<DIV><DIV>In May 1860, Walt Whitman published a third edition of <i>Leaves of Grass</i>. His timing was compelling. Printed during a period of regional, ideological, and political divisions, written by a poet intimately concerned with the idea of a United States as &ldquo;essentially the greatest poem,&rdquo; this new edition was Whitman&rsquo;s last best hope for national salvation. Now available in a facsimile edition, <i>Leaves of Grass, 1860</i> faithfully reproduces Whitman&rsquo;s attempt to create a &ldquo;Great construction of the New Bible&rdquo; to save the nation on the eve of civil war and, for the first time, frames the book in historical rather than literary terms.<br> <br> In his third edition, Whitman added 146 new poems to the 32 that comprised the second edition, reorganized the book into a bible of American civic religion that could be cited chapter and verse, and included erotic poetry intended to bind the nation in organic harmony. This 150th anniversary edition includes a facsimile reproduction of the original 1860 volume, a thought-provoking introduction by antebellum historian and Whitman scholar Jason Stacy that situates Whitman in nineteenth-century America, and annotations that provide detailed historical context for Whitman&rsquo;s poems.<br> <br> A profoundly rich product of a period when America faced its greatest peril, this third edition finds the poet transforming himself into a prophet of spiritual democracy and the Whitman we celebrate today&mdash;boisterous, barbaric, and benevolent. Reprinting it now continues the poet&rsquo;s goal of proclaiming for &ldquo;the whole of America for each / individual, without exception . . . uncompromising liberty and equality.&rdquo;<br> </DIV>