WEBVTT 00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:00.870 align:middle line:90% 00:00:00.870 --> 00:00:02.400 align:middle line:90% OK. 00:00:02.400 --> 00:00:07.260 align:middle line:84% So here you have the original 1855 edition 00:00:07.260 --> 00:00:09.953 align:middle line:90% of Leaves of Grass. 00:00:09.953 --> 00:00:11.370 align:middle line:84% How many of you guys have actually 00:00:11.370 --> 00:00:13.770 align:middle line:84% seen an original edition of Leaves of Grass? 00:00:13.770 --> 00:00:14.790 align:middle line:90% A couple of you guys? 00:00:14.790 --> 00:00:15.870 align:middle line:90% OK. 00:00:15.870 --> 00:00:19.050 align:middle line:84% You would probably know then that it 00:00:19.050 --> 00:00:21.900 align:middle line:84% doesn't look like a typical 19th century book. 00:00:21.900 --> 00:00:26.790 align:middle line:84% It isn't a stout, small, little rat-killer of a book. 00:00:26.790 --> 00:00:29.490 align:middle line:90% It's more of a folio. 00:00:29.490 --> 00:00:32.900 align:middle line:84% It's a large, expansive, as thin as a wafer. 00:00:32.900 --> 00:00:36.480 align:middle line:84% It looks like he wanted to make a big splash, 00:00:36.480 --> 00:00:40.350 align:middle line:84% and you'd be right to think that Whitman had those ambitions. 00:00:40.350 --> 00:00:45.900 align:middle line:84% I mean, this is the same guy who basically published 00:00:45.900 --> 00:00:47.610 align:middle line:84% all these glowing reviews of his book 00:00:47.610 --> 00:00:52.230 align:middle line:84% when it came out under assumed aliases in different-- yeah, 00:00:52.230 --> 00:00:54.960 align:middle line:84% he pulled a lot of strings when this came out 00:00:54.960 --> 00:00:59.280 align:middle line:84% in a lot of different publications in New York. 00:00:59.280 --> 00:01:02.460 align:middle line:84% So he wasn't above that sort of thing, and neither am I. 00:01:02.460 --> 00:01:03.810 align:middle line:90% [LAUGHTER] 00:01:03.810 --> 00:01:09.060 align:middle line:84% But if you notice, it's a long, broad sort of book. 00:01:09.060 --> 00:01:11.850 align:middle line:84% The reason for this is because the Rome brothers, who 00:01:11.850 --> 00:01:14.760 align:middle line:84% had printed the book, their stock in trade, 00:01:14.760 --> 00:01:18.120 align:middle line:84% what they were mainly known for, was printing legal documents. 00:01:18.120 --> 00:01:20.910 align:middle line:84% And they tend to be a larger sheet, right? 00:01:20.910 --> 00:01:25.830 align:middle line:84% And so Whitman had to reconfigure his poem 00:01:25.830 --> 00:01:27.705 align:middle line:90% to kind of fit that format. 00:01:27.705 --> 00:01:31.380 align:middle line:90% 00:01:31.380 --> 00:01:33.460 align:middle line:90% And what a format it is. 00:01:33.460 --> 00:01:35.070 align:middle line:90% I mean, you look at this-- 00:01:35.070 --> 00:01:36.810 align:middle line:84% to the 19th century reader, I would 00:01:36.810 --> 00:01:40.740 align:middle line:84% imagine that this doesn't even look like poetry, right? 00:01:40.740 --> 00:01:44.790 align:middle line:84% So you can imagine, just like my book, 00:01:44.790 --> 00:01:49.033 align:middle line:84% it doesn't look like a typical typeset sort of thing. 00:01:49.033 --> 00:01:50.700 align:middle line:84% People are, what the hell is this thing? 