tainting the best of the | Whitman Archive

Whitman Archive Title: tainting the best of the
Whitman Archive ID: nyp.00524
Repository: Catalog of the Literary Manuscripts in The Oscar Lion Collection of Walt Whitman, The New York Public Library
Repository Title: Ms. leaf recto (tainting the best of the rich orchard ...)
Date: Before or early in 1855
Genre: prose
Physical Description: 1 leaf, handwritten
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Content: This manuscript is similar in subject to a line from the poem eventually titled "I Sing the Body Electric." On the back of this leaf (nyp.00079), Whitman drafted trial lines of the poem that was eventually titled "Song of Myself." Based on this and the handwriting, Edward Grier dates this manuscript to before or early in 1855 ( Notebooks and Unpublished Prose Manuscripts [New York: New York University Press, 1984], 1:179). This manuscript is glued to another manuscript (nyp.00523) that also features lines of prose.