Though it was first published in 1855, Whitman spent most of his professional life writing, rewriting, and expanding Leaves of Grass[1] until his death in 1892.

Leaves of Grass is also notable for its discussion of delight in sensual pleasures during a time when such candid displays were considered immoral.

The book was highly controversial during its time for its explicit sexual imagery, and Whitman was subject to derision by many contemporary critics.

[3] This concept, along with the call to abandon strict rhyme and meter, were explored more fully in earlier works by John Neal: novels Randolph (1823) and Rachel Dyer (1828).

[6] The title is a pun, as grass was a term given by publishers to works of minor value, and leaves is another name for the pages on which they were printed.

[7] The first edition was published in Brooklyn at the printing shop of two Scottish immigrants, James and Andrew Rome, whom Whitman had known since the 1840s.

Instead, the cover included an engraving by Samuel Hollyer depicting Whitman himself—in work clothes and a jaunty hat, arms at his side.

Emerson responded with a letter of heartfelt thanks, writing, "I find it the most extraordinary piece of wit and wisdom America has yet contributed."

R. W. Emerson Letter to Walter Whitman July 21, 1855 The first edition was very small and collected only twelve unnamed poems in 95 pages.

Laura Dassow Walls, Professor of English at the University of Notre Dame, noted, "In one stroke, Whitman had given birth to the modern cover blurb, quite without Emerson's permission.

The publishers of the 1860 edition, Thayer & Eldridge, declared bankruptcy shortly after its publication, and were almost unable to pay Whitman.

[20] When the 456-page book was finally issued, Whitman said, "It is quite 'odd', of course", referring to its appearance: it was bound in orange cloth with symbols like a rising sun with nine spokes of light and a butterfly perched on a hand.

[24] The edition, which included the Drum-Taps section, its Sequel, and the new Songs before Parting, was delayed when the binder went bankrupt and its distributing firm failed.

[29] In January 1892, two months before Whitman's death, an announcement was published in the New York Herald: Walt Whitman wishes respectfully to notify the public that the book Leaves of Grass, which he has been working on at great intervals and partially issued for the past thirty-five or forty years, is now completed, so to call it, and he would like this new 1892 edition to absolutely supersede all previous ones.

These latter editions would include the poem "When Lilacs Last in the Dooryard Bloom'd", Whitman's elegy to Abraham Lincoln after his death.

[33] In a constantly changing culture, Whitman's literature has an element of timelessness that appeals to the American notion of democracy and equality, producing the same experience and feelings within people living centuries apart.

[34] Originally written at a time of significant urbanization in America, Leaves of Grass also responds to the impact such has on the masses.

[37] As a believer in phrenology, Whitman, in the 1855 preface to Leaves of Grass, includes the phrenologist among those he describes as "the lawgivers of poets".

[38] Whitman edited, revised, and republished Leaves of Grass many times before his death, and over the years his focus and ideas were not static.

In poems like "Out of the Cradle Endlessly Rocking" and "When Lilacs Last in the Dooryard Bloom'd", the prevailing themes are of love and of death.

[29] An early review of the first publication focused on the persona of the anonymous poet, calling him a loafer "with a certain air of mild defiance, and an expression of pensive insolence on his face".

[40] Emerson approved of the work in part because he considered it a means of reviving Transcendentalism,[41] though even he urged Whitman to tone down the sexual imagery in 1860.

[44] Critic Rufus Wilmot Griswold reviewed Leaves of Grass in the November 10, 1855 issue of The Criterion, calling it "a mass of stupid filth",[45] and categorized its author as a filthy free lover.

[48] A woman from Connecticut named Susan Garnet Smith wrote to Whitman to profess her love for him after reading Leaves of Grass and even offered him her womb should he want a child.

[49] Although he found much of the language "reckless and indecent", critic and editor George Ripley believed "isolated portions" of Leaves of Grass radiated "vigor and quaint beauty".

On March 1, 1882, Boston district attorney Oliver Stevens wrote to Whitman's publisher, James R. Osgood, that Leaves of Grass constituted "obscene literature".

Urged by the New England Society for the Suppression of Vice, his letter said: We are of the opinion that this book is such a book as brings it within the provisions of the Public Statutes respecting obscene literature and suggest the propriety of withdrawing the same from circulation and suppressing the editions thereof.Stevens demanded the removal of the poems "A Woman Waits for Me" and "To a Common Prostitute", as well as changes to "Song of Myself", "From Pent-Up Aching Rivers", "I Sing the Body Electric", "Spontaneous Me", "Native Moments", "The Dalliance of the Eagles", "By Blue Ontario's Shore", "Unfolded Out of the Folds", "The Sleepers", and "Faces".

[56] Its status as one of the more important collections of American poetry has meant that over time various groups and movements have used Leaves of Grass, and Whitman's work in general, to advance their own political and social purposes.