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Walt Whitman Autograph Manuscript Signed. ...
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Description
Whitman Pens a Brief Biography for Inclusion in a Book About Lincoln, Noting his Most Noted Work: "Began his book of poems 'Leaves of Grass' in 1855 and completed it in 1881"
Walt Whitman Autograph Manuscript Signed. One page, 8 x 10 ½
inches, Camden, New Jersey; 1886.Whitman writes a brief autobiography for inclusion in Reminiscences of Abraham Lincoln by Distinguished Men of His Time, compiled by Allen Thorndike Rice and published in 1886 by North American Publishing Co. Whitman had contributed an essay to the volume.
The manuscript reads, in full:
"Walt Whitman. Born at West Hills Huntington, Suffolk County, State of New York, May 31, 1819; father a farmer and carpenter; mother's maiden name Van Velsor, of Dutch stock. Was brought up in Brooklyn and New York cities, and went to the public schools; as a young man worked at type-setting and writing in printing offices. Has traveled and lived in all parts of the United States from Canada to Texas inclusive. Began his book of poems 'Leaves of Grass' in 1855 and completed it in 1881, when, after six or seven stages, the final edition was issued. Walt Whitman is also author of a prose book 'Specimen Days and Collect,' published in 1883. During 1863, '64, and '65 he was actively occupied in the Army Hospitals and on the battlefields of the Secession War as care-taker for the worst cases of wounded and sick of both armies. After the close of the war had a severe paralytic stroke, from which he has never since entirely recovered. Lives (1886) in partial seclusion at Camden, New Jersey, calls himself 'a half paralytic.' Still writes and lectures occasionally."
Whitman writes on the back of a letter written by Alfred J. Bromfield, a manager at the North American Publishing Company. Bromfield had requested a short write-up of Whitman's accomplishments, writing, "Mr. Rice desired to have a short biographical sketch of each of the contributors to the Lincoln book. Will you kindly furnish one of yourself? Please do so within a few days, as the printers are at work on the book." Whitman's description of his life and career appears almost verbatim on page 640 of Reminiscences of Abraham Lincoln.
A first-edition printing of Reminiscences of Abraham Lincoln accompanies the letter. It is bound in maroon morocco with a gilt-lettered spine and edges gilt. It features a frontispiece portrait of Lincoln and several plates of the contributors with facsimile signatures. Whitman's contribution focuses on the honorable character of Abraham Lincoln, drawing from his experiences as a soldier in the Civil War. His essay reads, in part: "Glad am I to give even the most brief and shorn testimony in memory of Abraham Lincoln. Everything I heard about him authentically, and every time I saw him (and it was my fortune through 1862 to '65 to see, or pass a word with, or watch him, personally, perhaps twenty or thirty times*), added to and annealed my respect and love... I should say that the invisible foundations and vertebra of his character, more than any man's in history, were mystical, abstract, moral and spiritual - while upon all of them was built, and out of all of them radiated, under the control of the average of circumstances, what the vulgar call horse-sense, and a life often bent by temporary but most urgent materialistic and political reasons... Abraham Lincoln seems to me the grandest figure yet, on all the crowded canvas of the Nineteenth Century."
The letter and accompanying book have remained in the care of the Bromfield family since its publication. This is the first time it is being offered at auction.
Condition: With creases along folds and toned throughout. There are ink smudges to both recto and verso, with a small stain to the right margin of the verso that does not affect Whitman's manuscript. The book is missing the back binding. The front cover is completely detached from the spine and is rubbed along the right edge and corners.
Auction Info
2023 December 15 Historical Platinum Session Signature® Auction #6280 (go to Auction Home page)
Auction Dates
December, 2023
15th
Friday
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