Memoranda During the War.

First edition of this separately published edition, one of an estimated 100 copies, second issue (the first issue was bound within Two Rivulets). Small octavo, original plum cloth, green endpapers, all edges gilt. Association copy, inscribed by the author to his sister, "[To] my dear sister Mary, [From] her brother Walt, with his love." Whitman also writes "Sister" Mary Remembrance copy leaf, two portraits of Whitman, and advertisement leaf in the rear. Whitman maintained a close relationship with his younger sister, Mary Elizabeth. She appears in several of Whitman's stories, often as the subject of Whitman's inquiries about loss of innocence: namely, she appears as an unnamed fourteen-year-old in his story My Boys and Girls (1844) and is presented as the sweet Sister Mary in his children's story 'The Half-Breed: A Tale of the Western Frontier' (1845). She often provided an idyllic escape for Whitman at her home in Greenport, Long Island, where he paid frequent visits. She appeared in several of his early stories, and she represented the close, normal family life he idealized. (Walt Whitman: An Encyclopedia (New York: Garland Publishing, 1998). In near fine condition. Housed in a custom half morocco and clamshell chemise box. An exceptional association.