Walt Whitman's Leaves of Grass (150th Anniversary Edition) 150th anniversary Edition

Very pleased with this book would buy this again without a question wish my entire collection was as good as this volume

This is the original edition with a beautifully written preface by Walt Whitman. Whitman continued to add poems to this book until his passing but this one has just the original 12 poems with titles that were added later on. The “deathbed” edition has over 400 poems but not the preface. Definitely a good read for anyone interested in poetry or the transcendentalists.

I first read and studied this seminal book of American poetry in college in the 1970s. I come back to it repeatedly. I love it more than deeply devoted Christians love the Bible. I do believe there is no more important poet to read and study than Walt Whitman.

Like listening to a very good friend who drones on and on, but you listen because you know he is going to say something really worth waiting for.I knew little about Whitman or Leaves of Grass. I had read or heard some quotes which I liked, so I started reading. At first it was very annoying! He used exclamation points at the end of every sentence! (Or if not an exclamation, he put it all in parentheses.) Again and again with the exclamation points! (Again and again with the parentheses.) And the subjects I did not find that interesting, or the wording very well formed.The first 3rd of the book is a collection of random thoughts, mostly about how great America is. On and on about things he might just have read about in the newspaper, with very little evidence of personal experience. List after list. And when he was not writing about America, he was writing about being gay. Now I don't know if he was or was not, I only know what I read; and it sure seemed gay to me. I just did not see what was so great about this book. What I did not realize at the time was that I was being introduced to his voice, his individual way of expressing himself.The middle 3rd of the book has as its subject the Civil War. Here he comes into his own. I could feel his horror, his empty numbness, his pride and his despair. Nearly every poem is a gem, nearly every thought, a revelation. One exception is "O Captain! My Captain!, which although great poetry, is not written in the voice I had come to know. It seems to me to have been written for general consumption, not in the private, personal style of the rest of the book.The last 3rd of the book is the recovery from, or rather ghosts from, the Civil War; and also about becoming old. Again here, I had to be patient and wade through quite a few verses to find something that spoke to me. The wounds from the war were real, the dreams acquiring the patina of chivalry. Also, as with most folks now growing old, he was old a long time. He tended to repeat himself and complain about the maladies of being old again and again... as we do.This is a personal life's journey of one man, in his unique voice. I am glad he shared it with me.(The kindle edition I read had some formatting issues, but the Amazon website indicates that is being corrected).

Whether you live in New York, or just visiting, or whether you just like NYC or not, this poetry is super romantic when you put it into the context of life in New York. As a resident, this is the most romantic reading I enjoyed in a long while, yet it's so old - or maybe that's why it is so romantically beautiful?

I am very happy that inexpensive versions of Leaves of Grass are available again. I have purchased eight different versions to compare. Many are very poorly put together - almost like scanned versions simply plopped into a word processor and uploaded to Amazon - and selling for $10 - $1. What I find most fascinating is this one - by Martino Fine Books (listed as Leaves of Grass ; {exact Facsimile of the 1855 Edition] - it is very fine, and is an exact facsimile. I love holding it and looking at it as close to the original 1855 edition as humanly possible. The only caveat is the cover - which features the older Walt, who had published six more versions by the time the cover photo was taken. No matter, the inside is what's important. Another one I bought that I recommend is from cholla needles press (listed as Leaves of Grass: 1855) - they use a facsimile of the original cover, and have made the choice to clean up the line breaks for readability purposes. The cholla edition is easy to sit down and read, the martino edition is beautiful to look at. The good news is I bought them both for less than $10 and find that reasonable enough to give them both to friends and relatives as gifts this year.

This book taught me freedom. I am not the same man I was before. I tell no lie, camerado.

This book is a wonderful addition to my book shelf. The illustrations are beautiful

Excelente calidad y esta edición es muy bonita. Me encantó

Meu contato inicial com Whitman foi na faculdade, num tempo em que as leituras eram mais por obrigação que por prazer. Mas algo nos poucos poemas que li de Whitman, na época, tirados deste Leaves of Grass, conseguiu chamar minha atenção o suficiente para que, mesmo anos depois, a vontade de ler a obra completa permanecesse.E assim foi; demorou, mas eis que mais de uma década depois, com essa edição tão bonita em capa dura, me aventuro pela primeira vez pelas muitas páginas da obra completa. Incrível como achei o livro atual, mesmo tendo sido escrito no século XIX! Não por acaso, obviamente, o consideraram na época ofensivo e imoral. Hoje eu o chamo de belo e profundo: fala da alma e do corpo sem pudores, de liberdade, empatia e diversidade, coisas que ainda hoje discutimos. Da natureza - e da natureza humana.No fim, acabou que se tornou um dos meus livros favoritos de poesia. Certamente, o revisitarei no futuro! Recomendo muito.

PFA1. The cover.2. The back.3. The contents page (I highlighted that area and that pencil mark is mine)4. The first page of the book.5. A random page to show the font (with my hand as reference).No issues with binding. Beautiful. I have had this book for months and no issues over time.Very easy to read because it's free verse (Walt Whitman is called the father of free verse poetry).

This is an excellent edition of Leaves of Grass. I was looking specifically for the poem Song of the Open Road, and was disappointed that it isn't included in this version, but came to learn that Whitman produced several successive editions of the book, with changes and additions in each newer version. So, I'll keep looking for a book that includes that poem.