00:01:50.700 --> 00:01:53.010 align:middle line:84% It's like, well, I'm following Walt. That's all. 00:01:53.010 --> 00:01:54.240 align:middle line:90% Don't blame me. 00:01:54.240 --> 00:01:55.340 align:middle line:90% Blame Walt. 00:01:55.340 --> 00:01:56.980 align:middle line:90% [LAUGHTER] 00:01:56.980 --> 00:01:58.740 align:middle line:84% But you can see it's a torrent of text. 00:01:58.740 --> 00:02:00.030 align:middle line:90% It's not in stanzas. 00:02:00.030 --> 00:02:04.210 align:middle line:84% It's not in a set sort of line length or anything like that. 00:02:04.210 --> 00:02:06.750 align:middle line:84% It's just sprawling all over the place. 00:02:06.750 --> 00:02:10.440 align:middle line:84% So it's a typographical expression of the themes 00:02:10.440 --> 00:02:14.130 align:middle line:84% that you find in Song of Myself, which 00:02:14.130 --> 00:02:15.540 align:middle line:90% I think is very appropriate. 00:02:15.540 --> 00:02:18.350 align:middle line:90% 00:02:18.350 --> 00:02:22.300 align:middle line:84% Now, Whitman apparently had typeset about a third 00:02:22.300 --> 00:02:25.120 align:middle line:90% of the original edition. 00:02:25.120 --> 00:02:26.080 align:middle line:90% This is just rumor. 00:02:26.080 --> 00:02:28.600 align:middle line:84% These are just things that I've been reading. 00:02:28.600 --> 00:02:29.950 align:middle line:90% I don't know how true that is. 00:02:29.950 --> 00:02:33.160 align:middle line:84% But if it is true, then I'm really 00:02:33.160 --> 00:02:35.230 align:middle line:84% following in Whitman's footsteps, 00:02:35.230 --> 00:02:39.705 align:middle line:84% because he too was a graphic designer and maybe even 00:02:39.705 --> 00:02:40.330 align:middle line:90% an illustrator. 00:02:40.330 --> 00:02:43.150 align:middle line:84% There's even some talk about him actually 00:02:43.150 --> 00:02:48.860 align:middle line:84% having done the type on the cover of the book as well. 00:02:48.860 --> 00:02:53.590 align:middle line:84% Now, this also isn't the typical frontispiece portrait 00:02:53.590 --> 00:02:55.450 align:middle line:90% of the author either. 00:02:55.450 --> 00:03:00.730 align:middle line:84% A lot of people at the time were really, really put off by this. 00:03:00.730 --> 00:03:04.030 align:middle line:84% It's the equivalent of today being in a hoodie or something 00:03:04.030 --> 00:03:05.911 align:middle line:90% like that. 00:03:05.911 --> 00:03:07.700 align:middle line:90% He doesn't even have a tie on. 00:03:07.700 --> 00:03:09.640 align:middle line:84% He doesn't have a jacket or anything. 00:03:09.640 --> 00:03:11.170 align:middle line:90% He looks kind of-- 00:03:11.170 --> 00:03:12.640 align:middle line:90% well, he just looks like sassy-- 00:03:12.640 --> 00:03:14.485 align:middle line:90% sassy, Walt, you know? 00:03:14.485 --> 00:03:15.700 align:middle line:90% [LAUGHTER] 00:03:15.700 --> 00:03:19.660 align:middle line:84% And there's an interesting story behind this actually. 00:03:19.660 --> 00:03:21.510 align:middle line:90% Are there any kids in the room? 00:03:21.510 --> 00:03:22.500 align:middle line:90% Yeah. 00:03:22.500 --> 00:03:23.000 align:middle line:90% All right. 00:03:23.000 --> 00:03:23.500 align:middle line:90% Yeah. 00:03:23.500 --> 00:03:25.450 align:middle line:90% Quick, cover their ears. 00:03:25.450 --> 00:03:32.650 align:middle line:84% But apparently he stopped the first run in the middle 00:03:32.650 --> 00:03:39.100 align:middle line:84% to have the engraver enhance his nethers, as it were-- 00:03:39.100 --> 00:03:41.545 align:middle line:90% as we call it on the East Coast. 00:03:41.545 --> 00:03:43.420 align:middle line:84% No, we don't talk like that on the East Coast. 