The Walt Whitman Archive
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Finding Aids for Manuscripts at Individual Repositories
Guide to the Walt Whitman Poetry Manuscripts in the Miscellaneous Manuscripts, Archives and Special Collections, Amherst College Library, Amherst College
Original records created by Amherst College; revised and expanded by the Walt Whitman Archive and the University of Nebraska-Lincoln Libraries.Encoded Archival Description completed through the assistance of the Gladys Krieble Delmas Foundation, the University of Nebraska Research Council, and the Institute for Museum and Library Services.
Title: Walt Whitman Poetry Manuscripts in the Miscellaneous Manuscripts, Archives and Special Collections, Amherst College Library, Amherst College
Collection Number: N/A
Creator:
Whitman, Walt, 1819-1892
Repository: Archives and Special Collections
Abstract:This electronic finding aid was created from catalogue records created by Archives and Special Collections, Amherst College Library, and obtained by the Walt Whitman Archive. The original papers and catalogue records are held at Archives and Special Collections, Amherst College Library.
Scope and Content:
Archives and Special Collections, Amherst College Library, holds manuscripts, galley proofs, correspondence, notes, and printed material by and about Walt Whitman. The papers are held mostly in "Miscellaneous Manuscripts," though a few items are scattered among other collections. The individual items described in this electronic finding aid are only those deemed poetry manuscripts, and they are all held in "Miscellaneous Manuscripts."
Biographical Information:For additional biographical information, see
"Walt Whitman," by Ed Folsom and Kenneth M. Price, and the
chronology of Whitman's Life.
Subjects: Whitman, Walt, 1819-1892;
Whitman, Walt, 1819-1892--Manuscripts;
Poets, American--19th century;
Series Description and Item Lists
Item: 1
Whitman Archive ID: amh.00007
Title: "Thoughts, no. 4 ('Of ownership')"
Date: about 1860
Physical Description: 1 leaf
View Images: 1 | 2
This is a tearsheet of "Thoughts," number 4 ("Of ownership"), from the 1860 edition of Leaves of Grass. On the back are cancelled portions of "Thoughts," number 2 ("Of waters, forests, hills"), and "Thoughts," number 3 ("Of persons").
Item: 2
Whitman Archive ID: amh.00009
Title: "Walt Whitman's Caution"
Date: about 1860
Physical Description: 1 leaf
View Images: 1 | 2
This is a draft of "Walt Whitman's Caution," a poem first appearing as one of the "Messenger Leaves" in the 1860 edition of Leaves of Grass. The title of the poem was later changed to "To the States."
Item: 3
Whitman Archive ID: amh.00005
Title: "'Probably the largest Known animal'"
Date: undated
Physical Description: 1 leaf
View Images: 1 | 2
These notes by Whitman, beginning "Probably the largest Known animal," concern a "rorqual," a "razorback" or "finback" whale. The relationship of these notes to Whitman's published work is unknown.
Item: 4
Whitman Archive ID: amh.00006
Title: "Thoughts, no. 4 ('Of ownership')"
Date: 1860
Physical Description: 1 leaf
View Images: 1 | 2
This is a late draft of "Thoughts," number 4 ("Of ownership"), which appeared first in the 1860 edition of Leaves of Grass.
Item: 5
Whitman Archive ID: amh.00003
Title: "Fancies at Navesink"
Date: May 1885
Physical Description: 1 leaf
View Images: 1
This is a galley proof of four poems from "Fancies of Navesink," a group of eight poems first published in The Nineteenth Centuryin August 1885: "The Pilot in the Mist," "Had I the Choice," "You Tides With Ceaseless Swell," and "Last of Ebb, and Daylight Waning." Signed, dated, and heavily annotated by Whitman.
Item: 6
Whitman Archive ID: amh.00002
Title: "[It is in itself] "
Date: about 1873
Physical Description: 1 leaf
View Images: 1 | 2
This is an early draft, with revisions, of the paragraph that introduced "Prayer of Columbus" when it was first published in the March 1874 issue of Harper's Monthly Magazine and then in Two Rivulets (1876). Later printings of the poem deleted the introduction.
Item: 7
Whitman Archive ID: amh.00001
Title: "A Carol Closing Sixty-Nine" and "To Get the Final Lilt of Songs"
Date: 1888
Physical Description: 1 leaf
View Images: 1
This is an uncorrected galley proof of "A Carol Closing Sixty-Nine" and "To Get the Final Lilt of Songs," both of which were first published in separate issues of the New York Herald in 1888. This date is written on the leaf, possibly in Whitman's hand. The first published title of "To Get the Final Lilt of Songs" was "The Final Lilt of Songs."
Item: 8
Whitman Archive ID: amh.00004
Title: "[Drum-Taps]"
Date: undated; between 1865-1892
Physical Description: 1 leaf
View Images: 1 | 2
This note indicates the proper location for the Drum-Taps poems in the page sequence of what was apparently a manuscript or some other pre-publication form of Whitman's poems. Whitman first used the title Drum-Taps for a volume of poems published in 1865. The title was also applied to a cluster of poems within later editions of Leaves of Grass.
Restrictions on Original Materials: Please consult with repository.
Preferred Citation: To identify this finding aid as a source, see the Archive's "Conditions of Use" page.
Repository Contact Information:
Archives and Special Collections
Amherst College Library
Campus Box 2256
Amherst College
P.O. Box 5000
Amherst, MA 01002-5000