thou Now O Soul,"
"Of Him I Love Day and
Night,"
"Quicksand Years That Whirl
Me I Know Not Whither" (later published as "Quicksand Years"),
"That Music Always
Round Me,"
"As If a Phantom Caress'd
Me,"
"O Living Always, Always
Dying,"
"Here, Sailor!"
(later published as "What
Ship Puzzled at Sea"), "A Noiseless Patient Spider,"
"To One Shortly to
Die,"
"Joy, Shipmate,
Joy!,"
"This Day, O Soul,"
"What Place is
Besieged?,"
"The Last
Invocation," and "Pensive and Faltering."
Whitman Archive Title: With Husky-Haughty Lips, O
Sea!
Whitman Archive ID: loc.04202
Series: Literary File
Box: 30
Folder: With Husky-Haughty Lips, O Sea! (1883). Printed Copies
Date: 1884
Genre: poetry
Physical Description: 2 leaves, printed, handwritten
View images: 1
Content: Page from the March,
1884 issue of Harper's New Monthly Magazine containing Whitman's poem
"With Husky-Haughty
Lips, O Sea!" Also included is a clipping from an unknown
newspaper ("'84" written in Whitman's hand at the bottom) of the same
poem.
Whitman Archive Title: With all the gifts
America
Whitman Archive ID: loc.00324
Series: Literary File
Box: 30
Folder: With All Thy Gifts (1876). A.MS. draft.
Date: about
1873
Genre: poetry
Physical Description: 1 leaf, handwritten
View images: 1 | 2
Content: Draft entitled "With all the
gifts America," published in 1873 under the
title "With All Thy
Gifts."
Whitman Archive Title: Yonnondio
Whitman Archive ID: loc.00325
Series: Literary File
Box: 30
Folder: Yonnondio (1887). Proof Sheets.
Date: about
1887
Genre: poetry
Physical Description: 1 leaf, handwritten
View images: 1 | 2
Content: Proof of "Yonnondio,"
which was published first in 1887, with notes and
corrections in Whitman's hand.
Whitman Archive Title: [(Major) Col. Clifton K.
Prentiss]
Whitman Archive ID: loc.01784
Series: Notes and Notebooks
Box: 41
Folder: Personal, Aug 20 1865, Death of Clifton K.
Prentiss
Date: 1865–1875
Genre: prose
Physical Description: 1 leaf, handwritten
View images: 1 | 2
Content: Notes on the Death of Clifton K. Prentiss, which were revised and
appeared in Memoranda During the War
(1875–1876) before being collected
in Complete Prose Works (1892).
Whitman Archive Title: [(Returning to my pages
front once]
Whitman Archive ID: loc.00248
Series: Literary File
Box: 28
Folder: Out from Behind This Mask (1876). A.MS.
draft.
Date: between
1873-1876
Genre: poetry
Physical Description: 1 leaf, handwritten
View images: 1 | 2
Content: Draft of the poem "Out From
Behind This Mask," first published in 1876, written on two scraps pasted together.
Whitman Archive Title: [(illeg.) Dick
Hunt]
Whitman Archive ID: loc.00028
Series: Notes and Notebooks
Box: 38
Folder: 1857 Trial Lines and Descriptions
Date: 1856-1857
Genre: poetry, prose
Physical Description: about 90 leaves, handwritten
View images: 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | 10 | 11 | 12 | 13 | 14 | 15 | 16 | 17 | 18 | 19 | 20 | 21 | 22 | 23 | 24 | 25 | 26 | 27 | 28 | 29 | 30 | 31 | 32 | 33 | 34 | 35 | 36 | 37 | 38 | 39 | 40 | 41 | 42 | 43 | 44 | 45 | 46 | 47 | 48 | 49 | 50 | 51 | 52 | 53 | 54 | 55 | 56 | 57 | 58 | 59 | 60 | 61 | 62 | 63 | 64 | 65 | 66 | 67 | 68 | 69 | 70 | 71 | 72 | 73 | 74 | 75 | 76 | 77 | 78 | 79 | 80 | 81 | 82 | 83 | 84 | 85 | 86 | 87 | 88 | 89 | 90 | 91 | 92 | 93 | 94 | 95 | 96 | 97 | 98 | 99 | 100 | 101 | 102 | 103 | 104 | 105 | 106 | 107 | 108 | 109 | 110 | 111 | 112 | 113 | 114 | 115 | 116 | 117 | 118 | 119 | 120 | 121 | 122 | 123 | 124 | 125 | 126 | 127 | 128 | 129 | 130 | 131 | 132 | 133 | 134 | 135 | 136 | 137 | 138 | 139 | 140 | 141 | 142 | 143 | 144 | 145 | 146 | 147 | 148 | 149 | 150 | 151 | 152 | 153 | 154 | 155 | 156 | 157 | 158 | 159 | 160 | 161 | 162 | 163 | 164 | 165 | 166 | 167 | 168 | 169 | 170 | 171 | 172 | 173 | 174 | 175 | 176 | 177
Content: A notebook Whitman used for various purposes in the mid-1850s. Edward F.
Grier, in his edition of Whitman's Notebooks and Unpublished Prose
Manuscripts, 6 vols. (New York: New York University Press, 1984), 1: 246–280, noted that the
notebook contains lines and phrases that relate to several poems: "Song of the
Broad-Axe,"
"To a Common
Prostitute,"
"You Felons on Trial in
Courts,"
"Starting from
Paumanok,"
"Trickle Drops,"
"I Was Looking for a Long
While,"
"Poem of Joys,"
"Facing West from
California's Shores,"
"To the States,"
"A Song of the Rolling
Earth,"
"On the Beach a Night
Alone,"
"Full of Life Now,"
and "With
Antecedents."
Whitman Archive Title: [*current aims]
Whitman Archive ID: loc.04536
Series: Notes and Notebooks
Box: 39
Folder: Literary, Undated, Cosmic Poem
Date: about 1890
Genre: prose
Physical Description: 3 leaves, handwritten
View images: 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6
Content: Three manuscript fragments that contributed to "An Old Man's Rejoinder," which was first
published in the August 16, 1890 issue of the Critic and later reprinted in Good-Bye My Fancy (1891) and
Complete Prose Works (1892). On the reverse of the second manuscript leaf is the
end of a letter from Otto L. Levy.
Whitman Archive Title: [A North Star]
Whitman Archive ID: loc.00008
Series: Literary File
Box: 26
Folder: A Christmas Greeting (1889). A.MS.
drafts.
Date: about
1889
Genre: poetry
Physical Description: 1 leaf, 18 x 20.5 cm, handwritten
View images: 1 | 2
Content: Written in pencil on a tan piece of paper cut from a larger sheet, 130
words with the title "A
North Star [page torn] South." The poem was later revised and
titled "A Christmas
Greeting" (1889).
Whitman Archive Title: [A batter'd wreck'd old
man]
Whitman Archive ID: loc.00272
Series: Literary File
Box: 28
Folder: Prayer of Columbus (1874). A.MS. draft and
notes.
Date: about
1874
Genre: poetry
Physical Description: 1 leaf, handwritten
View images: 1 | 2
Content: A draft of lines from "Prayer of Columbus," first published in 1874. The
lines are written on stationery from the Attorney General's office and
on the verso are prose notes, one of which reads "Acknowledge our
obligations to English & other foreign literature."
Whitman Archive Title: [A flash of love]
Whitman Archive ID: loc.00197
Series: Literary File
Box: 27
Folder: A Flash of Love (1889). A.MS. draft.
Date: between
1889-1890
Genre: poetry
Physical Description: 1 leaf, 12.5 x 19 cm, handwritten
View images: 1 | 2
Content: A two-line draft written on the back of an envelope from F. Gutekunst's
Imperial Photograph Galleries, with a note by Whitman on front that
reads "head and bust WW, taken 1889, fairly good." "[A flash of love]"
would later appear in a revised form in "A Twilight Song," first published in 1890.
Whitman Archive Title: [All my emprises]
Whitman Archive ID: loc.00287
Series: Literary File
Box: 28
Folder: Prayer of Columbus (1874). A.MS. draft and
notes.
Date: about
1874
Genre: poetry
Physical Description: 1 leaf, handwritten
View images: 1 | 2
Content: A draft of lines from "Prayer of Columbus," first published in 1874.
Whitman Archive Title: [An impulse
thrilling]
Whitman Archive ID: loc.00332
Series: Literary File
Box: 29
Folder: A Thought of Columbus (1892). A.MS.
drafts.
Date: about
1892
Genre: poetry
Physical Description: 1 leaf, handwritten
View images: 1 | 2
Content: A draft of lines for "A
Thought of Columbus." According to Horace Traubel, this was
the last poem Whitman wrote. It was published first in 1892. On the verso is a cut away, undated letter.
Whitman Archive Title: [An old man's thought of
school]
Whitman Archive ID: loc.00237
Series: Literary File
Box: 28
Folder: An Old Man's Thought of School (1874). A.MS.
draft.
Date: about
1874
Genre: poetry
Physical Description: 2 leaves, 44.5 x 20.5 cm, handwritten
View images: 1 | 2 | 3 | 4
Content: Two composite leaves made from pasting together several scraps of paper
containing a draft of "An
Old Man's Thought of School," a poem Whitman recited in
person at the inauguration of the Cooper Public School in Camden, New
Jersey, in 1874. On the versos are parts of letters (to Whitman) and notes
in Whitman's hand.
Whitman Archive Title: [And here is the great
Meteor]
Whitman Archive ID: loc.00216
Series: Literary File
Box: 27
Folder: Meteors (1853). A. MS. draft
Date: between
1850-1860
Genre: poetry
Physical Description: 2 leaves, 25 x 18 cm, handwritten
View images: 1 | 2 | 3 | 4
Content: A draft of an unpublished poem, part of which has been connected to the
unpublished poem "Pictures." The relationship to Whitman's published verse is
unknown.
Whitman Archive Title: [As I sail'd at night
alone]
Whitman Archive ID: loc.00241
Series: Literary File
Box: 28
Folder: Ontario's Shores. A.MS. draft.
Date: undated
Genre: poetry
Physical Description: 1 leaf, 19.5 x 10 cm, handwritten
View images: 1 | 2
Content: A few lines on the verso of a cancelled letter (the correspondent and
date are unknown), beginning "As I sail'd at night alone." The
relationship of this draft to Whitman's published work is unknown. The
title on the Library of Congress's folder comes from the final line of
the draft ("As I wander Ontario's shores alone at night") and does not
suggest that this draft is related to "By Blue Ontario's Shore."
Whitman Archive Title: [Be it with]
Whitman Archive ID: loc.00275
Series: Literary File
Box: 28
Folder: Prayer of Columbus (1874). A.MS. draft and
notes.
Date: about
1874
Genre: poetry
Physical Description: 1 leaf, handwritten
View images: 1 | 2
Content: A draft of lines from "Prayer of Columbus," first published in 1874.
Whitman Archive Title: [Brooklyn is °
latitude]
Whitman Archive ID: loc.04740
Series: Notes and Notebooks
Date: about 1862
Genre: prose
Physical Description: 1 leaf, handwritten
View images: 1 | 2
Content: Whitman probably wrote these notes about Long Island's geographical
dimensions and aboriginal name in the course of preparing material for
"Brooklyniana; A Series of Local
Articles, on Past and Present," which was published in the
Brooklyn Standard
between June 3, 1861 and November 1,
1862. Some of the information and phrases contained in this
manuscript were included in the thirteenth installment, which appeared
on March 1, 1862.
