Leaves of Grass by Walt WhitmanCall Number: 811.3 Whitman
Publication Date: 1855; 1891-1892
In 1855, a small volume appeared, self-published by a failed Brooklyn journalist and carpenter- twelve untitled poems and a preface announcing the author's aims. A commercial failure, this book was the first stage of a massive, lifelong enterprise. Six editions and thirty-seven years later, Leaves of Grass had been recognized as one of the central masterworks of world poetry.