University of California Berkeley 
 
4* For Sale By WALT WHITMAN, 328 Mickie Street, Cantdfn , .\V:,/ Jersey, 
 fnt by mail, (or Express.) 
 
 " Deeply thanking the friends, I sh'd like best to support my declining yr's by 
 
 selling my books f'm and by myself, if that can be done and I think it can." Letter of 
 W. W. to W. M. Rossetti. 
 
 Complete Poems and 
 
 Prose, 
 
 1855 to 1888 Leaves of Grass Specimen Days Novem 
 ber Boughs Annex to L. of G. (Sands at Seventy) Notes 
 at Beginning & End Autograph four Portraits from Life. 
 One large volume, octavo, 900 pages, plain binding. (Only 
 600 copies printed.) 
 
 Price $0 (when sent by mail 40 cents more.) 
 
 Small edition bound in pocket-book style (with flap .) 
 
 Leaves of Grass. 
 
 Includes " Sands at Seventy " and prose " Backward Glance 
 o'er Travel'd Roads " Autograph six Portraits from Life. 
 Morocco, full gilt. (Only 300 copies printed.) 
 
 Price $5. 
 
 [A handsome holiday present.] 
 
 Portraits from Life. 
 
 (Different ages), photo'd or eng'd. Well envelop'd. (Only 
 150 copies issued.) 
 
 Price $3. 
 
 Write purchaser's address fully and plainly. Send P. O. 
 Money Order (foreign writers same.) 
 
AUTOBIOGRAPHIC NOTE. From an old "remembrance copy." 
 
 Was born May 31, 1819, in my father's farm-house, at West Hills, L. 1., 
 Xe\v York State. My parents' folks mostly farmers and sailors on my 
 lather's side, of English on my mother's, (Van Velsor's,) from Hollandic 
 immigration. There was, first and last, a large family of children; (I was 
 the second.) We moved to Brooklyn while I was still a little one in frocks 
 and there in B. I grew up out of the frocks then, as child and boy, went 
 to the public schools then to work in a printing office. 
 
 When only sixteen or seventeen years old, and for two years afterward, I 
 went to teaching country schools down in Queens and Suffolk counties, Long 
 Island, and " boarded round." Then, returning to New York, worked as 
 printer and writer, (with an occasional shy at " poetry.") 
 
 i848-'9. About this time went off on a leisurely journey and working ex 
 pedition (my brother Jeff with me,) through all the Middle States, and down 
 the Ohio and Mississippi rivers. Lived a while in New Orleans, and worked 
 there. (Have lived quite a good deal in the Southern States.) After a time, 
 plodded back northward, up the Mississippi, the Missouri, &c., and around 
 to, and by way of, the great lakes, Michigan, Huron and Erie, to Niagara 
 Falls and lower Canada finally returning through Central New York, and 
 down the Hudson. 
 
 i85l-'54. Occupied in house-building in Brooklyn. (For a little of the 
 first part of that time in printing a daily and weekly paper.) 
 
 1855. Lost my dear father, this year, by death. . . . Commenced putting 
 Leaves of Grass to press, for good after many MS. doings and undoings (I 
 had great trouble in leaving out the stock " poetical " touches but succeeded 
 at last.) 
 
 1862. In December of this year went down to the field of War in Virginia. 
 My brother George reported badly wounded in the Fredericksburgh fight. 
 (For 1863 and '64, see Specimen Days.} 
 
 1865 to '71. Had a place as clerk (till well on in '73) in the Attorney 
 General's Office, Washington. 
 
 (New York and Brooklyn seem more like home, as I was born near, and 
 brought up in them, and lived, man and boy, for 30 years. But I lived some 
 years in Washington, and have visited, and partially lived, in most of the 
 Western and Eastern cities.) 
 
 1873. This year lost, by death, my dear, dear mother and, just before, my 
 sister Martha (the two best and sweetest women I have ever seen or known, 
 or ever expect to see.) 
 
 Same year, a sudden climax and prostration from paralysis. Had been 
 simmering inside for several years; broke out during those times temporarily 
 and then went over. But now a serious attack, beyond cure. Dr. Drinkard, 
 my Washington physician, (and a first-rate one,) said it was the result of too 
 extreme bodily and emotional strain continued at Washington and " down in 
 front," in 1863, '4 and '5. I doubt if a heartier, stronger, healthier physique 
 ever lived, from 184010 '70. My greatest call (Quaker) to go around and do 
 what I could among the suffering and sick and wounded was that I seem'd 
 to be so strong and well. (I considered myself invulnerable.) Quit work at 
 Washington, and moved to Camden, New Jersey where I have lived since, 
 and now, (September, 1889,) write these lines. 
 
 (A long stretch of illness, or half-illness, with some lulls. During these 
 latter, have revised and printed over all my books bro't out " November 
 Boughs " and at intervals travelled to the Prairie States, the Rocky Moun 
 tains, Canada, to New York, to my birthplace in Long Island, and to Boston. 
 But physical disability and the war-paralysis above alluded to have settled 
 upon me more and more, the last year or so.) W. W. 
 
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