Description
November Boughs by Walt Whitman, inscribed by Whitman’s literary executor, Thomas B. Harned, with laid-in letter from Harned to Dr. Andrew A. Gour of Chicago.
Octavo, 140pp, [1pp ads]. Green cloth, beveled edges. Title in gilt on spine and front cover. Top edge gilt. The third printing, with advertisements for Walt Whitman books published by McKay on page [141]. Contains corrected “melee” for “m lee” on page 6, and “least” for “last” on page 11. Solid text block, faint toning to endpapers, light wear to spine ends and corners. (Myerson A12.I.c) (BAL 21430) Inscribed on the front free endpaper: “A first edition / With the compliments of Thomas B. Harned / Literary Executor to Walt Whitman / April 15, 17.” Two letters laid in: one is a facsimile copy of a letter from Walt Whitman to a magazine publisher sharing his latest manuscript, and the other is a handwritten letter from Thomas Harned explaining the story of the former letter.
Thomas Biggs Harned (1851-1921) was Walt Whitman’s third and final literary executor. Harned was 22 years old when he met Whitman, and the two were engaged almost daily in the final years of Whitman’s life. Harned received the facsimile letter included with this copy from Dr. Edward Everett Hale. The letter is addressed to Nathan Hale, Jr., Edward Everett Hale’s brother, who was editor of the Boston Miscellany. Whitman was writing Hale asking to have his latest manuscript titled “The Angel of Tears” published in the magazine. “The Angel of Tears” was eventually published in The United States Magazine and Democratic Review in September, 1842.
