THE [not quite] COMPLETE WRITINGS OF WALT WHITMAN

New York and London: G. P. Putman's Sons, 1902. The Book-Lover's Edition. 232 x 152 mm. (9 1/8 x 6 1/8"). Nine volumes (of 10). Lacking the third volume of "Leaves of Grass." Issued under the editorial supervision of his Literary Executors, Richard Maurice Bucke, Thomas B. Harned, and Horace L. Traubel, with additional bibliographical and critical material prepared by Oscar Lovell Triggs, Ph.D.
ELEGANT VIOLET CRUSHED MOROCCO, GILT AND INLAID, BY H. JACKEL & CO. N.Y. (stamp-signed on front turn-in), covers framed with multiple gilt fillets, central panel with gilt and inlaid rose bush bearing 42 inlaid green morocco leaves and eight white morocco roses, raised bands, spines with one elongated compartment containing a rose branch with seven inlaid green morocco leaves and topped with a white morocco rose, gilt lettering in two smaller compartments, IVORY CRUSHED MOROCCO DOUBLURES framed in gilt-tooled mauve morocco, ivory watered silk endleaves, top edges gilt, other edges untrimmed. Each volume with hand-colored frontispiece and three hand-colored plates (as called for), all with captioned tissue guards, plus 10 additional hand-colored extra illustrations with tissue guards, and three facsimiles of handwritten notes/letters, two of which fold-out, printed on tissue. Myerson B4 (6). ◆Prose volume VII with a couple small wormholes on fore edge, a few trivial scuffs to bindings, but IN EXCEPTIONALLY FINE CONDITION INSIDE AND OUT.

This is a bespoke copy of the definitive edition of Whitman's works, compiled, edited, and shepherded through publication by men who knew the poet and his work intimately. Though he scandalized 19th century America with his "immoral" verses, Whitman (1819-92) is now considered "one of the greatest American poets and the central one in terms of influence on twentieth-century American poetry." (ANB) Day cites him as "a source of energy and inspiration, and an indicator of new ways to deal with the subtleties of spiritual truth," while PMM dubbed him "the Poet and the Prophet of Democracy." The text here was prepared by Whitman's close friends and literary executors--Canadian psychiatrist and Whitman biographer Richard Bucke; Philadelphia attorney Thomas Harned; and the Boswell to Whitman's Johnson, Horace Traubel--along with Oscar Triggs, literature professor at the University of Chicago and one of Whitman's early champions. The first three volumes (of which the present set lacks the third volume) are devoted to "Leaves of Grass" and other poems, with the remaining seven volumes containing all of Whitman's prose writings, with an index and a bibliography in the final volume. The present set lacks the limitation statement that accompanies the Book-Lover's Edition (as noted by Myerson), but in its place is a leaf at the beginning of each volume stating that this set was "extra illustrated with Water Colors, rare prints, Etchings and Photogravures, with special designs, for Mrs. C. C. Furbush." Though we have been unable to learn anything more about Mrs. Furbush, she clearly had excellent (and very expensive) tastes. The bindings here are exquisitely gilt and inlaid, feature gorgeous full leather doublures, and make a striking appearance on the shelf. It is obvious that these volumes have seen very little use, because they look almost untouched more than a century after their creation. (This set was purchased on purpose with a volume missing, simply because the books are so beautiful; nobody would reject Penelope Cruz or Bradley Cooper for missing a tooth.)..