Whitman Illuminated : Song of Myself

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.