As Malcolm Cowley says in his introduction, the first edition of Leaves of Grass might be called the buried masterpiece of American writing , for it exhibits Whitman at his best, Whitman at his freshest in vision and boldest in language, Whitman transformed by a new experience. Mr Cowley has taken the first edition from its narrow circulation among scholars, faithfully edited it, added his own introduction and Whitman s original introduction (which never appeared in any other edition during Whitman s life), and returned it to the common readership to whom the great poet really speaks.
