ONE OF ONLY 250 COPIES ISSUED

Perry, Bliss ~ Walt Whitman : His Life and Work

Houghton, Mifflin and Company, Boston and New York : 1906 : Sole printing

The sole printing published by Houghton, Mifflin and Company, Boston and New York in 1906. There was no UK edition. One of only 250 copies issued which were ‘bound entirely uncut’. The BOOK is in near Fine condition. Publisher’s red cloth with paper title label printed in black to spine, most pages remaining uncut, top-right corner of front board bumped, tear to one leaf pp. 1-2 (c. 3cm, not affecting text). Spare title label tipped-in to the rear as issued ; Nine photographic plates including a frontispiece with tissue guard; cream plain WRAPPER lettered in black to the spine is in Very Good++ condition. The folds of wrapper flaps repaired and secured with archival tape to the verso; a little loss and wear to the edges of the wrapper. The wrapper is protected in a removable Brodart archival cover. BLISS PERRY was an American literary critic, writer, and teacher. This book was among one of the earliest biographies of Walt Whitman. Although Perry did not have access to the private notebooks and unpublished manuscripts available to later scholars, he worked with the poems that were in circulation, drawing conclusions from the printed texts and the known facts of Whitman’s private life. Perry did much to establish ‘Leaves of Grass’ as a great piece of American literature, and to foster a more discerning attitude towards the poet. First published in 1855, Whitman’s book was controversial: banned for its explicit homoerotic content, and dismissed due to its radical departure from traditional poetic form. Perry, however, ‘helped to lessen the shock for readers by calling attention to the parallels between ‘Leaves of Grass’ and Oriental poetry [...] and the familiar English version of the poetry the Bible.’ {p. 42) : Allen, Walt Whitman Handbook (1962)}. Myerson, D45. Bliss Perry taught at Princeton University, where he became acquainted with future US president Woodrow Wilson and former US President Grover Cleveland. At Princeton he was the Holmes Professor of English Literature from 1893 to 1900. Perry taught at Harvard University between 1907 and 1930 and was the Harvard lecturer at the University of Paris from 1909 to 1910. From 1899 to 1909 he was also the editor of 'The Atlantic Monthly'. A very sharp and bright copy of a scarce book more-so with the wrapper. No copies having appeared at auction for over 40 years.

BINDING: Hardcover
CONDITION: Near Fine
JACKET: Very Good++