On This Date ....

Since everyone and their kid brother will be doing some "Declaration of Independence" thing on their blogs, I decided to be what I always aspire to be: "different." I've recently found myself fascinated with the character of Walt Whitman; now that I've heard Leaves of Grass performed aloud on the librivox.org audio version of the book, he's starting to "make sense" to me (I had a simular experience about a year ago when I first saw Waiting For Godot done as part of the 4-CD Beckett on Film production). He's a lot more complex than the simplistic, flag-waving, "Good Grey Poet" I learned about back in school. And so, courtesy of The Writer's Almanac:

On this day in 1855, the first edition of Whitman's Leaves of Grass was printed. It consisted of 12 poems and a preface. The printers were friends of his, and they did not charge Whitman for their work. He helped set some of the type himself. "Grass" is a printer's term; it refers to a casual job that can be set up between busy times.