Introduction
This is an imperfect set of the second issue of the Exhumation Proofs. (The Troxell
Collection has another copy of this issue with a
few more pages.) The first issue of the proofs
was printed off on 30 October 1869 from copies of the poems made by DGR from the manuscript
copies he had buried in his wife's grave in 1862. This issue was printed sometime thereafter,
and it incorporates changes DGR made in the first issue. The poems were exhumed on 5 October
1869 and DGR began recopying immediately. He then used his proofs to make further corrections
and additions to the exhumed poems.
Copies of the first issue (imperfect) are also in the Troxell Collection. The only perfect copy of the Exhumation Proofs is in the
Huntington Library. It is a second issue and is bound with a nearly perfect copy of the First
Trial Book.