[Rarebooks] FS: Walt Whitman Family Copy of SPECIMEN DAYS

[Charles Agvent]

On the 200th Anniversary of his birth, we offer this very special Walt 
Whitman item.

WHITMAN, Walt. SPECIMEN DAYS IN AMERICA Inscribed by Whitman to his 
Niece. London: Walter Scott, 1887. First Edition. Original dark blue 
cloth with a printed paper spine label. Part of the Camelot Series. BAL 
21428: Binding A. Most of the material within first appeared 5 years 
earlier in SPECIMEN DAYS & COLLECT published by Rees Welsh and Company 
in Philadelphia. This edition is "Newly Revised by the Author, with 
Fresh Preface and Additional Note." INSCRIBED by the poet on the front 
endpaper to his niece: "Jesse L. Whitman/Oct: 1888--/to my Dear 
Jess:/from Uncle Walt." SPECIMEN DAYS IN AMERICA contains largely 
personal reminiscences, including hospital scenes and incidents during 
the Civil War. An exceptionally scarce family Association Copy of what 
is considered the largest and most important work of Whitman's old age, 
a new form of autobiography linking personal and national history. 
Toning to paper. Neat professional repair to hinges. Very Good.

Jessie Louisa Whitman was the daughter of Walt Whitman's brother, Jeff. 
She and her older sister Manahatta ("Hattie") were born in the house on 
Portland Avenue in Brooklyn that their parents shared with Walt, his 
mother, and brothers George and Edward. Her family's move to St. Louis 
in 1868, when Jessie was 4, did nothing to detract from her strong 
feelings for her Uncle Walt. After her mother died in 1873, she spent 
much of each summer at the home of George Whitman in Camden, where Walt 
was also living at that time. She was close to her uncle all her life 
and was with him a few weeks before his death in 1892. She lived until 
1957, just shy of her 94th birthday. Whitman mentioned her in his 
touching reflection on her father, "An Engineer's Obituary," published 
in GOOD-BYE MY FANCY (1891). Jeff Whitman died in November 1890, about 2 
years after Walt presented this book to Jeff's daughter. (#019353)       
$45,000

https://www.charlesagvent.com/shop/agvent/019353.html

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CHARLES AGVENT

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