Whitman Archive Title: [Bursts the wild storm]
Whitman Archive ID: loc.00313
Series: Literary File
Box: 30
Folder: To the Man-of-War-Bird (1876). Printed Copies.
Date: about 1876
Genre: poetry
Physical Description: 1 leaf, handwritten
View images: 1 | 2
Content: A heavily edited draft of the poem initially published as "The Man-of-War Bird" and eventually titled "To the Man-of-War-Bird." The draft is accompanied by Whitman's note about the poem's first publication in the April 1876 issue of The Athenæum. The note itself is dated March 1876.
Whitman Archive Title: [By me]
Whitman Archive ID: loc.00267
Series: Literary File
Box: 28
Folder: Prayer of Columbus (1874). A.MS. draft and
notes.
Date: about
1874
Genre: poetry
Physical Description: 1 leaf, handwritten
View images: 1 | 2
Content: A draft of lines from "Prayer of Columbus," first published in 1874.
Whitman Archive Title: [Carols at
Seventy]
Whitman Archive ID: loc.00016
Series: Literary File
Box: 26
Folder: A Carol Closing Sixty-Nine (1888). Proof Sheets and
note.
Date: about
1888
Genre: poetry
Physical Description: 1 leaf, 19.5 x 24 cm, handwritten
View images: 1 | 2
Content: Several trial titles for "A Carol Closing Sixty-Nine," first published in
the New York Herald on
21 May 1888 and reprinted in the "Sands at Seventy" annex to Leaves of Grass the same
year.
Whitman Archive Title: [Deep mystery of
mysteries!]
Whitman Archive ID: loc.00330
Series: Literary File
Box: 29
Folder: A Thought of Columbus (1892). A.MS.
drafts.
Date: about
1892
Genre: poetry
Physical Description: 1 leaf, handwritten
View images: 1 | 2
Content: A draft of lines for "A
Thought of Columbus." According to Horace Traubel, this was
the last poem Whitman wrote. It was published first in 1892. On the verso is the end of an undated letter from Mrs.
John M. Gardner.
Whitman Archive Title: [Draw a picture of a model]
Whitman Archive ID: loc.02308
Series: Notes and Notebooks
Box: 40
Folder: Literary, Undated, Model American
Date: about 1868
Genre: prose
Physical Description: 1 leaf, handwritten
View images: 1 | 2
Content: The description of "a model American young man" inscribed on this
manuscript likely contributed to Whitman's journalism of the late 1850s and represents an early stage of the "model or portrait
of Personality, for general use, for the manliness of The States" that
Whitman set forth in his essay "Personalism," which appeared in the May 1868 issue
of The Galaxy. He later combined the
material from this and other essays to form Democratic Vistas, published as a monograph in 1871 and reprinted in Two
Rivulets (1876), Specimen Days &
Collect (1882–1883), Democratic Vistas, and Other Papers (1888), and Complete Prose Works (1892).
Whitman Archive Title: [Each claim, ideal,
line]
Whitman Archive ID: loc.00194
Series: Literary File
Box: 26
Folder: Each Claim, ideal, Line… A.MS. draft.
Date: about
1891
Genre: poetry
Physical Description: 1 leaf, 28 x 21.5 cm, handwritten
View images: 1 | 2
Content: This draft appears to be trial lines for the poems "L. of G.'s Purport"
and "L of G," both
published in 1891. Near the middle of the page appear
three underlined words, "These pages past," but whether or not they were
intended as a title is unclear.
Whitman Archive Title: [Funeral Sounds]
Whitman Archive ID: loc.00200
Series: Literary File
Box: 27
Folder: Funeral Sounds (1888). A.MS. draft.
Date: about
1888
Genre: poetry
Physical Description: 1 leaf, handwritten
View images: 1 | 2
Content: Early draft of a poem that was first published as "Over and Through the Burial
Chant" in 1888. It was later published with the
title "Interpolation
Sounds." The poem was written on the occasion of General
Philip Sheridan's death in 1888.
Whitman Archive Title: [George Walker]
Whitman Archive ID: loc.00143
Series: Notes and Notebooks
Box: 37
Folder: 1855-1856, Crossing Brooklyn Ferry trial
lines
Date: between
1855-1856
Genre: poetry, prose
Physical Description: about 45 leaves, handwritten
View images: 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | 10 | 11 | 12 | 13 | 14 | 15 | 16 | 17 | 18 | 19 | 20 | 21 | 22 | 23 | 24 | 25 | 26 | 27 | 28 | 29 | 30 | 31 | 32 | 33 | 34 | 35 | 36 | 37 | 38 | 39 | 40 | 41 | 42 | 43 | 44 | 45 | 46 | 47 | 48 | 49 | 50 | 51 | 52 | 53 | 54 | 55 | 56 | 57 | 58 | 59 | 60 | 61 | 62 | 63 | 64 | 65 | 66 | 67 | 68 | 69 | 70 | 71 | 72 | 73 | 74 | 75 | 76 | 77 | 78 | 79 | 80 | 81 | 82 | 83 | 84 | 85 | 86 | 87 | 88 | 89 | 90
Content: A notebook Whitman used for various purposes in the mid-1850s. Edward F.
Grier, in his edition of Whitman's Notebooks and Unpublished Prose
Manuscripts, 6 vols. (New York: New York University Press, 1984), 1:226–243, noted that the notebook contains lines and phrases that relate to
several poems: "Song of the
Broad-Axe,"
"Crossing Brooklyn
Ferry,"
"I Sing the Body
Electric,"
"Starting from
Paumanok,"
"A Song for
Occupations,"
"By Blue Ontario's
Shore,"
"Salut au Monde!,"
"To One Shortly to
Die," and "A
Woman Waits for Me."
Whitman Archive Title: [Glendale
birthdays]
Whitman Archive ID: loc.04691
Series: Diaries, Diary Notes, and Address Books
Box: 1
Folder: Address Books, 1876-86 (3 v.)
Date: 1876-1886
Genre: poetry
Physical Description: about 22 leaves, handwritten
View images: 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | 10 | 11 | 12 | 13 | 14 | 15 | 16 | 17 | 18 | 19 | 20 | 21 | 22 | 23 | 24 | 25 | 26 | 27 | 28 | 29 | 30 | 31 | 32 | 33 | 34 | 35 | 36 | 37 | 38 | 39 | 40 | 41 | 42 | 43 | 44 | 45 | 46
Content: An address book filled with names and addresses, figures, lists, and
notes describing various spring blossoms (see image 44). The
relationship of this notebook to Whitman's published work is
unknown.
Whitman Archive Title: [Haply the lifeless
cross]
Whitman Archive ID: loc.00288
Series: Literary File
Box: 28
Folder: Prayer of Columbus (1874). A.MS. draft and
notes.
Date: about
1874
Genre: poetry
Physical Description: 1 leaf, handwritten
View images: 1 | 2
Content: A draft of lines from "Prayer of Columbus," first published in 1874. On the
verso is prose about a "capacious class of mighty ministers of the mind."
Whitman Archive Title: [Hark! some wild
trumpeter—]
Whitman Archive ID: loc.00221
Series: Literary File
Box: 27
Folder: Mystic Trumpeter (1872). A.MS. draft and
notes.
Date: between
1871-1872
Genre: poetry
Physical Description: 23 leaves, largest 37.5 x 20.5 cm, handwritten
View images: 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | 10 | 11 | 12 | 13 | 14 | 15 | 16 | 17 | 18 | 19 | 20 | 21 | 22 | 23 | 24 | 25 | 26 | 27 | 28 | 29 | 30 | 31 | 32 | 33 | 34 | 35 | 36 | 37 | 38 | 39 | 40 | 41 | 42 | 43 | 44 | 45
Content: Held together loosely by a cover onto which a scrap of paper was pasted
as a label, inscribed by Walt Whitman: "Hark! some wild
trumpeter—." On verso of cover: "Advertising book of the Daily Freeman." At head in
Whitman's hand: "Original rough draught and Memoranda of Mystic Trumpeter." Three
pages of memoranda consist of trial lines and lists of words to be used
in the poem. The first page is signed by Whitman. Mostly written in ink
on versos of Department of Justice stationery. Many corrections in
pencil, indelible pencil, or red ink. "The Mystic Trumpeter" was first published
in 1872.
Whitman Archive Title: [Here fretful]
Whitman Archive ID: loc.00014
Series: Literary File
Box: 29
Folder: Queries to My 70th Year (1888). A.MS.
draft.
Date: about
1888
Genre: poetry
Physical Description: 1 leaf, 23 x 20 cm, handwritten
View images: 1 | 2
Content: One page draft written in pencil on a sheet of coarse paper, with a
notation in another hand at the very bottom ("297—Doubleday Queries to
70th Year"). The lines were revised and published as "Queries to My Seventieth
Year" in 1888.
Whitman Archive Title: [Here the aboriginal money
circulated]
Whitman Archive ID: loc.00962
Series: Literary File
Box: 35
Folder: "Brooklyniana: History of Brooklyn and Long
Island," drafts and notes
Date: about
1861
Genre: prose
Physical Description: 1 leaf, handwritten
View images: 1 | 2
Content: Notes on the "aboriginal money" Whitman identifies as the "Seawan, or
Seawant." Whitman wrote about this currency in the fourth installment of
Brooklyniana, which appeared in the 28 December
1861 issue of the Brooklyn
Standard. For more on how this manuscript may have
contributed to this piece of journalism, see Kimberly Winschel Banion,
"'These terrible 30 or 40 hours':
Washington at the Battle of Brooklyn in Whitman's 'The Sleepers' and
'Brooklyniana' Manuscripts,"
Walt Whitman Quarterly Review 27 (Spring 2010),
193-212.
Whitman Archive Title: [Hermit Thrush]
Whitman Archive ID: loc.00110
Series: Literary File
Box: 30
Folder: When Lilacs Last in the Dooryard Bloom'd (1865-66).
A.MS. notes.
Date: about
1865
Genre: poetry, prose
Physical Description: 4 leaves, 10.5 x 6.5 cm, handwritten
View images: 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6
Content: Notes about the hermit thrush in a small homemade notebook, which are
related to lines in the poem "When Lilacs Last in the Dooryard Bloom'd,"
first published in 1865.
Whitman Archive Title: [Hospitals Culpepper]
Whitman Archive ID: loc.00485
Series: Diaries, Diary Notes, and Address Books
Box: 1
Folder: Diaries, 1863–1864, hospital notebooks (2
vols.)
