A Fine Collection of American Literature and History

Philadelphia: David McKay, 1888 (but 1891). First edition, third printing. 8vo. 140, (1) pp. Presentation copy, inscribed by Whitman's literary executor, friend, and biographer, Horace Traubel, to Victorian-era bibliographer and literary forger Harry Buxton Forman, on front free endpaper, "To H. Buxton Forman with the love of Horace Traubel July 1896 Special Edition." Publisher's dark green cloth-covered beveled boards, stamped in gilt, corners lightly worn; top edge gilt, other edges untrimmed; green morocco book-plate of Estelle Doheny on front paste-down, illustrated book-plate of Forman to same. Myerson A13; BAL21430

A special large-paper edition, likely comprised of the sheets of the 400 copies Whitman had intended to use for an edition bound with Good-Bye My Fancy in 1891, but he was prevented due to his failing health.

Harry Buxton Forman (1842-1917) was a Victorian-era bibliographer, biographer, and bookseller, and is remembered as the biographer and editor of Percy Shelley and John Keats. Following his death his reputation declined following the publication of John Carter's An Enquiry into the Nature of Certain Nineteenth Century Pamphlets, that implicated him in the creation and sale of numerous forgeries along with Thomas James Wise.

Together with:

November Boughs
Philadelphia: David McKay, 1888. First edition, first printing. 8vo. 140, (1) (ads) pp. Illustrated with frontispiece portrait of Whitman, with original tissue guard. Publisher's dark red cloth-covered beveled boards, stamped in gilt, paint splatter to front board; top edge gilt, other edges untrimmed; previous owner's signature on front free endpaper. Myerson A12.1.a1 (binding E); BAL 21430