1842
Reading edition
The New World. Extra Series. Number 34. New York, November, 1842. Original Temperance Novel. Franklin Evans; or The Inebriate. A Tale of the Times. By Walter Whitman.
Royal octavo, pp. 31, uncut.
Published as an extra to "The New World."
The last page (32) contains advertisement: "New Works in Press."
Written during Whitman's Bohemian days it was advertised as a thrilling romance by one of the best novelists in this country and had a sale of between 20,000 and 25,000 copies, which netted the author about $200. References to the work in later years irritated Whitman and he refused to discuss it. The work is extremely scarce considering the great number that were published.