Date: 1863–1864
Genre: prose
Physical Description: 32 leaves, handwritten
View images: 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | 10 | 11 | 12 | 13 | 14 | 15 | 16 | 17 | 18 | 19 | 20 | 21 | 22 | 23 | 24 | 25 | 26 | 27 | 28 | 29 | 30 | 31 | 32 | 33 | 34 | 35 | 36 | 37 | 38 | 39 | 40 | 41 | 42 | 43 | 44 | 45 | 46 | 47 | 48 | 49 | 50 | 51 | 52 | 53 | 54 | 55 | 56 | 57 | 58 | 59 | 60 | 61 | 62 | 63 | 64
Content: A Civil War diary in which Whitman recorded notes relating to his
experiences in Washington D.C. during 1863. Some of these notes were used in
"A Case from Second Bull Run," a
short piece about the death of John Mahay, first published in the 11 December 1864 issue of the New-York Times under the title "Our Wounded and Sick Soldiers. Visits Among Army Hospitals, At
Washington, on the Field, and here in New-York." Whitman
included this paragraph in Memoranda During the
War (1876) and Specimen Days & Collect (1882). Other
portions of this diary contributed directly to Memoranda During the War and others were first published in
"Letter from Washington,"
New-York Times,
4 October 1863.
Whitman Archive Title: [I am too full of
woe]
Whitman Archive ID: loc.00285
Series: Literary File
Box: 28
Folder: Prayer of Columbus (1874). A.MS. draft and
notes.
Date: about
1874
Genre: poetry
Physical Description: 1 leaf, handwritten
View images: 1 | 2
Content: A draft of lines from "Prayer of Columbus," first published in 1874.
Whitman Archive Title: [I do not relegate
you]
Whitman Archive ID: loc.00035
Series: Literary File
Box: 26
Folder: Children of Adam. A.MS. draft.
Date: between
1850-1860
Genre: poetry
Physical Description: 1 leaf, 26.5 x 15 cm, handwritten
View images: 1 | 2
Content: These lines have an unknown relationship to Whitman's published work.
Whitman Archive Title: [I lately heard a
lady]
Whitman Archive ID: loc.01079
Series: Literary File
Box: 36
Folder: Undated, "A Venetian Fable," draft
Date: 1841–1865
Genre: prose
Physical Description: 1 leaf, handwritten
View images: 1 | 2
Content: This prose manuscript comments on a "Venetian fable," which is possibly a
piece of early fiction. The date and relationship of this manuscript to
Whitman's published work are unknown.
Whitman Archive Title: [I was down in New
Orleans]
Whitman Archive ID: loc.00353
Series: Literary File
Box: 31
Folder: ca. 1848–1849. "The People and John Quincy
Adams"
Date: 1848–1849
Genre: prose
Physical Description: 1 leaf, handwritten, printed
View images: 1
Content: A corrected proof of "The People and John
Quincy Adams," which appeared in the New Orleans Daily Crescent while Whitman was editor of that
newspaper in 1848–1849. No image of the verso is currently available.
Whitman Archive Title: [I well remember Lafayette's
laying]
Whitman Archive ID: loc.01027
Series: Literary File
Box: 36
Folder: Undated, "Lafayette in Brooklyn," draft
Date: about
1862
Genre: prose
Physical Description: 1 leaf, handwritten
View images: 1 | 2
Content: Notes on the Apprentice's Library in Brooklyn. Whitman published a short
history of the Apprentice's Library in "Brooklyniana: A Series of Local Articles, on Past and Present No.
15.," which first appeared in the issue of the Brooklyn Standard.
Whitman Archive Title: [I'll trace this garden
oer and oer]
Whitman Archive ID: loc.00204
Series: Literary File
Box: 27
Folder: I'll Trace This Garden. A.MS. draft.
Date: about
1865
Genre: poetry
Physical Description: 1 leaf, 20.5 x 12.5 cm, handwritten
View images: 1 | 2
Content: Written in ink on letterhead from the Attorney General's Office, where
Whitman was first employed on July 1, 1865, is a transcription
beginning "[I'll trace this
garden oer and oer]." This is Whitman's transcription,
probably from memory, of "Johnny's Gone for a Soldier," a ballad popular during the
American Revolution and based on the an Irish ballad entitled "Shule Agra."
Whitman Archive Title: [If the red slayer think
he slays]
Whitman Archive ID: loc.00205
Series: Literary File
Box: 27
Folder: I'll Trace This Garden. A.MS. draft.
Date: about
1865
Genre: poetry
Physical Description: 1 leaf, 20.5 x 12.5 cm, handwritten
View images: 1 | 2
Content: This is a transcription of Ralph Waldo Emerson's poem "Brahma." Written in
ink on letterhead from the Attorney General's Office, where Whitman was
first employed on July 1, 1865.
Whitman Archive Title: [In considering the
aims]
Whitman Archive ID: loc.01080
Series: Literary File
Box: 36
Folder: Undated, "Walt Whitman's Writings,"
draft
Date: 1855–1892
Genre: prose
Physical Description: 1 leaf, handwritten
View images: 1 | 2
Content: This manuscript contains a small newspaper clipping review of Leaves of Grass, along
with Whitman's comments about himself as an artist. The word "Horace" is
written on the verso.
Whitman Archive Title: [Lay on the graves of all
dead soldiers]
Whitman Archive ID: loc.00190
Series: Literary File
Box: 26
Folder: Decoration Day. A.MS. draft
Date: about 1888
Genre: poetry
Physical Description: 1 leaf, 21 x 21.5 cm, handwritten
View images: 1 | 2
Content: Trial lines for a poem published posthumously as "[While Not the Past Forgetting]," Notes in a hand other than Whitman's appear on the reverse.
Whitman Archive Title: [Life]
Whitman Archive ID: loc.00154
Series: General Correspondence
Box: 16
Folder: Smith, Robert Pearsall. May 7, 1888.
Date: 1888
Genre: poetry
Physical Description: 1 leaf, handwritten
View images: 1 | 2
Content: A draft of an unpublished poem on the verso of an 1888 letter to Robert Pearsall
Smith. The relationship of this draft to Whitman's published work is
unknown.
Whitman Archive Title: [Make a piece]
Whitman Archive ID: loc.03408
Series: Notes and Notebooks
Box: 39
Folder: Judgments of People
Date: about 1890
Genre: prose
Physical Description: 1 leaf, handwritten
View images: 1 | 2
Content: Notes about historical examples of extreme reactions against seemingly
unobjectionable works and practices. Whitman used these ideas in "Old Poets," which was first published in
1888 in November Boughs and
later reprinted in Complete Prose Works
(1892).
Whitman Archive Title: [Man's physiology complete I
sing.]
Whitman Archive ID: loc.04672
Series: Notes and Notebooks
Date: about 1867
Genre: prose, poetry
Physical Description: 1 leaf, handwritten
View images: 1 | 2
Content: This manuscript fragment, written in ink and heavily corrected in pencil,
contributed to the poem that appeared on the frontispiece of the 1867 edition of Leaves of
Grass under the title "Inscription." A revised and final version appeared in the
1871-72 edition, as the first poem of the
"Inscriptions" cluster, with the
title "One's-Self I Sing."
Whitman Archive Title: [Many consider the
expressions]
Whitman Archive ID: loc.01015
Series: Literary File
Box: 36
Folder: Undated, "Expressions of Poetry," clipping with
corrections
Date: 1884–1888
Genre: prose
Physical Description: 1 leaf, handwritten, printed
View images: 1 | 2
Content: Two short clippings of Whitman's own prose, which have been pasted to a
larger sheet and feature corrections in Whitman's hand. The printed text
appeared uncorrected in the 5 January 1884 issue of the
Critic with the title, "A Backward Glance on My Own Road." This
essay was revised and included in Democratic
Vistas, and Other Papers (1888) before
parts of it were combined with two other pieces of journalism ("How I Made a Book,"
Philadelphia Press, 11 July 1886; "My Book and
I,"
Lippincott's Magazine, January 1887) and published as "A
Backward Glance O'er Travel'd Roads" in November Boughs (1888).
Whitman Archive Title: [March & April, '63]
Whitman Archive ID: loc.00926
Series: Literary File
Box: 32
Folder: 1863, Mar.-Apr., "War Experiences," proof sheets
with corrections
Date: 1863–1864
Genre: prose
Physical Description: 1 leaf, handwritten, printed
View images: 1 | 2
Content: A corrected proof sheet detailing Whitman's work in hospitals during the
Civil War. These paragraphs appeared in "Our
Wounded and Sick Soldiers. Visits Among Army Hospitals, At
Washington, on the Field, and here in New-York"
New-York Times (11 December
1864).
Whitman Archive Title: [Mask with their lids
thine eyes]
Whitman Archive ID: loc.00262
Series: Literary File
Box: 28
Folder: Penitenzia. A.MS. draft.
Date: about
1870
Genre: poetry
Physical Description: 1 leaf, handwritten
View images: 1 | 2 | 3 | 4
Content: A draft of a poem never published in Whitman's lifetime, but published
posthumously as "[Mask with
Their Lids]." The draft was evidently part of a larger
notebook titled "Penitenzia," but no other pages from such a notebook are
present in this folder. The folder also contains two pages from Clifton
Joseph Furness's book Walt
Whitman's Workshop concerning the draft.
Whitman Archive Title: [My hand, my limbs grow nerveless]
Whitman Archive ID: loc.00273
Series: Literary File
Box: 28
Folder: Prayer of Columbus (1874). A.MS. draft and
notes.
Date: about 1874
Genre: poetry, poetry
Physical Description: 1 leaf, handwritten
View images: 1 | 2
Content: A heavily revised draft, written on two scraps pasted together, of lines for "Prayer of Columbus," first published in 1874. On the
verso are prose notes beginning "Idea in each of the three papers." Whitman's intentions for these notes are unclear.
Whitman Archive Title: [No poem sings]
Whitman Archive ID: loc.00920
Series: Literary File
Box: 32
Folder: 1860, "War Memoranda," draft
Date: 1860–1876
Genre: prose
Physical Description: 1 leaf, handwritten, printed
View images: 1 | 2
Content: A heavily revised draft of "Unnamed Remains
the Bravest Soldier." This piece first appeared untitled in
Memoranda During the War (1876). It was reprinted in Specimen
Days & Collect (1882).
Whitman Archive Title: [Not Meagre, Latent Boughs
Alone]
Whitman Archive ID: loc.00223
Series: Literary File
Box: 27
Folder: Not Meagre, Latent Boughs Alone (1887)
Date: May 2,
1887
Genre: poetry
Physical Description: 1 leaf, handwritten
View images: 1 | 2
Content: A late draft of "Not Meagre,
Latent Boughs Alone" first published in 1887, with Whitman's signature at the bottom and "Camden NJ"
and the date, May 2, 1887, written at the top.
Whitman Archive Title: [Not meagre latent boughs
alone]
Whitman Archive ID: loc.00224
Series: Literary File
Box: 27
Folder: Not Meagre, Latent Boughs Alone (1887)
Date: 1887
Genre: poetry
Physical Description: 1 leaf, 10 x 15 cm, handwritten
View images: 1 | 2
Content: Trial lines for "Not Meagre,
Latent Boughs Alone," first published in 1887. Written at top is "Camden" and the date, April 28,
1887.
Whitman Archive Title: [O Earth, my
likeness]
Whitman Archive ID: loc.00225
Series: Literary File
Box: 27
Folder: O Earth, My Likeness (1860). A.MS.
draft.
Date: 1860
Genre: poetry
Physical Description: 1 leaf, 20.5 x 16 cm, handwritten
View images: 1 | 2
Content: A draft of the poem first published as "Calamus, No. 36" in 1860 ("Earth,
My Likeness" in the final version of Leaves of Grass). A number
8 and a roman number VI are at the top of the page. This manuscript has
a vertical line drawn straight through the middle. On the verso is a
page of prose in Whitman's hand with "Rel." at the top.
