A draft manuscript of Walt Whitman's The Voice of the Rain is among the top lots in Bonhams' Fine Books and Manuscripts auction on September 22.
It carries an estimate of $30,000-50,000.
 Walt Whitman's The Voice of the Rain was published in his seminal collection Leaves of Grass |
The poem is written in Whitman's own hand and features a number of corrections and revisions - most notably in the title, which was originally "A Rain Enigma".
The lot is framed with an inscription that reads: "To Wayland Hyatt Smith / with both hands / Horace Traubel / November / 1895."
Traubel was the author of Walt Whitman in Camden, a 2.5m word account of the last four years of the poet's life, and the founder of the Walt Whitman Fellowship International.
Hyatt Smith was a member of the club whose paper "The Blending of Orient and Occident in Whitman" clearly impressed Traubel.
A first edition copy of Romeyn Beck Hough's The American Woods, Exhibited by Actual Specimens and with Copious Explanatory Text is valued at $20,000-30,000.
The 14 volume work was compiled between 1894 and 1928 and consists of descriptions and taxonomies of 354 species of American tree.
Additionally, thinly sliced sections of each tree are included - many of which are now extinct.
We have an excellent selection of books and manuscripts available.
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