Walt Whitman, Three Poems [1921]

Title: Three Poems.

Author: Walt Whitman

Edited by: Stanisław Vincenz (translation and introduction)

Publisher: “Ignis” Publishing Society, Warsaw

Year of publication: 1921.

Format: 18 cm.

Number of pages: 59

Binding: Paperback, paper cover, standard edition.

Three poems by Walt Whitman, translated by Stanisław Vincenz, were published in Warsaw in 1921, during the third year of the independent Republic of Poland, when the publishing market was rebuilding alongside the state, and young literary circles —Skamander and the “Zwrotnica” circle—were seeking models for a new style of versification. The volume contains three works: “When Lilacs Last…,” “Out of the Cradle…” (Out of the Cradle…), and “Podróż do Indii” (Passage to India), preceded by an unsigned introduction by Vincenz, an expanded version of which the author later published as the essay “Religia Walta Whitmana.” The history of this edition includes a dramatic episode—the original piece of the translation, already prepared for printing, went missing in 1921 at the Ignis publishing house itself, making the surviving pieces a valuable testament to the translator’s reconstructed work. In the history of Whitman’s reception in Poland, this volume is noted as extremely rare—it was not until 1934 that *75 Poems*, translated by Stefan Napierski, was published by J. Mortkowicz, and after the war, Juliusz Żuławski undertook translations and a monograph on the American poet. The cover was designed by Tadeusz Gronowski, one of the founders of the Polish poster school; the edition is in a small, bibliophile format typical of the intimate poetry prints of the “Ignis” Publishing Society and features a black-and-white portrait of Whitman on the frontispiece.

Whitman himself (1819–1892), born in Huntington, Long Island, and who died in Camden, is considered one of the precursors of modern American literature and is sometimes called the “father of free verse.” His formal education was very limited—he attended school for only six years, after which he worked as an errand boy at a law office. Among his most important works are “Song of Myself” and the essay collection “Democratic Vistas.” The Polish intermediary here is a distinct figure: Stanisław Vincenz (1888–1971), a novelist and essayist, an expert on the Hutsul region and Pokuttya as well as on the thought and art of ancient Greece, and also the great-grandson of Charles-François de Vincenz, an emigrant from Provence who settled in Vienna after the Revolution of 1789.

Provenance: on the half-title page, a smudged ownership signature—the inscription is illegible, and the identity of the former owner remains unknown. The piece bears no other ownership marks or institutional seals.

This item is of interest to collectors of interwar poetry, researchers of the Polish reception of American literature, and collectors of publications from the “Ignis” press and Tadeusz Gronowski’s commercial art.

The block is intact; the paper is clean, with natural spots and discoloration. The paper publisher’s cover is in good condition, with minor fraying of the brittle paper. This item requires bookbinding restoration—it is suitable for a protective binding.

Catalog ID: 10286-18-A-X