-Fifth Edition

The fifth edition of Leaves of Grass was published in at least three different states over the course of two years. The first issue of the book in 1871 was already an expanded version of the fourth edition from 1867, but by 1872 Whitman reissued this new edition with an annex that included his poems from a book about the early stages of what we would now call globalization, Passage to India (1871). For a third time that same year, Whitman also added annexes containing his pamphlets After All, Not to Create Only (1871) and As a Strong Bird on Pinions Free (1872). These various annexes speak to recent changes in U.S. foreign and domestic affairs, suggesting that Whitman wanted his book to capture developments in the world as they were happening.