-First Edition

Whitman self-published the first edition of Leaves of Grass at a print shop in Brooklyn that specialized in legal documents, giving his book the large page size that readers assumed was a deliberate choice to accommodate his sprawling verses. In reality, Whitman was limited to the cheapest and most accessible paper in the shop. The poems themselves were radical in both style and content, with Whitman’s free-verse lines and uncensored descriptions of human sexuality receiving praise from some readers and criticism from many more.