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At the Institute’s core is the Gilder Lehrman Collection, one of the great archives in American history. More than 85,000 items cover five hundred years of American history, from Columbus’s 1493 letter describing the New World through the end of the twentieth century.

Whitman, Walt (1819-1892) Democratic Vistas

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Gilder Lehrman Collection #: GLC00865 Author/Creator: Whitman, Walt (1819-1892) Place Written: Washington, D.C. Type: Book signed Date: 1871 Pagination: 84 p. ; 21 x 13 cm. Order a Copy

First edition inscribed to Matthew Brady, the Civil War photographer. In this essay, Whitman discusses the theory of democracy and its possibilities in America after the Civil War. He criticizes America for its unrestrained wealth, materialism, and corruption. With 3 bookplates tipped in or mounted to inside front cover & front end paper of William F. Gable, Thomas J. McKee, and B. George Ulizio. With two pages of notes by Whitman in pencil describing his directions for revisions of the book and an autograph letter by Horace Traubel dated 20 February 1908 relating to this copy and commenting on Whitman's nice handwriting in the inscription. Includes later green wrapper. Uncut and unopened. Brady took Whitman's portrait before 1871.

Whitman, Walt, 1819-1892
Brady, Matthew, 1799-1826

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