00:03:43.420 --> 00:03:45.253 align:middle line:84% We would say much something much more crude, 00:03:45.253 --> 00:03:47.750 align:middle line:90% but I'm trying to be genteel. 00:03:47.750 --> 00:03:48.250 align:middle line:90% Yeah. 00:03:48.250 --> 00:03:50.380 align:middle line:84% Actually, because he wanted to exude 00:03:50.380 --> 00:03:53.830 align:middle line:90% an air of robustness and vigor. 00:03:53.830 --> 00:03:55.540 align:middle line:84% Which is a 19th century way of saying, 00:03:55.540 --> 00:03:56.800 align:middle line:90% he wanted to put out the vibe. 00:03:56.800 --> 00:03:58.960 align:middle line:90% [LAUGHTER] 00:03:58.960 --> 00:04:03.430 align:middle line:84% Now, what really got me going with-- 00:04:03.430 --> 00:04:08.260 align:middle line:84% how I worked out the look of the text in my book 00:04:08.260 --> 00:04:12.920 align:middle line:84% is I started looking at successive editions of Song 00:04:12.920 --> 00:04:13.420 align:middle line:90% of Myself. 00:04:13.420 --> 00:04:17.529 align:middle line:90% This is the 1860-1861 edition. 00:04:17.529 --> 00:04:19.337 align:middle line:90% This is the other frontispiece. 00:04:19.337 --> 00:04:20.920 align:middle line:84% This is the one where he kind of looks 00:04:20.920 --> 00:04:22.780 align:middle line:90% like Dr. Zaius in his portrait. 00:04:22.780 --> 00:04:24.530 align:middle line:84% I don't know if you've ever seen this one. 00:04:24.530 --> 00:04:25.030 align:middle line:90% He does. 00:04:25.030 --> 00:04:27.322 align:middle line:84% He looks like it's something out of Planet of the Apes. 00:04:27.322 --> 00:04:28.810 align:middle line:90% It's actually-- he's very-- 00:04:28.810 --> 00:04:31.690 align:middle line:90% very simian, very strange. 00:04:31.690 --> 00:04:34.300 align:middle line:84% But I saw this type, and I knew that this 00:04:34.300 --> 00:04:37.120 align:middle line:84% was going to kind of provide me with a template, 00:04:37.120 --> 00:04:41.310 align:middle line:84% stylistically, to kind of move forward with it. 00:04:41.310 --> 00:04:45.280 align:middle line:84% I'm also a big fan of 19th century scrimshaw, 00:04:45.280 --> 00:04:50.320 align:middle line:84% and that was also a great influence on me typographcially 00:04:50.320 --> 00:04:52.900 align:middle line:90% as well. 00:04:52.900 --> 00:04:56.010 align:middle line:90% Now, this is my dump. 00:04:56.010 --> 00:04:57.590 align:middle line:90% This is the basement. 00:04:57.590 --> 00:05:00.440 align:middle line:84% I bet you guys weren't expecting carpeting. 00:05:00.440 --> 00:05:02.310 align:middle line:90% [LAUGHTER] 00:05:02.310 --> 00:05:04.650 align:middle line:84% The way I go on about it, I make myself out 00:05:04.650 --> 00:05:07.380 align:middle line:84% to be some sort of Gregorian monk or something. 00:05:07.380 --> 00:05:08.490 align:middle line:90% It's like, no. 00:05:08.490 --> 00:05:13.740 align:middle line:84% I did have about three or four house coats on, and yeah. 00:05:13.740 --> 00:05:18.570 align:middle line:84% But that space over there, the draftboard, 00:05:18.570 --> 00:05:21.600 align:middle line:84% was for sketching and banging my head, 00:05:21.600 --> 00:05:23.970 align:middle line:84% and then I would bring it over here 00:05:23.970 --> 00:05:26.090 align:middle line:84% to tighten up the sketch in Sharpie, 00:05:26.090 --> 00:05:27.840 align:middle line:84% and then finally throw it on a light table 00:05:27.840 --> 00:05:29.100 align:middle line:90% and do the final inking. 