Trivia: What book did the author himself have to pay to have published? Walden, by Thoreau, Leaves of Grass by Walt Whitman, Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man by James Joyce, or The Wasteland by T.S. Eliot?

I think it was Joyce. I seem to remember reading that somewhere.

Hi scs,

Walden, by Thoreau was first published by Ticknor and Fields in 1854. Thoreau did publish some of his own works prior to this (most notably "A Week on the Concord and Merrimack Rivers").

"Leaves of Grass" was by Walt Whitman himself in 1855.

"Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man" by James Joyce was originally published in serial form by "The Egoist" magazine 1914-1915.

"The Wasteland" by T.S. Eliot was first published in the quarterly publication "Criterion" in 1922. BUT here's where it gets interesting - T.S. Eliot founded the magazine(?) himself in 1922, so technically he published it himself, although not in book form.

SO... to answer your original question: To the best of my knowledge "Leaves of Grass" and "The Wasteland" were self-published.

Leaves of grass