It is easy, and periodically fashionable to take Whitman for granted. Yes he is shamelessly self-involved and often goofy. He is also -- and here's the point, brothers and sisters -- continually amazing, and very good company. As with Bruckner Symphonies and the poems of Homer, there will always be the vexing question of which text is best. This particular edition is that, but its occasional inadequacies are more than covered by the wonderful illustrations by Lewis C. Daniel, an artist who dserved better than the obscurity into whic he has fallen. ( )