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1888?. Probably Frederick Gutekunst, Philadelphia. Saunders #100.
Courtesy Ohio Wesleyan University, Bayley Collection
Frontispiece for November Boughs (1888), and in
1889 Leaves. Whitman labeled it "Walt Whitman
in in 70th year," and
claimed "the picture is in the nature of a surprise: my
niece
was here the other day--found it lying around--asked
for it.
It seems to me a satisfying picture, all in all." Whitman
was
disappointed that "no one likes the frontispiece. . . .
All
the boys turn up their noses--smell something
wrong--think it
won't do," but Whitman believed it "serves our purpose--is
appropriate." He admitted to Thomas Harned that it was
not
"high art" but insisted he was "not looking for high
art":
"sometimes a picture which is elementally very simple,
crude,
has something to say, says something, in fact, which no
amount
of added finesse would strengthen or improve." Whitman was
not so
pleased with the "technicalities" of the
photoengraving, but,
he said, "damn the technicalities if the rest is all
right!"
Horace Traubel complained to the photoengraver that he
had done
a bad job, and the engraver replied, "It is bum--I
wouldn't
have been surprised if you had turned it down." But Whitman
believed the photo fit November Boughs: "it has the
same air,
tone, ring, color: the same ruggedness, unstudiedness,
unconventionality."
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