{"id":1079,"date":"2014-02-11T19:28:45","date_gmt":"2014-02-11T19:28:45","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/commons.trincoll.edu\/ebuckhor\/?page_id=890"},"modified":"2014-02-11T19:28:45","modified_gmt":"2014-02-11T19:28:45","slug":"watkinson-holds-leaves-of-grass","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/commons.trincoll.edu\/reporter-winter2014\/along-the-walk\/watkinson-holds-leaves-of-grass\/","title":{"rendered":"Watkinson Holds Leaves of Grass"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><a href=\"http:\/\/commons.trincoll.edu\/reporter-winter2014\/files\/2014\/02\/Leaves-of-Grass-Whitman-portrait.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" class=\"alignleft size-medium wp-image-900\" alt=\"Leaves-of-Grass-Whitman-portrait\" src=\"http:\/\/commons.trincoll.edu\/reporter-winter2014\/files\/2014\/02\/Leaves-of-Grass-Whitman-portrait-230x300.jpg\" width=\"230\" height=\"300\" \/><\/a>The Watkinson Library, which contains Trinity\u2019s rare books and archives, has a \u201cnew\u201d treasure on loan\u2013a first edition (1855) of Walt Whitman\u2019s <em>Leaves of Grass<\/em>. According to Head Curator Richard Ring, Whitman paid for its publication and oversaw all the details of the book\u2019s composition and printing (setting some of the type himself), as well as its distribution and reception. \u201cI greet you at the beginning of a great career,\u201d Ralph Waldo Emerson now-famously wrote in a private letter to Whitman, and indeed <em>Leaves of Grass<\/em> has since been called America\u2019s second Declaration of Independence, one that, according to one scholar, \u201cushered in a new era in American letters, describing specifically American experiences in a distinctly American idiom.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Ring hopes to make the first edition a permanent part of the Watkinson\u2019s collection and has announced an initiative to raise funds to acquire the Whitman volume, considered one of the greatest rarities of American literature. The copy is currently on loan from a well-respected antiquarian book firm in New York City and is on display in the Watkinson.<\/p>\n<div id=\"attachment_891\" style=\"width: 352px\" class=\"wp-caption alignright\"><a href=\"http:\/\/commons.trincoll.edu\/reporter-winter2014\/files\/2014\/02\/Letterpress.jpg\"><img aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-891\" loading=\"lazy\" class=\" wp-image-891  \" alt=\"Aidan Willner \u201917, center, watches as Trinity Artist-in-Residence Clare Rossini works with Kaitlin Lennon of Hartford Prints!, a local letterpress shop.\" src=\"http:\/\/commons.trincoll.edu\/reporter-winter2014\/files\/2014\/02\/Letterpress.jpg\" width=\"342\" height=\"514\" \/><\/a><p id=\"caption-attachment-891\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Aidan Willner \u201917, center, watches as Trinity Artist-in-Residence Clare Rossini works with Kaitlin Lennon of Hartford Prints!, a local letterpress shop.<br \/>Photo by Richard Bergen<\/p><\/div>\n<p>Trinity events related to the first edition included a poster sale during Family Weekend and an open-mic reading of \u201cSong of Myself\u201d by faculty and students on November 14, both held at Vernon Social.\u00a0In partnership with local letterpress shop Hartford Prints!, the Watkinson worked with Artist-in-Residence Clare Rossini\u2019s first-year seminar, \u201cThe Practice of Poetry,\u201d to enable students to set by hand and print a few lines from \u201cSong of Myself.\u201d Hartford Prints! also has created an art print inspired by the book, and copies are for sale. Finally, a public lecture\u2013\u201cI pass so poorly with paper and types: Walt Whitman\u2019s First 795 Tries at <em>Leaves of Grass<\/em>,\u201d by Dr. Ed Folsom, the Roy J. Carver Professor of English at The University of Iowa and a world-renowned authority on Whitman\u2013was set for February 20 in the library.<\/p>\n<p>For more details, e-mail Ring at <a href=\"mailto:richard.ring@trincoll.edu\">richard.ring@trincoll.edu<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The Watkinson Library, which contains Trinity\u2019s rare books and archives, has a \u201cnew\u201d treasure on loan\u2013a first edition (1855) of Walt Whitman\u2019s Leaves of Grass. According to Head Curator Richard Ring, Whitman paid for its publication and oversaw all the &hellip; <a href=\"https:\/\/commons.trincoll.edu\/reporter-winter2014\/along-the-walk\/watkinson-holds-leaves-of-grass\/\">Continue reading <span class=\"meta-nav\">&rarr;<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":34,"featured_media":0,"parent":1066,"menu_order":1,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","template":"","meta":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/commons.trincoll.edu\/reporter-winter2014\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/1079"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/commons.trincoll.edu\/reporter-winter2014\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/commons.trincoll.edu\/reporter-winter2014\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/page"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/commons.trincoll.edu\/reporter-winter2014\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/34"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/commons.trincoll.edu\/reporter-winter2014\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1079"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/commons.trincoll.edu\/reporter-winter2014\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/1079\/revisions"}],"up":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/commons.trincoll.edu\/reporter-winter2014\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/1066"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/commons.trincoll.edu\/reporter-winter2014\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1079"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}