This was a topic that I wanted to talk about in my Archive Project but I ran out of space, so I thought I’d share it here:

I’ve become increasingly curious about the color of the covers of Walt Whitman’s various publications. As a poet who is anal about how his publications look, I think the use of color here is intentional and interesting, especially when it differs from the “Leaves of Grass Green” I’ve come to expect. The reading along with the archive project gave some insight to this, notably in regard to the red and green publications printed in tandem in his later years. Ed Folsom who wrote the article suggested that the red/green duality had to do with autumn and spring, but I think there’s more to it than that. What do you guys think?

I’m attaching a table I made of each publication and their cover colors.

WorkCover Color
Leaves of Grass (1855)Green
Leaves of Grass (1856)Green
Leaves of Grass (1860/61)Yellowish Brown
Reddish Orange
Purple
Drum Taps and SequelBrownish Red (rare)
Dark Red
Leaves of Grass (1871)Green
After All, Not To Create Only (1871)Dark Green
Dark Red
Leaves of Grass (1871) *Second Edition*Dark Green
As a Strong Bird on Pinions Free (1872)Dark Green
1876 Printing of the Fifth Edition of Leaves of GrassLight Brown Leather and Orange Cloth
Half Cream Leather and Red, Blue, and Green Marbled Paper
Memoranda During the War (1876)Dark Red
Leaves of Grass (1881)Yellow
Dark Green
Specimen Days & Collect (1882)Brown Leather
November Boughs (1888)Dark Red
Dark Green
Complete Poems & Prose (1888)Dark Green and Marble
Dark Green
Brown
Reprinting of the 1881 Edition of Leaves of Grass (1889)Black
Goodbye My Fancy (1891)Green
Red
Leaves of Grass “Deathbed Edition” (1891)Orange-Yellow
Significance of Cover Color

47 thoughts on “Significance of Cover Color”

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