Walt Whitman. Two Rivulets Including Democratic Vistas, Centennial Songs, and Passage to India. Camden, New Jers...

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With Photograph Signed by Walt Whitman

Walt Whitman. Two Rivulets Including Democratic Vistas, Centennial Songs, and Passage to India. Camden, New Jersey, 1876.

First edition of the Author's Edition, one of only 100 copies with the blank leaf between "As a strong bird on pinions free" and "Memoranda during the war." Tipped onto an inserted leaf with a printed three-line caption is an albumen photograph of Whitman with his signature in ink, dated 1880. Octavo. 84, 18, x, 14, 68, iv, 120 pages, plus one-page publisher's ad at the rear.

Recently bound by Sangorski and Sutcliffe in full green polished morocco. Raised bands. Gilt lettering to spine. Leather turn-ins with gilt borders. Fine.

"Two Rivulets was a hodgepodge of poetry and prose - and of printing methods also. The New Republic shop set up a new Preface and fourteen poems collected for the first time - three for the last time. To carry out the motif of the title poem, 'Two rivulets side by side,' Whitman printed poems on the top half of the page and prose 'Thoughts for the Centennial' on the second half: observations on Democracy, nationalism, Darwinism, manners, and other pertinent topics" (Allen). BAL notes that in this Author's Edition, "the photograph is usually autographed by Whitman," as is the case here.

Gay Wilson Allen, The New Walt Whitman Handbook, 142. BAL, 21413.