This is a finding aid. It is a description of archival material held in the Wilson Library at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. Unless otherwise noted, the materials described below are physically available in our reading room, and not digitally available through the World Wide Web. See the Duplication Policy section for more information.
This collection was processed with support from the Randleigh Foundation Trust.
Size | 18 items |
Abstract | Walt Whitman was born on 31 May 1819, at West Hills, Long Island, N.Y. From 1830-1846, Whitman served variously as office boy, printer's devil, schoolteacher, typesetter, and journalist. He published his volume of verse Leaves of Grass in 1855. In January 1873, he suffered a stroke of paralysis from which he never completely recovered. Whitman died in Camden, N.J., on 26 March 1892. The collection includes one manuscript version each of ten poems or fragments of poems, one manuscript version each of four fragments of prose pieces, three galley proofs, and one direction to the printer, all by Walt Whitman and almost all related to material published in November Boughs (1888). There is also one copy of November Boughs, first edition, inscribed on flyleaf by Thomas B. Harned, one of Whitman's literary executors. Most of the manuscripts are working drafts with revisions. |
Creator | Whitman, Walt, 1819-1892. |
Curatorial Unit | University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. Library. Rare Book Literary and Historical Papers. |
Language | English |
Processed by: Tim West, May 1981; Revised by Suzanne Ruffing May 1996
Encoded by: ByteManagers Inc., 2008
Updated by: Nancy Kaiser, September 2020
This collection was processed with support, in part, from the Randleigh Foundation Trust.
Back to TopThe following terms from Library of Congress Subject Headings suggest topics, persons, geography, etc. interspersed through the entire collection; the terms do not usually represent discrete and easily identifiable portions of the collection--such as folders or items.
Clicking on a subject heading below will take you into the University Library's online catalog.
Walt Whitman was born on 31 May 1819, at West Hills, Long Island, N.Y. From 1830-1846, Whitman served variously as office boy, printer's devil, schoolteacher, typesetter, and journalist. He published his volume of verse Leaves of Grass in 1855. In January 1873, he suffered a stroke of paralysis from which he never completely recovered. Whitman died in Camden, NJ, on 26 March 1892.
Back to TopUpon receipt of this material in the Rare Book Literary and Historical Papers, the manuscripts were removed from the copy of November Boughs and filed in folders, one item per folder. Copies of the manuscripts were then inserted in the book to simulate the arrangement of the material as received.
The manuscripts have been arranged in the order in which they were tipped into the book. Some have writing on the verso, in some cases by Whitman, in others by his correspondents.
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