Whitman Archive Title: [One main]
Whitman Archive ID: loc.03853
Series: General Correspondence
Box: 16
Folder: Smith, Robert Pearsall
Date: about
1887
Genre: prose
Physical Description: 1 leaf, handwritten, printed
View images: 1 | 2
Content: Clipping, with handwritten revisions, of a passage from "A Backward Glance on My Own Road," which
had been published in the January 5, 1884 issue of The Critic. This passage was incorporated
into "My Book and I," which was first
published in the January 1887 issue of Lippincott's Monthly Magazine. It was also retained when
Whitman used these and two other earlier essays ("How 'Leaves of Grass' Was Made" and
"How I Made a Book") to fashion
"A Backward Glance O'er Travel'd
Roads," first published in November
Boughs (1888) and reprinted in the so-called
deathbed edition of 1891–1892. It is unclear whether
this manuscript was created in the processes that produced "My Book and I" or if it dates from the
later work to create "A Backward Glance O'er
Travel'd Roads."
Whitman Archive Title: [Peace no more]
Whitman Archive ID: loc.00261
Series: Literary File
Box: 28
Folder: Peace No More, But Flag of War. A.MS.
draft.
Date: undated
Genre: poetry
Physical Description: 1 leaf, 16 x 19 cm, handwritten
View images: 1 | 2
Content: A draft beginning "Peace no more, but flag of war" written in pencil on a
sheet of white paper, with a corner cut out, on which the last two lines
of the poem had been written. On the verso is a list of words. The
relationship of this draft to Whitman's published work is unknown.
Whitman Archive Title: [Philadelphia, Pa]
Whitman Archive ID: loc.00166
Series: Notes and Notebooks
Box: 39
Folder: c. 1880-81, Comrades.
Date: about
1880-81
Genre: poetry, prose
Physical Description: 7 leaves, handwritten
View images: 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | 10 | 11 | 12 | 13 | 14
Content: A small notebook held together by a pin with notes and trial lines for a
poem about comrades.
Whitman Archive Title: [Poem—Columbus]
Whitman Archive ID: loc.00880
Series: Literary File
Box: 28
Folder: Prayer of Columbus (1874). Marginalia.
Date: about May,
1869
Genre: poetry, prose
Physical Description: 1 leaf, 41 x 27 cm, handwritten
View images: 1 | 2
Content: Detached from Irish
Republic 3, no. 5 (May 1869), 60: "The Last Days of Columbus" [abstract from
Sir Arthur Phelps' book The
Spanish Conquest in America, reprinted from Harper's Magazine]. Across
left margin in Walt Whitman's hand: "Poems—Columbus—(? that name for
piece)—make the poem an utterance of Columbus—there on Jamaica island
(read first Ulysses, by
Tennyson)." Some of the passages in the abstract are marked and
underlined by Whitman. This is assumed to be the original idea of the
poem "Prayer of
Columbus," first published in 1874.
Whitman Archive Title: [Power, passions, vehement
joys]
Whitman Archive ID: loc.00036
Series: Literary File
Box: 26
Folder: Children of Adam. A.MS. draft.
Date: between
1850-1860
Genre: poetry
Physical Description: 1 leaf, 26.5 x 15 cm, handwritten
View images: 1 | 2
Content: These lines have an unknown relationship to Whitman's published work.
Whitman Archive Title: [Probably we can give no]
Whitman Archive ID: loc.05724
Series: Literary File
Box: 35
Folder: Prose."Personal and Old Age Memoranda"
(Mar'91)
Date: about
1890
Genre: prose
Physical Description: 1 leaf, handwritten, printed
View images: 1 | 2
Content: Partial draft of the essay published as "Some
Personal and Old-Age Memoranda" in the March 1891 issue of Lippincott's
Monthly Magazine. The leaf is made from a proof copy of
"Autobiographic Note. From an old
'remembrance copy,'" which had appeared in Horace Traubel's
1889 volume Camden's Compliment to
Walt Whitman, to which is pasted an envelope addressed in the hand of Richard Maurice Bucke to
Whitman. The essay was reprinted as "Some
Personal and Old-Age Jottings" in the February 28, 1891 issue of The
Critic, in Good-Bye My Fancy
(1891), and in Complete Prose Works (1892).
Whitman Archive Title: [Put on the old
ship]
Whitman Archive ID: loc.00234
Series: Literary File
Box: 28
Folder: Old Age's Ship and Crafty Death's (1890). A.MS.
draft.
Date: between
1888-1890
Genre: poetry
Physical Description: 2 leaves, 25.5 x 22.5, 24 x 15 cm, handwritten
View images: 1 | 2 | 3 | 4
Content: An early draft written in ink, with a correction in blue pencil, of
"Old Age's Ship and
Crafty Death's," first published in 1890. The draft
has the underlined title "Old Age's Ship and crafty Death" half way down the page. One
page is written on the back an opened envelope addressed to Whitman and
postmarked Scarborough, December 20, 1888.
Whitman Archive Title: [Railroad poem]
Whitman Archive ID: loc.00147
Series: Notes and Notebooks
Box: 40
Folder: Literary, Undated, Railroad Poem
Date: undated
Genre: poetry, prose
Physical Description: 1 leaf, handwritten
View images: 1 | 2
Content: Notes for several ideas for poems, including the railroad, mines, "corn
and meat," and "the Man's hand and the Woman's hand." At the bottom is a
longer prose note describing Whitman's goals for a large work about the
American West.
Whitman Archive Title: [Reck'd]
Whitman Archive ID: loc.00331
Series: Literary File
Box: 29
Folder: A Thought of Columbus (1892). A.MS.
drafts.
Date: about
1892
Genre: poetry
Physical Description: 1 leaf, handwritten
View images: 1 | 2
Content: A draft of lines for "A
Thought of Columbus." According to Horace Traubel, this was
the last poem Whitman wrote. It was published first in 1892. On the verso is a cut away, undated letter.
Whitman Archive Title: [Rough MS of Democratic Vistas]
Whitman Archive ID: loc.05655
Series: Literary File
Box: 20
Folder: Democratic Vistas (1871), Manuscript
draft
Date: about
1871
Genre: prose, poetry
Physical Description: 65 leaves, handwritten
View images: 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | 10 | 11 | 12 | 13 | 14 | 15 | 16 | 17 | 18 | 19 | 20 | 21 | 22 | 23 | 24 | 25 | 26 | 27 | 28 | 29 | 30 | 31 | 32 | 33 | 34 | 35 | 36 | 37 | 38 | 39 | 40 | 41 | 42 | 43 | 44 | 45 | 46 | 47 | 48 | 49 | 50 | 51 | 52 | 53 | 54 | 55 | 56 | 57 | 58 | 59 | 60 | 61 | 62 | 63 | 64 | 65 | 66 | 67 | 68 | 69 | 70 | 71 | 72 | 73 | 74 | 75 | 76 | 77 | 78 | 79 | 80 | 81 | 82 | 83 | 84 | 85 | 86 | 87 | 88 | 89 | 90 | 91 | 92 | 93 | 94 | 95 | 96 | 97 | 98 | 99 | 100 | 101 | 102 | 103 | 104 | 105 | 106 | 107 | 108 | 109 | 110 | 111 | 112 | 113 | 114 | 115 | 116 | 117 | 118 | 119 | 120 | 121 | 122 | 123 | 124 | 125 | 126 | 127 | 128 | 129 | 130
Content: A rough, and heavily revised draft of Democratic
Vistas, first published in 1871 and
included in Complete Prose Works (1892). On the verso of page 30 is loc.00144, "[To What You Said]," a poetry draft described separately in this finding aid.
Whitman Archive Title: [Scoria]
Whitman Archive ID: loc.01065
Series: Literary File
Box: 36
Folder: Words for an Intended Dictionary
Date: 1841-1892
Genre: poetry
Physical Description: 5 leaves, handwritten
View images: 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | 10
Content: This list of English and foreign words and phrases, along with
definitions, may have been sketches for a dictionary.
Whitman Archive Title: [September & October
1863]
Whitman Archive ID: loc.00149
Series: Diaries, Diary Notes, and Address Books
Box: 1
Folder: Address Books 1863, Sept.–Oct.
Date: 1863
Genre: poetry, prose
Physical Description: about 21 leaves, 10 x 7 cm, handwritten
View images: 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | 10 | 11 | 12 | 13 | 14 | 15 | 16 | 17 | 18 | 19 | 20 | 21 | 22 | 23
Content: A notebook bound by Whitman and tied with red ribbon. It contains
addresses of many soldiers hospitalized at Armory Square Hospital in
Washington. Short case histories follow most of the names. Also contains
trial lines for the poem "Vigil Strange I Kept on the Field One Night," first
published in 1865 (see images 7, 11-14 and 16 for material related to
"Vigil Strange I Kept
on the Field One Night").
Whitman Archive Title: [Skirting the
river]
Whitman Archive ID: loc.00132
Series: Literary File
Box: 26
Folder: The Dalliance of the Eagles (1880). A.MS.
drafts.
Date: 1880
Genre: poetry
Physical Description: 1 leaf, 12.5 x 19 cm, handwritten
View images: 1 | 2
Content: These lines were later revised and published as "The Dalliance of the Eagles" in 1880.
Whitman Archive Title: [Some 35 years
ago]
Whitman Archive ID: loc.01076
Series: Literary File
Box: 36
Folder: 1876, Oct.2, "In Memory of Thomas Paine," signed
draft
Date: 1876
Genre: prose
Physical Description: 6 leaves, handwritten
View images: 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | 10 | 11 | 12
Content: Dated "Oct 2 '76" on the last page, this
manuscript is a draft of Whitman's speech on Thomas Paine, which was
first published in the New York Daily
Tribune (29 January 1877) as "Walt Whitman on Thomas Paine." This
piece was later published in Specimen Days
(1882–1883) as "In Memory of Thomas Paine" before being
collected in Complete Prose Works (1892).
Whitman Archive Title: [Somewhere I have found Carlyle
announcing]
Whitman Archive ID: loc.04413
Series: Notes and Notebooks
Date: about 1890
Genre: prose
Physical Description: 1 leaf, handwritten
View images: 1 | 2
Content: Manuscript notes, heavily revised, apparently for the preface to
Whitman's 1891 volume Good-Bye My Fancy, although the printed preface (titled
"Preface Note to 2d Annex, Concluding L.
of G.—1891") incorporates very few of the actual words
and phrases from this manuscript. The preface was later reprinted,
without change, in the 1891-92 printing of Leaves of Grass. On the reverse is a letter from Louisa
Drewry, dated July 10, 1890.
Whitman Archive Title: [Steersman unseen]
Whitman Archive ID: loc.00274
Series: Literary File
Box: 28
Folder: Prayer of Columbus (1874). A.MS. draft and
notes.
Date: about 1874
Genre: poetry, prose
Physical Description: 1 leaf, handwritten
View images: 1 | 2
Content: A draft of lines from "Prayer of Columbus," first published in 1874. On the
verso are prose notes beginning "Idea in each of the three papers."
Whitman Archive Title: [The Epos of a
Life]
Whitman Archive ID: loc.00196
Series: Literary File
Box: 26
Folder: The Epos of a Life… A.MS. draft.
