IN MEMORIAM: Joel Myerson 1945-2021

Hayford and his colleagues transmitted to him the art and mystery of the study of printed texts, which Joel practiced with great expertise and tireless devotion to the end of his life. With copies of the 1855 Leaves of Grass and various other prime Whitman imprints in hand, he set his mind to the task of building a major collection of Whitmaniana. Over time it grew to include not only all editions of Leaves of Grass and Whitman's other books and pamphlets but a wide array of a bibliographer's allies-textual and binding variants, poetry manuscripts and photographs, memorabilia (such as the hefty 1881 bronze of Whitman's writing hand cast from life), scattered correspondence, proofs, ephemera.