Whitman Illuminated

Walt Whitman''s iconic collection of poems, Leaves of Grass, has earned a reputation as a sacred American text. Whitman himself made such comparisons, going so far as to use biblical verse as a model for his own. So it''s only appropriate that artist and illustrator Allen Crawford has chosen to illuminate - like medieval monks with their own holy scriptures - Whitman''s masterpiece and the core of his poetic vision, ''Song of Myself''. Crawford has turned the original sixy-page poem from Whitman''s 1855 edition into a sprawling 234-page work of art. The handwritten text and illustrations intermingle in a way that''s both surprising and wholly in tune with the spirit of the poem - they''re exuberant, rough and wild.

Whitman Illuminated: Song of Myself is a sensational reading experience, an artefact in its own right and a masterful tribute to one of America''s greatest poets.