Leaves of Grass

Boston: Thayer & Eldridge, 1860. Third edition, first printing, first issue; 1000 copies printed. Engraved frontispiece portrait after Hine by Schoff (Myerson form 1, signed in plate "Schoff" on light brown background). [iv], 456 pp. 1 vols. 8vo. Publisher's dark reddish orange coarse cloth with vertical wavy grain and beveled edges, spine titled in gilt with motif of hand and butterfly, boards in blind, upper cover with a globe arising out of clouds, lower cover with a sun rising over the ocean, all edges trimmed (Myerson's binding C, BAL binding B). Endpapers cut along gutter, traces of neat early recasing, some rubbing around edges, slight soiling to boards, a couple of spots to inside. Third edition, first printing, first issue; 1000 copies printed. Engraved frontispiece portrait after Hine by Schoff (Myerson form 1, signed in plate "Schoff" on light brown background). [iv], 456 pp. 1 vols. 8vo. The first printing of the third edition, the first Boston edition, and the first edition to be issued by a publisher, following the first two self-published editions. The first edition to contain the Calamus poems. Thayer and Eldrige had approached the poet with a letter that in part read, "We are young men. We 'celebrate' ourselves by acts. Try us. You can do us good. We can do you good — pecuniarily."

This binding is preceded only by the rare advance review copies bound in brown wrappers. A very attractive copy of an important edition. BAL 21397; Myerson A2.3.a1 (Inventory #: 370869)