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Literature it is certain

About This Item

  • Title: Literature it is certain
  • Date: Undated
  • Creator(s): Walt Whitman
  • Whitman Archive ID: med.00738
  • Source: The transcription presented here is derived from Walt Whitman, Notebooks and Unpublished Prose Manuscripts, ed. Edward F. Grier (New York: New York University Press, 1984), 1557. Grier based his text on Notes and Fragments, ed. Richard Maurice Bucke (London, Ontario: A. Talbot & Co., printers, 1899), 143. The location of this manuscript is unknown. For a description of the editorial rationale behind our treatment of the manuscripts, see our statement of editorial policy.
  • Editorial note: Because the manuscript has not been located it is difficult to speculate on the circumstances or date of its composition. Grier dates the manuscript to the 1850s, perhaps based on its appearance in Notes and Fragments along with transcriptions of other early manuscripts owned by Bucke.
  • Cite this page: Whitman, Walt. "Literature it is certain." The Walt Whitman Archive. Gen. ed. Matt Cohen, Ed Folsom, & Kenneth M. Price. Accessed 08 May 2025. <http://www.whitmanarchive.org>.
  • Source File: med.00738.xml (TEI)

Key

Textual Feature Appearance
Overwritten brown with strikethrough
Added inline purple with double underline
Uncertain gray with wavy underline
Supplied from another source turquoise with brackets
Metamark green with triple underline
Long deletion gray background with top and bottom border
Literature it is certain would be fuller of vigor and sanity if authors were in the habit of composing in the forenoon—and never at night.
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