00:05:29.100 --> 00:05:31.445 align:middle line:84% And then it would get scanned, and then I 00:05:31.445 --> 00:05:32.820 align:middle line:84% would kind of clean up the image, 00:05:32.820 --> 00:05:36.900 align:middle line:84% and then I would have volumes of these 00:05:36.900 --> 00:05:39.180 align:middle line:90% on my desktop and my computer-- 00:05:39.180 --> 00:05:40.920 align:middle line:90% the very same one I have here. 00:05:40.920 --> 00:05:43.710 align:middle line:84% And then I would eventually send them over 00:05:43.710 --> 00:05:46.170 align:middle line:90% to Tin House in batches of 50. 00:05:46.170 --> 00:05:49.980 align:middle line:84% And batches of 50 could take three weeks. 00:05:49.980 --> 00:05:51.570 align:middle line:84% Sometimes it could take three months. 00:05:51.570 --> 00:05:54.210 align:middle line:84% You know, I had to work and keep the lights on in between all 00:05:54.210 --> 00:05:58.553 align:middle line:90% of this, so I did what I could. 00:05:58.553 --> 00:05:59.470 align:middle line:90% There's a closer look. 00:05:59.470 --> 00:06:03.720 align:middle line:84% You can see I had my paperback version of the 1855 edition 00:06:03.720 --> 00:06:05.790 align:middle line:84% up here, and I had it highlighted and all that. 00:06:05.790 --> 00:06:07.165 align:middle line:84% And I had it up there while I was 00:06:07.165 --> 00:06:09.870 align:middle line:84% working so I could ponder and keep 00:06:09.870 --> 00:06:12.690 align:middle line:84% striking my forehead, my beluga-like forehead, 00:06:12.690 --> 00:06:14.490 align:middle line:90% onto the thing. 00:06:14.490 --> 00:06:17.850 align:middle line:84% And I would probably spend about a good five or six 00:06:17.850 --> 00:06:18.660 align:middle line:90% hours every day. 00:06:18.660 --> 00:06:22.467 align:middle line:84% It was probably a 12 to 14-hour workday usually, 00:06:22.467 --> 00:06:25.050 align:middle line:84% and I'd probably spend the first five or six hours just trying 00:06:25.050 --> 00:06:26.592 align:middle line:84% to figure out what I was going to do. 00:06:26.592 --> 00:06:28.230 align:middle line:84% I was going to respond every time. 00:06:28.230 --> 00:06:32.010 align:middle line:84% And I did go chronologically through the poem. 00:06:32.010 --> 00:06:34.260 align:middle line:90% I treated it like a landscape. 00:06:34.260 --> 00:06:36.180 align:middle line:84% So that was very important to me to kind 00:06:36.180 --> 00:06:39.150 align:middle line:84% of progress in sequential order through the poem 00:06:39.150 --> 00:06:40.800 align:middle line:84% and not really look too far ahead. 00:06:40.800 --> 00:06:42.762 align:middle line:84% I mean, I've read it obviously, but I 00:06:42.762 --> 00:06:44.720 align:middle line:84% wanted to kind of put it in the back of my head 00:06:44.720 --> 00:06:48.420 align:middle line:84% and then encounter it as freshly as I could. 00:06:48.420 --> 00:06:52.950 align:middle line:84% Now, you'd be surprised, these suckers are really warm. 00:06:52.950 --> 00:06:55.370 align:middle line:84% I could probably be wearing a bikini down there 00:06:55.370 --> 00:06:56.370 align:middle line:90% and still have that on-- 00:06:56.370 --> 00:06:58.680 align:middle line:90% I'd still be fine. 00:06:58.680 --> 00:07:01.101 align:middle line:84% Which brings me to my next picture-- no, I'm kidding. 