Sold Whitman Photograph, Signed to Commemorate the Nation’s Centennial in 1876

One of the world’s most prophetic literary minds, who along with Emily Dickinson, is credited with having created modern American poetry. He is well known for the poems “Song of Myself,” “Out of the Cradle Endlessly Rocking,” and his homage to President Abraham Lincoln, “Oh Captain My Captain.”

Whitman’s career as a poet began in 1843 after reading Ralph Waldo Emerson’s essay, “The Poet,” in which Emerson called for America to have its own unique voice. Whitman set out to answer Emerson’s call with his collection of poems, Leaves of Grass.

When that volume was first published in 1855, the enthusiastic Whitman sent a copy to Emerson, who responded in a letter, calling the book, “the most extraordinary piece of wit and wisdom America has yet contributed.” Emerson’s letter helped launch the book to success. Whitman even printed excerpts of the letter as reviews within the book, much to Emerson’s surprise.

In 1875, Whitman decided to publish a book to coincide with the nation’s centennial celebration the following year. He thought of this work as “…my contribution to our National Centennial.” The book, which was published in 1876, was titled Two Rivulets and would be, as he explained, “two flowing chains of prose and verse, emanating the real and ideal” – the “real” being represented by prose and the “ideal” by poetry. In this book Whitman experimented by combining both prose and poetry on the same page with a line on the page to separate the two. The poetry was written at the top of the page and the prose ran along the bottom

This Centennial Edition was fittingly limited to 100 copies. Each volume contained a copy of a G.F.E. Pearsall photograph of Whitman pasted onto a sheet of paper and inserted just before the title page, indicating: “Photo’d from Life, Sept., ’72, Brooklyn, N.Y.” Whitman personally signed all 100 copies. It is this signed portrait that we offer for sale, removed at some time in the past from one of the books.

Signed Photograph. A beautiful 4 by 7 inch photograph of the poet who found America’s voice, signed in celebration of its Centennial, “Walt Whitman / born May 31 1819.”