Content:
After undergoing extensive revisions, in 1860
"To a Historian" became
section 10 of "Chants
Democratic." In 1867 Whitman deleted five verses, transferred the poem
to the supplement "Songs Before
Parting," and permanently retitled it "To a Historian." It appeared as the fifth poem in the
opening cluster "Inscriptions"
in the 1872 and all later editions. On the verso appear fragments of pencil notes
for a speech or essay Whitman wrote (most likely) in 1856, and revised in 1858,
under the working title "Slavery—the
Slaveholders—/ —The Constitution—the true America and Americans, the laboring
persons—." The verso of another manuscript in this collection entitled
"To a Cantatrice.—"
contains an additional fragment of these notes.