00:07:01.101 --> 00:07:04.110 align:middle line:90% [LAUGHTER] 00:07:04.110 --> 00:07:06.930 align:middle line:84% Now, this is the edition that I used. 00:07:06.930 --> 00:07:09.420 align:middle line:84% I just like the wavy, gravy, groovy sort 00:07:09.420 --> 00:07:10.440 align:middle line:90% of illustration on that. 00:07:10.440 --> 00:07:12.680 align:middle line:84% I don't know what it is, but that was my way in. 00:07:12.680 --> 00:07:13.680 align:middle line:90% I don't know what it is. 00:07:13.680 --> 00:07:15.513 align:middle line:84% I never picked up a copy of Leaves of Grass, 00:07:15.513 --> 00:07:18.063 align:middle line:84% and then I saw this cover, and then it kind of clicked. 00:07:18.063 --> 00:07:19.230 align:middle line:90% Does anybody else have that? 00:07:19.230 --> 00:07:22.710 align:middle line:84% It was like, oh yeah, that's it-- every man a cosmos, right? 00:07:22.710 --> 00:07:26.100 align:middle line:84% And that's what turned me on to Whitman. 00:07:26.100 --> 00:07:29.670 align:middle line:84% And you can see how I kind of annotated the thing 00:07:29.670 --> 00:07:37.230 align:middle line:84% and broke down the various verse paragraphs into pages-- 00:07:37.230 --> 00:07:38.850 align:middle line:90% page spreads, I should say. 00:07:38.850 --> 00:07:41.730 align:middle line:84% Now, originally-- and I'm sorry I'm repeating myself-- 00:07:41.730 --> 00:07:45.270 align:middle line:90% I mean, this is unavoidable. 00:07:45.270 --> 00:07:46.860 align:middle line:84% But originally I thought it was going 00:07:46.860 --> 00:07:50.830 align:middle line:84% to be about 120 pages, 150 pages, and so did Tin House. 00:07:50.830 --> 00:07:56.430 align:middle line:84% I was like, yeah, it's 50-60 pages in its original edition. 00:07:56.430 --> 00:07:59.140 align:middle line:84% And then I finally went in there and actually broke everything 00:07:59.140 --> 00:07:59.640 align:middle line:90% down. 00:07:59.640 --> 00:08:02.430 align:middle line:84% Because what you want to do is make sure that each page 00:08:02.430 --> 00:08:04.380 align:middle line:90% spread has a theme, right? 00:08:04.380 --> 00:08:08.250 align:middle line:84% So that way, by the time you're turning the page, 00:08:08.250 --> 00:08:10.080 align:middle line:84% you've kind of expanded that theme, 00:08:10.080 --> 00:08:12.180 align:middle line:84% and you've moved on to the next one. 00:08:12.180 --> 00:08:15.390 align:middle line:84% Otherwise, the entire thing's incoherent. 00:08:15.390 --> 00:08:22.200 align:middle line:84% So in allowing Whitman's words to go to the fore 00:08:22.200 --> 00:08:23.880 align:middle line:84% and determine the amount of pages, 00:08:23.880 --> 00:08:26.280 align:middle line:90% it comes out to 260 pages. 00:08:26.280 --> 00:08:29.760 align:middle line:84% And that went over like a lead balloon at Tin House. 00:08:29.760 --> 00:08:32.322 align:middle line:84% They were not-- they were actually 00:08:32.322 --> 00:08:34.530 align:middle line:84% really very kind about it and all that sort of thing. 00:08:34.530 --> 00:08:36.072 align:middle line:84% I was like, guys, I don't know what-- 00:08:36.072 --> 00:08:39.030 align:middle line:84% I mean, there's no way to do it any smaller, 00:08:39.030 --> 00:08:42.780 align:middle line:84% because this is what the poem needs in order to breathe. 00:08:42.780 --> 00:08:46.260 align:middle line:84% And if you haven't noticed, this book 00:08:46.260 --> 00:08:47.967 align:middle line:84% is made from recycled stock, and there's 00:08:47.967 --> 00:08:50.550 align:middle line:84% all kinds of-- we really pulled out the stops for this sucker. 00:08:50.550 --> 00:08:53.370 align:middle line:84% So this was just one more expense. 