Date: undated
Genre: poetry
Physical Description: 1 leaf, 13.75 x 20.5 cm, handwritten
View images: 1 | 2
Content: An unpublished poem written on a piece of lined stationery.
Whitman Archive Title: [The North too will
eliminate]
Whitman Archive ID: loc.00996
Series: Literary File
Box: 36
Folder: Undated, "Eliminate Fanatics," draft
Date: about
1874
Genre: prose
Physical Description: 1 leaf, handwritten
View images: 1 | 2
Content: The recto includes two prose paragraphs that contributed to the first
installment of "'Tis But Ten Years
Since," which appeared in the New York Weekly Graphic in January
1874. The verso contains a fragment of correspondence.
Whitman Archive Title: [The Trapper's
Bride]
Whitman Archive ID: loc.00164
Series: Notes and Notebooks
Box: 39
Folder: Literary, 1856, Indian Theme for Poem
Date: 1856 or later
Genre: poetry
Physical Description: 1 leaf, printed, handwritten
View images: 1 | 2
Content: A clipping of an article entitled "The Indian in American Art" from
The Crayon: A Journal Devoted to the Graphic Arts, and the Literature Related to Them, with a
piece of paper pasted to the bottom containing an idea for a poem about
Native Americans. At the top is written "The Trapper's Bride by a
Baltimore artist." A date on the verso indicates that the document is from January 1856.
Whitman Archive Title: [The Voice]
Whitman Archive ID: loc.00173
Series: Notes and Notebooks
Box: 40
Folder: Literary, Undated, The Voice
Date: undated
Genre: poetry
Physical Description: 1 leaf, handwritten
View images: 1 | 2
Content: Notes for a poem about the voices inside the heads of Socrates and Joan
of Arc.
Whitman Archive Title: [The first actual resident
settlement]
Whitman Archive ID: loc.00980
Series: Literary File
Box: 35
Folder: "Brooklyniana: History of Brooklyn and Long
Island," drafts and notes
Date: about
1861
Genre: prose
Physical Description: 2 leaves, handwritten
View images: 1 | 2 | 3 | 4
Content: Notes on the settlement of Brooklyn that may have contributed to the
first installment of "Brooklyniana; A Series
of Local Articles, Past and Present. No. 1," first published
in the Brooklyn Daily Standard on 3 June 1861.
Whitman Archive Title: [The lesson]
Whitman Archive ID: loc.00306
Series: Literary File
Box: 29
Folder: Supplement Hours. A.MS. drafts.
Date: about
1881
Genre: poetry
Physical Description: 1 leaf, handwritten
View images: 1 | 2
Content: Draft and trial lines of a poem unpublished in Whitman's lifetime, though published posthumously as "Supplement Hours." The poem was part of a cluster entitled "Old Age Echoes," included in an edition of Leaves of Grass compiled by Whitman's literary executors and published in 1897 (Boston: Small, Maynard).
Whitman Archive Title: [The long]
Whitman Archive ID: loc.01779
Series: Notes and Notebooks
Box: 41
Folder: Undated, War Notes
Date: 1861–1876
Genre: poetry
Physical Description: 1 leaf, handwritten
View images: 1 | 2
Content: Draft lines toward an unpublished poem on the "measureless history" of
the trenches.
Whitman Archive Title: [The mystery of
mysteries!]
Whitman Archive ID: loc.00334
Series: Literary File
Box: 29
Folder: A Thought of Columbus (1892). A.MS.
drafts.
Date: about
1892
Genre: poetry
Physical Description: 1 leaf, handwritten
View images: 1 | 2
Content: A draft of lines for "A
Thought of Columbus." According to Horace Traubel, this was
the last poem Whitman wrote. It was published first in 1892. The draft is written on an opened-up envelope from J.
H. Johnston postmarked October 30, 1891.
Whitman Archive Title: [The subject or text of
my]
Whitman Archive ID: loc.01762
Series: Literary File
Box: 37
Folder: 1886, Apr. 15, "Abraham Lincoln"
Date: 1879–1887
Genre: prose
Physical Description: 1 leaf, handwritten, printed
View images: 1 | 2
Content: Manuscript notes attached to a scrap of printed prose, both of which
relate to Whitman's Lincoln lecture, titled "Death of Abraham Lincoln."
Whitman published this address in Specimen Days
& Collect (1882–1883) before
including it in Complete Prose Works
(1892).
Whitman Archive Title: [The tangled long]
Whitman Archive ID: loc.00329
Series: Literary File
Box: 29
Folder: A Thought of Columbus (1892). A.MS.
drafts.
Date: about
1892
Genre: poetry
Physical Description: 1 leaf, handwritten
View images: 1 | 2
Content: A draft line for "A
Thought of Columbus." According to Horace Traubel, this was
the last poem Whitman wrote. It was published first in 1892. On the verso is a letter from Henry Hopkins dated
November 2,
1891.
Whitman Archive Title: [The terminus now
near]
Whitman Archive ID: loc.00284
Series: Literary File
Box: 28
Folder: Prayer of Columbus (1874). A.MS. draft and
notes.
Date: about
1874
Genre: poetry
Physical Description: 1 leaf, handwritten
View images: 1 | 2
Content: A draft of lines from "Prayer of Columbus," first published in 1874.
Whitman Archive Title: [The trilogy]
Whitman Archive ID: loc.00381
Series: Literary File
Box: 25
Folder: After All, Not to Create Only (1871). Manuscript
Drafts and Notes.
Date: about
1871
Genre: poetry
Physical Description: about 50 leaves, handwritten
View images: 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | 10 | 11 | 12 | 13 | 14 | 15 | 16 | 17 | 18 | 19 | 20 | 21 | 22 | 23 | 24 | 25 | 26 | 27 | 28 | 29 | 30 | 31 | 32 | 33 | 34 | 35 | 36 | 37 | 38 | 39 | 40 | 41 | 42 | 43 | 44 | 45 | 46 | 47 | 48 | 49 | 50 | 51 | 52 | 53 | 54 | 55 | 56 | 57 | 58 | 59 | 60 | 61 | 62 | 63 | 64 | 65 | 66 | 67 | 68 | 69 | 70 | 71 | 72 | 73 | 74 | 75 | 76 | 77 | 78 | 79 | 80 | 81 | 82 | 83 | 84 | 85 | 86 | 87 | 88 | 89 | 90 | 91 | 92 | 93 | 94 | 95 | 96 | 97 | 98 | 99 | 100 | 101 | 102 | 103 | 104
Content: Several notes and drafts with an unknown relationship to one another, but
all, at least thematically, resembling the poem first published as
"After All, Not to
Create Only" in 1871 (later published as "Song of the
Exposition"). The pages include trial lines for the poem, as
well as notes which indicate the general ambitions and themes of the
work. Within these pages, other trial titles of the poem are also
included: "After all, not
to command only,"
"After all, not to create
but to obey," and "After all, not to create or destroy
only." On the verso of one of the leaves is a letter from William Black seeking Whitman's autograph.
Whitman Archive Title: [Thee, in thy orbic
singers]
Whitman Archive ID: loc.00310
Series: Literary File
Box: 29
Folder: Thou Mother With thy Equal Brood (1872). A.MS.
draft.
Date: about
1872
Genre: poetry
Physical Description: 1 leaf, handwritten
View images: 1 | 2 | 3
Content: A draft of lines that would appear, in a revised form, first in "As A Strong Bird on Pinions
Free" in 1872, and later under the title "Thou Mother With Thy Equal
Brood." The leaf consists of two clipped scraps pasted together, and the upper part of the leaf is pasted to a yellow backing sheet that bears writing and sketches in the hand of Horace Traubel. Our images show the front of the leaf, that part of the back visible by lifting the lower part of the leaf, and the reverse side of the backing sheet.
Whitman Archive Title: [There in the far
northwest]
Whitman Archive ID: loc.00121
Series: Literary File
Box: 27
Folder: From Far Dakota's Canons (1876). A.MS.S.
drafts.
Date: 1876
Genre: poetry
Physical Description: 10 leaves, 20 x 12 cm, 11.5 x 18.5 cm, handwritten
View images: 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | 10 | 11 | 12 | 13 | 14 | 15 | 16 | 17 | 18 | 19 | 20
Content: Apparently, two versions of a poem about the death of Custer. On the
verso of the second page is "A Death Sonnet" (see image 14) and on
another is "A Death Sonnet
for Custer" (see image 4). The poem was published on June 10, 1876 as "A Death Sonnet for Custer."
Whitman Archive Title: [Thine now the
helm]
Whitman Archive ID: loc.00286
Series: Literary File
Box: 28
Folder: Prayer of Columbus (1874). A.MS. draft and
notes.
Date: about
1874
Genre: poetry
Physical Description: 1 leaf, handwritten
View images: 1 | 2
Content: A draft of lines from "Prayer of Columbus," first published in 1874.
Whitman Archive Title: [This designation of
Myself]
Whitman Archive ID: loc.00249
Series: Literary File
Box: 28
Folder: Out from Behind This Mask (1876). A.MS.
draft.
Date: between
1873-1876
Genre: poetry
Physical Description: 1 leaf, handwritten
View images: 1 | 2
Content: Draft of lines from the poem "Out From Behind This Mask," first published
in 1876.
Whitman Archive Title: [Thou knowest my]
Whitman Archive ID: loc.00268
Series: Literary File
Box: 28
Folder: Prayer of Columbus (1874). A.MS. draft and
notes.
Date: about
1874
Genre: poetry
Physical Description: 1 leaf, handwritten
View images: 1 | 2
Content: A draft of lines from "Prayer of Columbus," first published in 1874.
Whitman Archive Title: [Through you I drain the
pent-up of rivers]
Whitman Archive ID: loc.00038
Series: Literary File
Date: between
1850 and 1860
Genre: poetry
Physical Description: 1 leaf, 26.5 x 15 cm, handwritten
View images: 1 | 2
Content: This manuscript contains lines that later appeared in "Poem of Procreation"
in 1856 (later known as "A Woman Waits for Me").
Whitman Archive Title: [To What You Said]
Whitman Archive ID: loc.00144
Series: Literary File
Box: 20
Folder: Democratic Vistas. Manuscript Draft. Original
Draft.
Date: about
1860
Genre: poetry, prose
Physical Description: 1 leaf, handwritten
View images: 1 | 2
Content: Cancelled draft written in pencil on the verso of page 30 (Whitman's
numbering) of a sixty-five page rough draft of Democratic Vistas (see "[Rough MS of Democratic Vistas]").
"[To What You
Said]" bears a strong relationship to the "Calamus" poems that
were composed between 1857-1860.
Whitman Archive Title: [To printer]
Whitman Archive ID: loc.00048
Series: Literary File
Box: 19
Folder: Complete Poems and Prose (1888), Manuscript drafts,
Title page
Date: about
1888
Genre: prose
Physical Description: 1 leaf, handwritten
View images: 1 | 2
Content: A mock title page for Complete Poems & Prose
of Walt Whitman, 1855–1888 Authenticated & Personal Book
(handled by W.W.) Portraits from Life...Autograph (1888).
