WHITMAN, WALT

Two Rivulets Including Democratic Vistas, Centennial Songs, and Passage to India. Camden, New Jersey: 1876. The Author's Edition, with the photograph of Whitman affixed opposite the title inscribed "Walt Whitman / born May 31 / 1819", further inscribed by Whitman on the front blank "Titus Munson Coan / from the Author" above Coan's signed acknowledgment in ink. Later three-quarters burgundy morocco gilt, housed in a folding cloth case. 7 5/8 x 4 1/2 inches (19.5 x 12 cm); with mounted photograph at front depicting Whitman in 1872, the text with various paginations, ad leaf at end, retains two yellow coated endpapers. With the faint penciled ownership signature "T.M Coan" to title, minor offset from inscription to title, Coan's pencil notes to contents, lightly toned, a few nicks to page edges and light shelfwear.

The first edition of Whitman's Two Rivulets, with the signed photograph and further inscribed to Titus Munson Coan, the Civil War Naval surgeon under Faragut, friend of Herman Melville, Darwin correspondent, and son of the notable Hawaiian missionary of the same name. Coan had accompanied his father to Hawaii and developed a fascination with the South Seas, seeking out Melville first in Massachusetts and later in New York City. This copy was likely rebound from a scarce example of the first issue as it retains a blank leaf between 'As a Strong Bird' and 'Memoranda' and has a single leaf of advertisements for Whitman's books at the end between what are believed to be the original flyleaves. Coan believed in Whitman and in 1880 sought a copy of Leaves of Grass, writing to the author that the poems will be of "lasting remembrance... They are the American poetry the Old World has been challenging us to produce." The inscription on the mounted photograph is particularly large and dark. A fine association copy. Myerson A9.1.b; BAL 21413.

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