[Rarebooks] FS: THE FIRST PUBLISHED PIECE BY WALT WHITMAN, 1834, when the poet was 15

[Charles Agvent]

WHITMAN, Walt. "The Olden Time" in THE NEW YORK MIRROR. A Weekly Journal 
Devoted to Literature and the Fine Arts. Volume XII : 5 July 1834 -- 27 
June 1835. New York: Wilson & Company, 1834 - 1835. First Edition. Folio 
(10-1/2" x 14-1/4") bound in contemporary sheep-backed marbled boards 
with the gilt-lettered red morocco ownership label of Maria Youngs on 
the front cover; 416 pages including index. Includes the first printing 
in the 29 November 1834 issue of "The Olden Time," signed "W," THE FIRST 
PUBLISHED PIECE BY WALT WHITMAN still extant, published when he was 15 
years old. Not in Myerson, though he refers to a possible Whitman work 
in THE MIRROR in 1835 as not seen (Myerson I3). In the three-paragraph 
piece Whitman talks about how though New York City may feel old and 
"civilized," there were still likely people around who "conversed with 
men who once saw the present great metropolitan city as a little dorp or 
village." He gives examples of two men who died in the mid-1700s--a 
Negro Harry and John Crockeser--who must have spoken to some still alive 
when he wrote the piece: "How these very aged persons serve as counters 
to diminish time, and to seem to draw all the mighty past, so seemingly 
long, into the compass of but two or three lives!" THE MIRROR was an 
8-page weekly containing: A piece of music with words and notes on the 
last page of each issue; book reviews; literary criticism; poetry; 
letters from abroad; medicine; city improvements; fine arts; humor; New 
York theater; etc. Other articles on New York University; Cure of an 
Opium-Eater; Wilson, the Ornithologist; the Witches of Lancashire of 
1612; Charles Lamb on Modern Gallantry; English Writers of America by 
Washington Irving; two poems by William Cullen Bryant; and more. 
Illustrated an engraved title page, text engravings and 3 full-page 
plates: the presidents of the United States, a view of Newburgh, NY, and 
"A Scene in the Highlands, NY." The last issue missing one leaf but 
otherwise complete with the addition of a loose 1835 issue laid in. 
Little foxing but some dampstaining, occasionally heavy, but with little 
effect on the page with Whitman's piece. A few pages frayed at the 
edges. Front cover a little loose but binding is sound. Very Good. 
(#019358)        $1,500.00

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