00:08:53.370 --> 00:08:56.203 align:middle line:84% But you kind of have to go for broke with these things, 00:08:56.203 --> 00:08:57.120 align:middle line:90% so that's what we did. 00:08:57.120 --> 00:09:00.000 align:middle line:84% And also, I color-coded the pages red, green, blue, red, 00:09:00.000 --> 00:09:02.910 align:middle line:84% and there's a galloping palette throughout the whole thing 00:09:02.910 --> 00:09:03.930 align:middle line:90% that kind of holds it. 00:09:03.930 --> 00:09:05.370 align:middle line:84% Because I knew I was really going 00:09:05.370 --> 00:09:08.880 align:middle line:84% to be stylistically all over the place, because Whitman's words 00:09:08.880 --> 00:09:10.540 align:middle line:90% take you all over the place. 00:09:10.540 --> 00:09:14.430 align:middle line:84% And because I knew that I was in for a kitchen sink sort of ride 00:09:14.430 --> 00:09:16.920 align:middle line:84% with Whitman, I knew that I have to have 00:09:16.920 --> 00:09:21.780 align:middle line:84% some graphic elements that will hold the entire thing together. 00:09:21.780 --> 00:09:25.560 align:middle line:84% The chromatic strictness that I used 00:09:25.560 --> 00:09:29.590 align:middle line:84% was kind of like the mortar for the whole thing. 00:09:29.590 --> 00:09:32.530 align:middle line:84% Now, this is one of my first couple failures. 00:09:32.530 --> 00:09:34.620 align:middle line:84% I got Walt wearing lipstick for some reason 00:09:34.620 --> 00:09:36.000 align:middle line:90% here, with antlers on his head. 00:09:36.000 --> 00:09:37.072 align:middle line:90% I don't know. 00:09:37.072 --> 00:09:38.450 align:middle line:90% [LAUGHTER] 00:09:38.450 --> 00:09:39.450 align:middle line:90% It's a lifestyle choice. 00:09:39.450 --> 00:09:41.010 align:middle line:90% I'm not judging. 00:09:41.010 --> 00:09:46.680 align:middle line:84% But yeah, you have these first-- and the first one, 00:09:46.680 --> 00:09:50.490 align:middle line:84% I don't know, it just didn't really get me excited. 00:09:50.490 --> 00:09:53.940 align:middle line:84% The second one was completely off base. 00:09:53.940 --> 00:09:55.550 align:middle line:90% It was too floral. 00:09:55.550 --> 00:09:59.970 align:middle line:84% It looks like Oscar Wilde's Song of Myself, you know? 00:09:59.970 --> 00:10:03.913 align:middle line:84% Yeah, it's just-- it minces too much. 00:10:03.913 --> 00:10:04.830 align:middle line:90% Let's put it that way. 00:10:04.830 --> 00:10:08.280 align:middle line:84% It's just too-- the type is all in ribbons and garlands, 00:10:08.280 --> 00:10:10.920 align:middle line:84% and I'm expecting tambourines and chiffon 00:10:10.920 --> 00:10:12.940 align:middle line:90% to start flying in any moment. 00:10:12.940 --> 00:10:15.730 align:middle line:84% So obviously this isn't the way to go. 00:10:15.730 --> 00:10:18.000 align:middle line:84% So what I did is I kind of re-explored this, 00:10:18.000 --> 00:10:19.290 align:middle line:90% and I just boom. 00:10:19.290 --> 00:10:22.620 align:middle line:84% So I tightened it up, and I simplified it. 00:10:22.620 --> 00:10:25.806 align:middle line:90% And then it clicked. 00:10:25.806 --> 00:10:29.410 align:middle line:84% And just like mom said, the manticore will show the way. 00:10:29.410 --> 00:10:31.380 align:middle line:84% And in this case, it certainly did. 00:10:31.380 --> 00:10:35.340 align:middle line:84% Actually, I always thought of Whitman as an American Sphinx, 00:10:35.340 --> 00:10:36.240 align:middle line:90% you know? 00:10:36.240 --> 00:10:38.925 align:middle line:84% So I decided I'm going to get a sphinx in there. 00:10:38.925 --> 00:10:40.910 align:middle line:90% So I did.