— double | |
— dash | |
Walt Whitman | large |
——— | |
Complete | largest |
——— | |
Poems & Prose | large |
——— | |
— | plain | small | dash |
Leaves of Grass |
Specimen Days |
and Collect |
November Boughs |
With Sands at Seventy |
Annex to L of G |
— dash | |
Portraits from Life.& | |
Autograph | |
Edition 1888: '9 | |
— double | |
— dash |
for a label for back of book the above (in blue pencil) is a facsimile of the size of the back of book, wh' you must get inside—
—If convenient set it up & bring me around a proof this afternoon
Correspondent:
David McKay (1860–1918) took
over Philadelphia-based publisher Rees Welsh's bookselling and publishing
businesses in 1881–82. McKay and Rees Welsh published the 1881 edition of
Leaves of Grass after opposition from the Boston
District Attorney prompted James R. Osgood & Company of Boston, the original publisher,
to withdraw. McKay also went on to publish Specimen Days &
Collect, November Boughs, Gems
from Walt Whitman, Complete Prose Works,
and the final Leaves of Grass, the so-called deathbed edition. For
more information about McKay, see Joel Myerson, "McKay, David (1860–1918)," Walt Whitman: An
Encyclopedia, ed. J.R. LeMaster and Donald D. Kummings (New York:
Garland Publishing, 1998).