The Walt Whitman Archive
In Whitman's Hand
Manuscripts
About this Item
Title: Literature it is certain
Creator: Walt Whitman
Date: Undated
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Source: The transcription presented here is derived from Walt Whitman, Notebooks and Unpublished Prose Manuscripts, ed.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), 4:1557. 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 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.
Contributors to digital file: Janel Cayer, Jeannette Schollaert, Kevin McMullen, Nicole Gray, Brett Barney, and Kenneth M. Price
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.