Whitman Archive Title: [To-day completes my
three-score-and]
Whitman Archive ID: loc.04657
Series: Notes and Notebooks
Date: 1889
Genre: prose, poetry
Physical Description: 1 leaf, printed, handwritten
View images: 1
Content: Printer's copy of the "Prefatory Letter to the
Reader" that appeared in the 1889 printing of
Leaves of Grass as an introduction to
the essay "A Backward Glance O'er Travel'd
Roads." This letter was omitted in the so-called "deathbed
edition" of 1891–92.
Whitman Archive Title: [True, I could not
construct]
Whitman Archive ID: loc.05856
Series: Literary File
Box: 36
Folder: Undated, "Complete Human Identity,"
draft
Date: about
1882
Genre: prose
Physical Description: 2 leaves, handwritten
View images: 1 | 2 | 3 | 4
Content: A heavily revised, partial draft of "A
Memorandum at a Venture," first published in the June 1882 issue of North American
Review.
Whitman Archive Title: [Two Rivulets]
Whitman Archive ID: loc.00150
Series: Diaries, Diary Notes, and Address Books
Box: 1
Folder: Address Books, 1876-86 (3 v.)
Date: 1876-1886
Genre: poetry
Physical Description: more than 17 leaves, handwritten
View images: 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | 10 | 11 | 12 | 13 | 14 | 15 | 16 | 17 | 18 | 19 | 20 | 21 | 22 | 23 | 24 | 25 | 26 | 27 | 28 | 29 | 30 | 31 | 32 | 33 | 34
Content: An address book filled with names and addresses, notes, figures, lists,
and trial lines for poems and prose. Contained within the address book
are trial lines, which Whitman labeled "Old Proverb," called "[I'd make the Songs of the
Nation]" (see image 26). Also in this notebook is a note
entitled "Death of
Lincoln" describing ambitions for a piece on that topic (see
image 5).
Whitman Archive Title: [Two scenes capriciously
rising out of the past]
Whitman Archive ID: loc.00039
Series: Literary File
Box: 26
Folder: Children of Adam. A.MS. draft.
Date: between
1850-1860
Genre: poetry
Physical Description: 1 leaf, 26.5 x 15 cm, handwritten
View images: 1 | 2
Content: Portions appear to be trial lines for a poem entitled "Pictures" published
posthumously, first in 1925. Other lines have an unknown
relationship to Whitman's published work.
Whitman Archive Title: [Utter prostrate]
Whitman Archive ID: loc.00283
Series: Literary File
Box: 28
Folder: Prayer of Columbus (1874). A.MS. draft and
notes.
Date: about
1874
Genre: poetry, prose
Physical Description: 1 leaf, handwritten
View images: 1 | 2
Content: A draft of lines from "Prayer of Columbus," first published in 1874. On the
verso are Whitman's prose notes, now partially torn away, treating "Personal[ism]" and the Kalev[ala].
Whitman Archive Title: [What may be the end I
know not]
Whitman Archive ID: loc.00276
Series: Literary File
Box: 28
Folder: Prayer of Columbus (1874). A.MS. draft and
notes.
Date: about
1874
Genre: poetry
Physical Description: 1 leaf, handwritten
View images: 1 | 2
Content: A draft of lines from "Prayer of Columbus," first published in 1874. On the
verso is a prose note reading "much of this stuff will come in the
'Notes.'"
Whitman Archive Title: [Which leads me to another
point]
Whitman Archive ID: loc.01074
Series: Literary File
Box: 36
Folder: Undated, "The Whole Past Century,"
draft
Date: about
1891
Genre: prose
Physical Description: 1 leaf, handwritten
View images: 1 | 2
Content: In these prose notes, Whitman reflects on the impact of the Civil War on
the nation. Written at the top of the page, in an unknown hand, possibly that of Horace Traubel, "see
notes Mar 18 1891." This manuscript contributed to "American's Bulk Average," which first
appeared in Good-Bye My Fancy (1891) before being collected in Complete Prose Works (1892).
Whitman Archive Title: [Why should I be
afraid]
Whitman Archive ID: loc.01075
Series: Literary File
Box: 36
Folder: Undated, "Why Should I Be Afraid?"
draft
Date: 1855-1892
Genre: prose
Physical Description: 1 leaf, handwritten
View images: 1 | 2
Content: On the verso of what appears to be an incoming letter, Whitman states that he has "abandon'd the conventional
themes." These comments were revised and published in "A Backward Glance O'er Travel'd Roads,",
the essay that Whitman used to close the 1891–92 edition of Leaves of
Grass. "A Backward Glance O'er
Travel'd Roads" first appeared in Lippincott's Magazine (January
1887), under the title "My Book and
I." Reprinted in Democratic Vistas,
and Other Papers (1888), "My Book and I" was also combined with
"How I Made a Book,"
Philadelphia Press (11 July 1889) and "A Backward
Glance on My Own Road,"
Critic (5 January
1884) and published as "A Backward
Glance" in November Boughs
(1888).
Whitman Archive Title: [Wild, wild the storm and the]
Whitman Archive ID: loc.00257
Series: Literary File
Box: 28
Folder: Patroling Barnegat (1880)
Date: May 1880
Genre: poetry
Physical Description: 2 leaves, handwritten
View images: 1 | 2 | 3 | 4
Content: A heavily revised draft of "Patroling Barnegat," first
published in the April 1881 issue of Harper's Monthly Magazine as "Patrolling Barnegat."
Whitman Archive Title: [Yet Alas! while how
near]
Whitman Archive ID: loc.01072
Series: Literary File
Box: 36
Folder: Whither are we Sailing?
Date: 1841-1892
Genre: poetry
Physical Description: 1 leaf, handwritten
View images: 1 | 2 | 3 | 4
Content: Sections of paper are pasted together in this prose reflection on "the
motif of life." The relationship of these revised drafts to Whitman's
published work is unknown.
Whitman Archive Title: [Yet completion were
lacking if]
Whitman Archive ID: loc.00037
Series: Literary File
Box: 26
Folder: Children of Adam. A.MS. draft.
Date: between
1850-1860
Genre: poetry
Physical Description: 1 leaf, 26.5 x 15 cm, handwritten
View images: 1 | 2
Content: This manuscript contains a line used in "Poem of Procreation"
in 1856 (later known as "A Woman Waits for Me").
Whitman Archive Title: [a thoughtful German
reader]
Whitman Archive ID: loc.00509
Series: Supplementary File
Box: 58
Folder: Leaves of Grass, 1885 edition, Manuscript
page
Date: 1881
Genre: prose
Physical Description: 1 leaf, handwritten
View images: 1 | 2
Content: This manuscript contains notes on Leaves of
Grass that appeared slightly revised in an unsigned collaborative review written jointly by Sylvester Baxter and Whitman,
published in the 30 October 1881 issue of the Boston Sunday
Herald under the title, "'Leaves
of Grass.' The Complete Poems of Walt Whitman As Published by a
Famous Boston House. A Friendly Characterization of the Poet's
Work."
Whitman Archive Title: [ab't like this]
Whitman Archive ID: loc.00045
Series: Literary File
Box: 19
Folder: Complete Poems and Prose (1888), Manuscript drafts,
Title page
Date: about
1888
Genre: prose
Physical Description: 1 leaf, handwritten, printed
View images: 1 | 2
Content: A mock title page for Complete Poems & Prose
of Walt Whitman, 1855–1888 Authenticated & Personal Book
(handled by W.W.) Portraits from Life...Autograph (1888).
Whitman Archive Title: [and a surplus of a hundred
millions & more]
Whitman Archive ID: loc.01055
Series: Literary File
Box: 36
Folder: Undated, "These States and the Kosmical Scale,"
draft
Date: 1891
Genre: prose
Physical Description: 1 leaf, handwritten
View images: 1 | 2
Content: This manuscript is a partial draft of "American National Literature. Is There Any Such Thing—or Can
There Ever Be?," which first appeared in the March 1891 issue of North American Review under the title, "Have We a National Literature?" before
appearing in Good-Bye By Fancy (1891, and Complete Prose
Works (1892).
Whitman Archive Title: [answer the point]
Whitman Archive ID: loc.03681
Series: Notes and Notebooks
Date: about 1867
Genre: prose
Physical Description: 1 leaf, handwritten
View images: 1 | 2
Content: This short note provides phrases that contributed to the essay "Democracy," which was published in the
December 1867 issue of The Galaxy. When Whitman combined this and
two other essays to form the pamphlet-length essay Democratic Vistas (1871),
he ommitted the section containing the phrases in this manuscript.
Whitman Archive Title: [appendage leaves—the
original (1855 Brooklyn) edition]
Whitman Archive ID: loc.00749
Series: Literary File
Box: 20
Folder: Leaves of Grass.
1855 edition. Book reviews. Printed copies with corrections and
notations.
Date: 1855
Genre: prose
Physical Description: 2 leaves, handwritten, printed
View images: 1 | 2 | 3 | 4
Content: Printed copies of reviews that were reprinted in Leaves of Grass and that include Whitman's corrections and
notations. "Walt Whitman a Brooklyn Boy.
Leaves of Grass (A Volume of Poems Just Published)" was first
printed in the 29 September 1855 issue of the Brooklyn Daily Times. "Walt Whitman and his Poems" was first
published in the September 1855 issue of United States Review.
Whitman Archive Title: [casts off her moorings]
Whitman Archive ID: loc.00018
Series: Literary File
Box: 29
Folder: Sail Out for Good, Eidólon Yacht! (1888). A.MS.
drafts and notes.
Date: about
1890
Genre: poetry
Physical Description: 1 leaf, handwritten
View images: 1 | 2
Content: Trial lines for "Sail Out
for Good, Eidólon Yacht!," which was published first in 1891. On the verso is a letter from Harry C. Kochersperger
dated June 27,
1890.
Whitman Archive Title: [curiously writes
itself]
Whitman Archive ID: loc.01077
Series: Literary File
Box: 36
Folder: Undated, "Twilight Whisperings," draft
Date: about
1870
Genre: poetry, prose
Physical Description: 3 leaves, handwritten
View images: 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6
Content: These manuscript pages reflect Whitman's experiences visiting the sick in
hospitals in Washington during "the Secession War." Two lines from this
manuscript, "At vacancy with Nature / Acceptive and at ease," were used
as part of the poem Whitman presents in, "A
Quintette," first published in Specimen Days & Collect (1882–1883) before being collected in Complete Prose Works (1892).
Whitman Archive Title: [dear to me]
Whitman Archive ID: loc.00171
Series: Notes and Notebooks
Box: 40
Folder: Literary, Undated, The States and Their
Resources
Date: undated
Genre: poetry
Physical Description: 2 leaves, handwritten
View images: 1 | 2
Content: a draft line of poetry describing the land that is "dear" to the poet. Whitman had "Always the South" in mind as he composed the line, though this phrase was deleted.
Whitman Archive Title: [floor with his hands in
his pockets]
Whitman Archive ID: loc.01066
Series: Literary File
Box: 36
Folder: Work on the Farm
Date: 1841-1892
Genre: poetry
Physical Description: 1 leaf, handwritten
View images: 1 | 2
Content: This prose manuscript portrays a person in a farm scene. The relationship
to Whitman's published work is unknown.
Whitman Archive Title: [for 'Again old heart so
gay']
Whitman Archive ID: loc.00619
Series: Notes and Notebooks
Box: 39
Folder: Literary, 1871, Again Old Heart.
