[Why should I be afraid] | Whitman Archive

Whitman Archive Title: [Why should I be afraid]
Whitman Archive ID: loc.01075
Repository: Catalog of the Walt Whitman Literary Manuscripts in The Charles E. Feinberg Collection of the Papers of Walt Whitman, 1839-1919, Library of Congress, Washington, DC.
Box: 36
Folder: Undated, "Why Should I Be Afraid?" draft
Series: Literary File
Date: 1855-1892
Genre: prose
Physical Description: 1 leaf, handwritten
View Images: 1 | 2
Content: On the verso of what appears to be an incoming letter, Whitman states that he has "abandon'd the conventional themes." These comments were revised and published in "A Backward Glance O'er Travel'd Roads,", the essay that Whitman used to close the 1891–92 edition of Leaves of Grass. "A Backward Glance O'er Travel'd Roads" first appeared in Lippincott's Magazine (January 1887), under the title "My Book and I." Reprinted in Democratic Vistas, and Other Papers (1888), "My Book and I" was also combined with "How I Made a Book," Philadelphia Press (11 July 1889) and "A Backward Glance on My Own Road," Critic (5 January 1884) and published as "A Backward Glance" in November Boughs (1888).