Books

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Walt Whitman trained as a boy in printing and typesetting and as an adult worked professionally as a journalist and editor. He became very adept in book arts and the publishing trade, and he exercised great expertize in overseeing or directing the production of his books. He provided detailed printing and binding instructions, offered suggestions for typesetting and book and title page designs, and he participated in the copy editing and review of galley proofs for his works. He also had a keen eye for marketing. He designed advertisement circulars and other sales devices to promote—and try to make a living--from his writings.

The materials from the Books section of the Literary file of the Charles E. Feinberg collection of Walt Whitman Papers span from 1855 to 1919 and include advertisemens, handwritten drafts, printer’s copy, page and plate proofs, notes, printed matter, title page and frontispiece designs and edits, draft prefaces, wrappers, copyright notices, correspondence, memoranda, a scrapbook of clippings, book reviews, printing and binding statements, publishing agreements and evidence of suppression, receipts, sales subscriptions, and miscellaneous items relating to Whitman's publications over decades. Titles include Democratic Vistas, Drum Taps, Good-bye My Fancy, various editions of Leaves of Grass, Memoranda during the War, November Boughs, Specimen Days, Two Rivulets, and other poetry, essays, and autobiographical works.

The items are arranged alphabetically by title.

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