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How did Ralph Waldo Emerson respond to Leaves of Grass?
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Walt Whitman
American poet Walt Whitman, photograph by Mathew Brady.
Upon receiving the first edition of Leaves of Grass in 1855, Ralph Waldo Emerson offered high praise for the work. He wrote to Walt Whitman expressing his admiration, famously declaring the collection to be "the most extraordinary piece of wit and wisdom" that America had contributed to literature up to that time.1