Leaves of Grass by Walt Whitman, 1881
“I Saw in Louisiana a Live-Oak Growing” by Walt Whitman, ca. 1855–59
Walt Whitman (1819–1892)
“Song of Occupations” in the “Blue Book copy” of Leaves of Grass
Boston: Thayer and Eldridge, ca. 1860–61
Rare Book Division
"Song of Occupations" by Walt Whitman
The poetry of Walt Whitman, one of the most important American poets of the 19th century, broke from earlier models of poetry to form a new and more inclusive lyric voice. Whitman traveled widely and saw America through a broad lens, which he recorded in prose writing and in his intoxicating new free-verse style. He also took radical positions on social issues of his day and has since stood as an icon for progressive political and civil rights movements.
He first published Leaves of Grass in 1855, but continued reworking the text for the rest of his life. This is his own copy of the third edition, which he edited extensively, ultimately filling the volume nearly to bursting with notes, changes, and additional scraps of paper, and covering the book with blue paper wrappers.
Whitman had moved from New York to Washington, D.C., during the Civil War and obtained a government job. When his supervisor, Secretary of the Interior James Harlan, discovered this book in Whitman’s desk, he was alarmed by what he decided was poetry that indecently advocated free love. He fired Whitman on the spot.
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