This page offers access to the six American editions of Leaves of Grass published in Whitman's lifetime and the so-called deathbed edition of 1891–92. Also available here are page images of Leaves of Grass Imprints and of Whitman's personal copy of the 1860 Leaves, known as the "Blue Book," with hundreds of Whitman's manuscript annotations, revisions, additions, and deletions. As time allows, we plan to present additional printings of Leaves of Grass.
In addition to Leaves of Grass, we make available several other of Whitman's books, both poetry and prose, including Drum-Taps, Sequel to Drum-Taps, Memoranda During the War, and Complete Prose Works. Also available are two British editions of Whitman's poetry, produced by William Michael Rossetti and Ernest Rhys in collaboration with Whitman. Whitman's novel Franklin Evans was originally published as a supplement to the New World in 1842 and is therefore included under "Periodicals" below. Whitman's 1852 novel Life and Adventures of Jack Engle , first published serially in the Sunday Dispatch, is currently being edited for publication on the Whitman Archive.
This section of the Archive features page images and full-text transcriptions of Whitman's writings that first appeared in periodicals. These include Whitman's periodical poems; his short fiction and his novel Franklin Evans; and selections from his journalism.
The Translations section of the Archive includes several book-length translations of Whitman's work as well as more than thirty different translations, in five languages, of Whitman's poem "Poets to Come."
This section enables users of the Archive to browse or search for all known versions of Whitman's works.