RARE WHITMANIANA. O'CONNOR, WILLIAM DOUGLAS. The Good Gray Poet: A Vindication. New York: Bunce ...

RARE WHITMANIANA. O'CONNOR, WILLIAM DOUGLAS. The Good Gray Poet: A Vindication. New York: Bunce & Huntington, 1866. 8vo (230 x 155 mm). Publisher's printed cream wrappers, stitched, minor edgewear, small closed tear along upper joint. FIRST EDITION OF THE FIRST SEPARATELY PUBLISHED WORK ON WHITMAN, AND A MAJOR INFLUENCE ON THE POET'S PUBLIC PERCEPTION. Published after Whitman was fired from his government clerkship in June of 1865, O'Connor's direct 'vindication' of the poet was an important step in creating the public Whitman as the uncrowned poet laureate of late 19th-century American democracy. When the third, and expanded edition of Leaves of Grass appeared in 1860, the New York Times commented, 'If possible, he is more reckless and vulgar than in his two former publications.' Many considered the work indecent, and indeed the Secretary of the Interior William Harlan fired him for it. In November of 1865, Whitman's moving tribute to Abraham Lincoln, 'O Captain My Captain' appeared, and alongside O'Connor's pamphlet, began to shift the public view of the poet and his poetry. Justin Kaplan, in his 1980 biography of Whitman, called O'Connor the poet's 'John the Baptist,' and indeed the title of O'Connor's became the source of Whitman's sobriquet, the 'good, gray poet.' The 1866 original of this pamphlet is rare in the market—and noted as such as early as 1917 in the sale of the Gable collection at Anderson Galleries. For further information on this lot please visit Bonhams.com For further information about this lot please visit the lot listing