The Good Gray Poet

W.H. Trimble. Walt Whitman and Leaves of Grass: An Introduction. London: Watts & Co., 1905.

Trimble enthusiastically studied everything by or about Whitman that he could acquire, and read a series of winter lectures on the poet in Dunedin in 1903. His small book Walt Whitman and Leaves of Grass: An introduction was compiled from his Dunedin lectures, and published in London in 1905. The book was well-received and gave him a degree of fame in Whitman circles.

In 1939, a copy was displayed at an exhibition at the Library of Congress in celebration of the 120^th anniversary of Whitman’s birth – identifying Dunedin as home of one of the world’s major Whitman collections.

Trimble’s book was reprinted several times in the United States in the 1970s, and again in 2009.

W.H. Trimble. Walt Whitman and Leaves of Grass: An Introduction. London: Watts & Co., 1905.
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W.H. Trimble. Catalogue of a Collection of Walt Whitman Literature. St Leonards, Otago, 1912.

In 1912, Trimble self-published a catalogue of his own Whitman collection, a 36-page pamphlet listing copies of Whitman’s writings, as well as biographical and critical works, newspaper and journal articles, and essays about him in books.

W.H. Trimble. Catalogue of a Collection of Walt Whitman Literature. St Leonards, Otago, 1912.
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W.H. Trimble. Catalogue of a Collection of Walt Whitman Literature. [Extra Illustrated copy]. St Leonards, Otago, 1912.

A second copy of Trimble’s Catalogue is appended by a full list of recipients to whom the 150 printed copies were sent. Trimble worked hard to establish connections with Whitman enthusiasts abroad, and to spread the poet’s fame locally. Recipients listed on the displayed pages include the poet Jessie Mackay, children’s author Edith Howes, her sister and author of economics books Beatrice Howes, Whitman scholar William Sloane Kennedy, and Elbert Hubbard of the Roycrofters fame.

W.H. Trimble. Catalogue of a Collection of Walt Whitman Literature. [Extra Illustrated copy]. St Leonards, Otago, 1912.
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