An Introduction to Walt Whitman

SAUNDERS, Henry S.

Published by Henry S. Saunders, Toronto, 1934

About this Item

25 p. 20 cm. "With two scarce Whitman portraits" - one a frontispiece and one opposite p. 8. Both portraits pasted in. Quarter grey cloth with brown cloth boards. Paper spine label. Ink inscription by the author on front free endpaper. Nine items are inserted: 1) B&w picture with "Age 30. Saunders 2a" on rear in pencil.2) B&w picture. 3). Clipping advertising this book. 4) Newspaper photo of Sir Charles E. Saunders. 5) Listing of 8 books by Henry S. Saunders with stain and ink notations. 6) Postcard of Walt Whitman dated 1914, addressed to Dr. Beemer at the Hospital for the Insane in Mimico and signed by Saunders. 7) News clipping "Whitman's 'Letters' Sold: Dr. Bucke's Collection Brings $8,275 at Sotheby's Sale." 8) Colour postcard featuring Whitman with some creases. 9) Photo of Whitman with a tear on one edge. Henry Scholey Saunders (1864-1951), from our very own London, Ontario, was a Toronto cellist, collector, bibliographer, and Walt Whitman enthusiast. A self-taught bookbinder, painter and typesetter, Saunders used these skills to produce his own limited-quantity books of Whitman's poems. These he gave to friends, such as the Margaret M. Calder mentioned on the front endpaper, and kept for his own Whitman collection. He ultimately sold his collection to Brown University in 1932. Note the postcard Saunders address to Dr. Beemer at the Mimico Hospital for the Insane. Dr. Nelson Henry Beemer was the first superintendent of what was originally known as the Mimico Lunatic Asylum, which Mimico Hospital for the Insane in 1911, the Ontario Hospital, New Toronto in 1919, and finally the Lakeshore Psychiatric Hospital before in closed in 1979. Beemer, superintendent there from 1894 until his retirement in 1928, was a strong believer in meaningful work as a form of rehabilitation therapy, just like Walt Whitman's friend Richard Maurice Bucke, superintendent of London's asylum. First edition of of 150 copies, of which this is no. 86, bound by hand and signed by Saunders on limitation page.

Seller Inventory # 154508

Bibliographic Details

• Title: An Introduction to Walt Whitman
• Publisher: Henry S. Saunders, Toronto
• Publication Date: 1934
• Binding: Hardcover
• Edition: 1st Edition
• Condition: Very good
• Signed: Signed by Author(s)
• Seller catalogs:
  • Rare & Antiquarian