Date: 1872
Genre: poetry, prose
Physical Description: 2 leaves, handwritten
View images: 1 | 2 | 3 | 4
Content: Two pages of notes for a piece entitled "Again old heart so gay" about "the idea of
constantly recurring Birth and Death." This manuscript is probably
related to "By Broad
Potomac's Shore," first published in 1872.
Whitman Archive Title: [for Abraham Lincoln]
Whitman Archive ID: loc.01800
Series: Literary File
Box: 37
Folder: ca. 1877–1883, 'Death of Abraham Lincoln,'
notes
Date: 1877–1886
Genre: prose
Physical Description: 3 leaves, handwritten
View images: 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6
Content: Notes toward a draft of "Abraham
Lincoln," first published, untitled, in Allen Thorndike Rice,
ed., Reminiscences of Abraham Lincoln
(1886). Whitman reprinted this essay in
November Boughs (1888). A
revised version of the essay appeared in Complete
Prose Works (1892). Whitman composed these notes on a
piece of incoming correspondence.
Whitman Archive Title: [for closing passage]
Whitman Archive ID: loc.01799
Series: Literary File
Box: 37
Folder: ca. 1877–1883, Death of Abraham Lincoln,
notes
Date: 1875–1886
Genre: prose
Physical Description: 1 leaf, handwritten
View images: 1 | 2
Content: A heavily revised prose manuscript in which Whitman worked through
ideas on the death of Abraham Lincoln. Whitman himself scrawled "Death
of Abraham Lincoln" at the top of this manuscript; however, no other
textual link can be made between this manuscript and "Death of Abraham Lincoln." This
manuscript appears to be a draft of another prose piece on Lincoln,
titled "Abraham Lincoln." This essay
was first published, untitled, in Allen Thorndike Rice, ed., Reminiscences of Abraham Lincoln (1886). Whitman reprinted this essay in November Boughs (1888). A
revised version of the essay appeared in Complete
Prose Works (1892).
Whitman Archive Title: [here strange
continents]
Whitman Archive ID: loc.00250
Series: Literary File
Box: 28
Folder: Out from Behind This Mask (1876). A.MS.
draft.
Date: between
1873-1876
Genre: poetry
Physical Description: 1 leaf, handwritten
View images: 1 | 2
Content: Draft of lines from the poem "Out From Behind This Mask," first published
in 1876.
Whitman Archive Title: [let the big]
Whitman Archive ID: loc.00046
Series: Literary File
Box: 19
Folder: Complete Poems and Prose (1888), Manuscript drafts,
Title page
Date: about
1888
Genre: prose
Physical Description: 1 leaf, handwritten
View images: 1 | 2
Content: A mock title page for Complete Poems & Prose
of Walt Whitman, 1855–1888 Authenticated & Personal Book
(handled by W.W.) Portraits from Life...Autograph (1888).
Whitman Archive Title: [mark the figure]
Whitman Archive ID: loc.01032
Series: Literary File
Box: 36
Folder: Undated, "Mark the Figure," draft
Date: about
1860
Genre: prose
Physical Description: 1 leaf, handwritten
View images: 1 | 2
Content: Two scraps pasted together to make one leaf. Lines from this manuscript
were revised and used in "A Song of
Joys," which first appeared in the 1860 edition
of Leaves of Grass, as "Poem of Joys."
Whitman Archive Title: [med Cophósis]
Whitman Archive ID: loc.00005
Series: Notes and Notebooks
Box: 39
Folder: Literary, Before 1855, Women
Date: Between 1852 and 1854
Genre: poetry
Physical Description: 2 leaves, handwritten
View images: 1 | 2 | 3 | 4
Content: These pages were written by Whitman in the early to mid-1850s. William White described the pages as "torn from a tall notebook" (Daybooks and Notebooks [New York: New York University Press, 1978], 773–777). White noted a relationship between these pages and the poems "Who Learns My Lesson Complete?," "By Blue Ontario's Shore," "Song of the Answerer," and "There Was a Child Went Forth." Some of the ideas and language being worked out here also appear in the poem eventually titled "Song of Myself." For a discussion of the dating and importance of this notebook, see Matt Miller, Collage of Myself: Walt Whitman and the Making of Leaves of Grass (Lincoln: University of Nebraska Press, 2010), 11–16.
Whitman Archive Title: [more books]
Whitman Archive ID: loc.03403
Series: Notes and Notebooks
Box: 39
Folder: 18
Date: about 1885
Genre: prose
Physical Description: 1 leaf, handwritten
View images: 1 | 2
Content: Manuscript draft fragment for an article that appeared under the title
"Walt Whitman at Camden" in the
February 28, 1885 issue of the Critic under the pseudonym George Selwyn.
The article was the seventh in the magazine's "Authors at Home" series.
Whitman Archive Title: [my altar here the bleak
sea-sand]
Whitman Archive ID: loc.00281
Series: Literary File
Box: 28
Folder: Prayer of Columbus (1874). A.MS. draft and
notes.
Date: about
1874
Genre: poetry
Physical Description: 1 leaf, handwritten
View images: 1 | 2
Content: A draft of lines from "Prayer of Columbus," first published in 1874.
Whitman Archive Title: [my brain grows
rack'd]
Whitman Archive ID: loc.00278
Series: Literary File
Box: 28
Folder: Prayer of Columbus (1874). A.MS. draft and
notes.
Date: about
1874
Genre: poetry
Physical Description: 1 leaf, handwritten
View images: 1 | 2
Content: A draft of lines from "Prayer of Columbus," first published in 1874.
Whitman Archive Title: [my end draws]
Whitman Archive ID: loc.00277
Series: Literary File
Box: 28
Folder: Prayer of Columbus (1874). A.MS. draft and
notes.
Date: about
1874
Genre: poetry
Physical Description: 1 leaf, handwritten
View images: 1 | 2
Content: A draft of lines from "Prayer of Columbus," first published in 1874.
Whitman Archive Title: [nor humility's
book]
Whitman Archive ID: loc.00505
Series: General Correspondence
Box: 9
Folder: Doyle, Peter. Oct. 14, 1868.
Date: 1868
Genre: poetry
Physical Description: 2 leaves, handwritten
View images: 1 | 2 | 3 | 4
Content: A draft of a poem on the verso of an 1868 draft letter to Peter Doyle. The
poem has been published posthumously under the title "[Nor Humility's
Book]."
Whitman Archive Title: [reject the claims of the
genre Culturists]
Whitman Archive ID: loc.02307
Series: Notes and Notebooks
Box: 40
Folder: Literary, Undated, Model American
Date: undated
Genre: prose
Physical Description: 1 leaf, handwritten
View images: 1 | 2
Content: One leaf with notes about how American life and character differs from
the "claims of the culturists."
Whitman Archive Title: [see the profuse sparks
like gold]
Whitman Archive ID: loc.00299
Series: Literary File
Box: 29
Folder: Sparkles From the Wheel (1871). A.MS.
draft.
Date: about
1871
Genre: poetry
Physical Description: 1 leaf, 4 x 17 cm, handwritten
View images: 1
Content: A draft of lines that would be revised and published as "Sparkles From the
Wheel" in 1871.
Whitman Archive Title: [the arch, the
column]
Whitman Archive ID: loc.00616
Series: Literary File
Box: 29
Folder: Spirit That Form'd This Scene (1881). A.MS.
drafts.
Date: about
1881
Genre: poetry
Physical Description: 1 leaf, 20 x 12 cm, handwritten
View images: 1 | 2
Content: An early draft of lines related to "Spirit That Form'd this Scene," which was
first published in 1881, written in ink and pencil.
Whitman Archive Title: [the scope of
government]
Whitman Archive ID: loc.00157
Series: Notes and Notebooks
Box: 37
Folder: 1855-1856 (?), Government, Nature, Trial Lines,
Self-Advice
Date: between
1855-1856
Genre: poetry, prose
Physical Description: about 20 leaves, handwritten
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Content: A notebook Whitman used for various purposes in the mid-1850s. Edward F.
Grier, in his edition of Whitman's Notebooks and Unpublished Prose
Manuscripts (New York: New York University Press, 1984. 6 vols.), noted that the
notebook contains lines and phrases that relate to several poems: "Assurances,"
"This Compost," and
an unfinished poem entitled "The Insects. On some of the leaves Whitman has rotated the notebook and written upside down."
Whitman Archive Title: [to speak a reverent
word]
Whitman Archive ID: loc.01761
Series: Literary File
Box: 37
Folder: 1879, "Death of Abraham Lincoln," reading book with
proofs, printed pages, and drafts
Date: 1879–1881
Genre: prose
Physical Description: 33 leaves, handwritten, printed
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Content: Manuscript notes and clippings of printed prose gathered by Whitman in a
homemade notebook created from a copy of John Dunbar Hylton's, Bride of Gettysburg (1878).
Whitman appears to have used this book as a notebook in preparation for
his lecture, "Death of Abraham Lincoln." Portions of this speech were
originally published as "Abraham Lincoln's
Death. Walt Whitman's Account of the Scene at Ford's
Theatre,"
New York Sun (12 February
1876) and were included in Memoranda
During the War (1875–1876). "Abraham Lincoln's Death" was revised and
published as "A Poet on the Platform,"
New York Daily Tribune (15 April 1879) and was subsequently reprinted as "Death of Abraham Lincoln" in Specimen Days & Collect (1882–1883) before finally appearing in Complete Prose Works (1892).
Whitman Archive Title: [what do I know of
life?]
Whitman Archive ID: loc.00282
Series: Literary File
Box: 28
Folder: Prayer of Columbus (1874). A.MS. draft and
notes.
Date: about
1874
Genre: poetry
Physical Description: 1 leaf, handwritten
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Content: A draft of lines from "Prayer of Columbus," first published in 1874. On the verso is a brief prose note mentioning "Lecturers—& their Style."
Whitman Archive Title: [what is the
guidance]
Whitman Archive ID: loc.00269
Series: Literary File
Box: 28
Folder: Prayer of Columbus (1874). A.MS. draft and
notes.
Date: about
1874
Genre: poetry
Physical Description: 1 leaf, handwritten
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Content: A draft of lines from "Prayer of Columbus," first published in 1874.
Whitman Archive Title: an ardent
temperament
Whitman Archive ID: loc.06025
Series: Oversize
Box: OV 11
Folder: 1888, "Elias Hicks"
Date: between 1858 and
1888
Genre: prose
Physical Description: 1 leaf, handwritten
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Content: Two manuscript leaves pasted to a backing scrap to create a continuous
inscribed surface. The notes here about Elias Hicks's early life
probably contributed to Whitman's 1888 essay "Notes (such as they are) founded on Elias
Hicks," first published in November
Boughs and later reprinted in Complete Prose Works (1892).
Whitman planned to write an essay about Elias Hicks for many years.
While finishing preparations for the printing of November Boughs, Whitman told Horace Traubel, "Some of
these bits were written as many as thirty years ago. Some of them I have
written within the past year. They are a miscellaneous lot but they all
belong in the same stream." (See Traubel, With
Walt Whitman in Camden, 2: 42.) The present
manuscript is stored together with many other manuscripts on the topics
of Elias Hicks and Quakerism. Those that directly contributed to the
published essay are described separately. Those whose relationship to
the published essay are unclear are not included at this stage of our
work.
