Sep 28, 2023 - Sale 2646

Sale 2646 - Lot 198

Price Realized: $ 531
?Final Price Realized includes Buyer’s Premium added to Hammer Price
Estimate: $ 800 - $ 1,200
(LITERATURE.) Pair of issues of the Brooklyn Daily Eagle edited by Walt Whitman. Each 4 pages, 21 1/4 x 15 1/4 inches, on 2 detached sheets; horizontal folds, minimal wear. Brooklyn, NY, 26 and 27 April 1847
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The poet Walt Whitman worked in newspapers as a young man, as a compositor, contributor, editor, and publisher. His last regular newspaper post was as the editor of the Brooklyn Daily Eagle from 1846 to 1848. Offered here are two issues produced under his leadership.

Newspapers in this period had very small staffs; Whitman quite possibly authored much of the original material in these issues. Although he did not sign any of the articles, and his name does not appear on the masthead, at least one of these articles has been widely acknowledged by Whitman scholars as his work. The 27 April 1847 editorial, "Rights of Southern Freeman as well as Northern Freemen," is anthologized in "Walt Whitman's Selected Journalism," pages 33-36; and "The Collected Writings of Walt Whitman: The Journalism," page II:259-260. It is a vigorous rebuttal of a John Calhoun speech on slavery and states' rights. The 26 April 1847 editorial, "Are His Principles Right?", has apparently not been anthologized as Whitman's work. It pours a bit of cold water on the enthusiasts for General Zachary Taylor as a presidential candidate: "Have they any knowledge of his political principles? And if they have, do they approve or disapprove of them?"

We are aware of no other issues of Whitman's Brooklyn Daily Eagle at auction.