Walt Whitman

Walt Whitman revised his poems throughout his life, compiling and publishing revised and expanded versions of his masterpiece, Leaves of Grass, from 1855 to the “Deathbed edition” in 1892.  The poem “As Consequent, etc.” shown here begins a sequence called “Autumn Rivulets,” which first appeared in the 1881-82 edition of Leaves.  As a young man, Whitman had worked in the printing trade; he marked up this pre-publication copy of the text with instructions for the printer, as well as revisions and added poems in manuscript.  As in many of his poems, Whitman celebrates America and its embodiment in himself, the American. 

This volume is from the Rare Book, Manuscript and Special Collections Library of Duke University.  This image is from the Duke University Libraries Digital collections; the entire volume, as well as many other Whitman manuscripts are available at: http://scriptorium.lib.duke.edu/findaids/images/whitmaniana/whitman1025/ Many original Whitman manuscripts are also available for viewing in the Special Collections Reading Room.