The only way in which | Whitman Archive

Whitman Archive Title: The only way in which
Whitman Archive ID: rut.00023
Repository ID: Ac.605
Repository: Catalog of the Walt Whitman Literary Manuscripts in the Special Collections and University Archives, Rutgers University Libraries, Rutgers, The State University of New Jersey
Date: Between 1845 and 1860
Genre: prose
Physical Description: 1 leaf, handwritten
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Content: Edward Grier suggests that this manuscript was probably written prior to 1860, noting some similarities in language and sentiment between it and the initial line of No. 4 of the "Thoughts" cluster published first in the 1860–1861 edition of Leaves of Grass ( Notebooks and Unpublished Prose Manuscripts [New York: New York University Press, 1984], 1:118). The erased final line of the manuscript is also similar to language that appears in the preface to the 1855 Leaves of Grass . The manuscript is held at Rutgers University Library along with several similar manuscripts that are numbered sequentially and probably date from around or before 1855: see "American literature must become distinct (rut.00010)," "dithyrambic trochee" (rut.00022), "The money value of real" (rut.00024), and "ground where you may rest" (rut.00025).