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Whitman Archive Title: 9th av.
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Whitman Archive ID: loc.00354
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Repository: Catalog of the Walt Whitman Literary Manuscripts in The Charles E. Feinberg Collection of the Papers of Walt Whitman, 1839-1919, Library of Congress, Washington, DC.
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Box: 38
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Folder: Undated Thoughts, Ideas, and Trial lines (3 V.)
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Series: Notes and Notebooks
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Date: between 1854 and 1860
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Genre: poetry, prose
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Physical Description: 45 leaves, handwritten
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Content:
An early notebook Whitman used for various purposes. William White, in his edition of Whitman's
Daybooks and Notebooks
(New York: New York University Press, 1978. 3 vols.), noted a relationship between rough drafts of poems in this notebook (called "An Early Notebook" in White's edition) and the 1860 poem eventually titled "Starting from Paumanok." On surface 54 is a passage that seems to have contributed to the 1860 poem that became "Song at Sunset." On surface 85 is a passage that perhaps contributed to the 1855 poem later titled "Song of Myself," and a passage on surface 62 might have been used in the 1856 poem eventually titled "Miracles." Because Whitman wrote entries from both ends of the notebook, the writing on about half of the leaves is upside-down in relation to other leaves. Some leaves have become disbound, and their original positions are uncertain. Our ordering is based on the earliest known transcription, done by Fredson Bowers in 1955.
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