Whitman Archive Title: born expressers of itself
Whitman Archive ID: loc.01050
Series: Literary File
Box: 36
Folder: Undated, "Spirit of Transactions,"
draft
Date: about
1882
Genre: prose
Physical Description: 1 leaf, handwritten
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Content: A partial draft of "Poetry To-Day in
America—Shakespere—The Future," which appeared in
Specimen Days & Collect (1882) before being collected in Complete Prose Works (1892).
Whitman Archive Title: consent of all the other
sects
Whitman Archive ID: loc.06038
Series: Oversize
Box: OV 11
Folder: 1888, "Elias Hicks"
Date: about 1888
Genre: prose
Physical Description: 1 leaf, handwritten
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Content: One page of a late draft, probably the printer's copy, of the essay
"Notes (such as they are) founded on
Elias Hicks," which was first published in November Boughs (1888) and later
reprinted in Complete Prose Works (1892). Whitman planned to write an essay about Elias Hicks
for many years. While finishing preparations for the printing of November Boughs, Whitman told Horace
Traubel, "Some of these bits were written as many as thirty years ago.
Some of them I have written within the past year. They are a
miscellaneous lot but they all belong in the same stream." (See Traubel,
With Walt Whitman in Camden, 2: 42.) The present manuscript is stored together with many other
manuscripts on the topics of Elias Hicks and Quakerism. Those that
directly contributed to the published essay are described separately.
Those whose relationship to the published essay are unclear are not
included at this stage of our work.
Whitman Archive Title: earliest spring
wildflowers
Whitman Archive ID: loc.03419
Series: Notes and Notebooks
Box: 40
Folder: 66
Date: about 1881
Genre: prose
Physical Description: 1 leaf, handwritten, printed
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Content: Newspaper clipping and notes regarding wildflowers that bloom in early
spring. This item was likely created in conjunction with Whitman's
composition of "Days at J. B.'s—Turf
Fires—Spring Songs," which was first published in Specimen Days & Collect (1882–1883). It was also later printed in Complete Prose Works (1892).
Whitman Archive Title: far. Amongst this
Whitman Archive ID: loc.07421
Series: Literary File
Box: 28
Folder: "The Play-Ground" (1846), draft
Date: Between 1844 and 1846
Genre: prose
Physical Description: 1 leaf, handwritten
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Content: This manuscript appears to be a partial draft of a piece of fiction about a character named Ganguernet. The January 1844 issue of The Knickerbocker magazine featured a story called "Ganguernet: Or, 'A Capital Joke,'" which was "Translated from the French by John Hunter." The story includes a scene with a nearly identical plot to the one described in this portion of Whitman's manuscript, although the wording is, for the most, quite different. It is unclear whether Whitman was simply paraphrasing Hunter's translation, or whether both stories were derived separately from the same source text. On the back of the leaf (loc.00264) is a draft of Whitman's early poem "The Play-Ground," which was published in the Brooklyn Daily Eagle on June 1, 1846. As the prose draft is crossed out and the poetry draft is not, it is likely that the poetry draft was written later. Thus, the date of composition for the prose manuscript is probably between 1844 and 1846. The title "The Play-Ground" is written vertically along the left side of this leaf, presumably labeling the material on the reverse.
Whitman Archive Title: for Mulleins & BB
Whitman Archive ID: loc.03401
Series: Notes and Notebooks
Box: 39
Folder: 18
Date: between 1873 and
1882
Genre: prose
Physical Description: 1 leaf, handwritten
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Content: On one side of this scrap are notes about the tulip tree (Liriodendron),
which Whitman used in "The Lesson of a
Tree," first published in Specimen
Days & Collect in 1882–1883. It was later reprinted in Complete Prose Works (1892). The other
side of the scrap bears a quotation from John Addington Symonds's Studies of the Greek Poets, the first
edition of which was published in 1873.
Whitman Archive Title: for droppings
Whitman Archive ID: loc.07512
Series: Literary File
Box: 28
Folder: "Priests!" (1855), draft
Date: 1850s
Genre: prose, poetry
Physical Description: 1 leaf, handwritten
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Content: At the top of this manuscript, Whitman has written "for droppings." "Leaves-Droppings" was the name given to a section of correspondence and reviews that Whitman included in the back of the 1856 edition of Leaves of Grass. It seems he also considered giving that title to the cluster of poems in the 1860 edition that was eventually titled "Enfans d'Adam." Given that this manuscript contains a proposal for a poem, it's possible that Whitman envisioned it being included in the "Enfans d'Adam" cluster, suggesting a composition date in the late 1850s. However, as the "Leaves-Droppings" title had been on his mind as early as 1855 or 1856, it's also possible that this scrap was written earlier. On the verso (loc.00013) are early lines that contributed to the second poem in the 1855 edition of Leaves, eventually titled "A Song for Occupations."
Whitman Archive Title: for part in L of G
Whitman Archive ID: loc.02901
Series: Literary File
Box: 30
Folder: To the Man-of-War-Bird (1876). A.MS.
drafts.
Date: between
1867-1876
Genre: poetry, prose
Physical Description: 9 leaves, handwritten
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Content: One of the notebooks commonly known as the "Penitenzia" notebooks because that word is
written in red ink on the cover. It includes drafts and trial lines
of the poem "[Mask with
Their Lids]" (published posthumously.) loc.00312 is another "Penitenzia" notebook that also has drafts and trial lines for the poem "[Mask with Their Lids]." There are also notes about other poems and the
arrangement of Leaves of
Grass.
Whitman Archive Title: in the west
Whitman Archive ID: loc.00168
Series: Notes and Notebooks
Box: 40
Folder: Literary, Undated, Poem of the Vision of the
West
Date: Between 1850 and 1860
Genre: prose, poetry
Physical Description: 1 leaf, handwritten
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Content: This manuscript contains notes for a proposed poem offering a vision of the future of the American west. The style of title that Whitman proposes ("Poem of...") resembles that employed in the 1856 edition of Leaves of Grass, suggesting a composition date around that time. This estimate is in line with that of Edward Grier, who dates the manuscript to "before 1860" (Notebooks and Unpublished Prose Manuscripts [New York: New York University Press, 1984], 4:1323).
Whitman Archive Title: opening of George Fox
Whitman Archive ID: loc.06018
Series: Oversize
Box: OV 11
Folder: 1888, "Elias Hicks"
Date: about 1888
Genre: prose
Physical Description: 1 leaf, handwritten
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Content: A one-page draft fragment, heavily revised, related to the "George Fox (and Shakspere)" section of
Whitman's 1888 essay "Notes
(such as they are) founded on Elias Hicks," first published
in November Boughs and later reprinted in
Complete Prose Works (1892). Whitman planned to write an essay about Elias Hicks
for many years. While finishing preparations for the printing of November Boughs, Whitman told Horace
Traubel, "Some of these bits were written as many as thirty years ago.
Some of them I have written within the past year. They are a
miscellaneous lot but they all belong in the same stream." (See Traubel,
With Walt Whitman in Camden, 2: 42.) The present manuscript is stored together with many other
manuscripts on the topics of Elias Hicks and Quakerism. Those that
directly contributed to the published essay are described separately.
Those whose relationship to the published essay are unclear are not
included at this stage of our work.
Whitman Archive Title: sorrow
Whitman Archive ID: loc.00052
Series: Literary File
Box: 26
Folder: Beat! Beat! Drums! (1861). A. MS.
draft.
Date: 1865
Genre: poetry
Physical Description: 2 leaves, handwritten
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Content: A list of about ninety words expressing sorrow. These words were
evidently used as Whitman composed "When Lilacs Last in the Dooryard Bloom'd,"
first published in 1865.
Whitman Archive Title: such things
Whitman Archive ID: loc.00167
Series: Notes and Notebooks
Box: 40
Folder: Model American
Date: Between 1850 and 1860
Genre: prose
Physical Description: 1 leaf, handwritten
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Content: This heavily revised manuscript contains prose notes describing the "mental and moral connexions" between America and other lands. While dating the manuscript is difficult, Whitman's use of the phrase "full sized men and women" suggests a composition date from the 1850s, as he used a similar phrase in the Preface to the 1855 edition of Leaves of Grass, in his 1856 reply to Emerson's letter of praise for the first edition of Leaves, and in the poem "Song of the Broad-Axe" (1856). Thus, the manuscript likely dates from sometime in the 1850s. However, it does not seem that this manuscript directly contributed to any of those works.
Whitman Archive Title: that it fibre and strengthen
Whitman Archive ID: loc.07869
Series: Literary File
Box: 29
Folder: Song of Myself (1855). A.MS. draft.
Date: About 1854
Genre: prose
Physical Description: 1 leaf, handwritten
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Content: This manuscript is a partial draft of "Memorial in Behalf of a Freer Municipal Government, and Against Sunday Restrictions," a public letter printed in the Brooklyn Star on October 20, 1854. Whitman probably drafted the manuscript shortly before the piece was published. On the verso (loc.00042) is a draft related to the poetry of the first edition of Leaves of Grass (1855).
Whitman Archive Title: wainscot, hut
Whitman Archive ID: loc.07428
Series: Literary File
Box: 20
Folder: L of G (1855). Manuscript Page.
Date: Before or early in 1856
Genre: prose, poetry
Physical Description: 1 leaf, handwritten
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Content: This manuscript features a list of terms, many of which are found in "Broad-Axe Poem," first published in the 1856 edition of Leaves of Grass and later titled "Song of the Broad-Axe." It is likely, therefore, that the list was written before or early in 1856. The reverse side (loc.00507) contains a draft of lines related to the poem eventually titled "Song of Myself."
Whitman Archive Title: whale—the sperm
Whitman Archive ID: loc.07550
Series: Notes and Notebooks
Box: 40
Folder: The voice of Walt Whitman
Date: about 1860
Genre: poetry
Physical Description: 1 leaf, handwritten
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Content: One leaf made by pasting together two scraps of pink paper, probably
wrappers from the 1855 edition of Leaves of Grass. This portion of the manuscript contains several fragmentary lines written in pencil and describing a whale hunt. The lines are probably related to lines on the same topic in "A Song of Joys," first published as "Poem of Joys" in the 1860 edition of Leaves of Grass. In the 1867 edition the poem was divided into numbered sections and retitled "Poems of Joy," before resuming its original title in the Passage to India section of the 1871–72 edition. It took its final title in the 1881–82 edition. This scrap is attached to another scrap (loc.06005) that contains a title ("Poem of the Trainer") written in ink. On the reverse side of the leaf (loc.06006) are approximately four lines, written and revised in ink, that may be related to the poem "Year of Meteors. (1859–1860)."
Restrictions on Original Materials: Please consult with the Library of Congress.
Alternative Format: This collection has been microfilmed and comprises 38 microfilm reels. Digital images of some items are available in the "Manuscripts" section of the Walt Whitman Archive. The paper documents comprise 28,000 items.
Preferred Citation: To identify this catalog as a source, see the Archive's "Conditions of Use" page.
Repository Contact Information:
The Library of Congress, Manuscripts Division
Room LM101, James Madison Building
101 Independence Ave., S.E.
Washington, D.C. 20540-4680
http://www.loc.gov