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"I went to the woods because I wished to live deliberately, to front only the essential facts of life, and see if I could not learn what it had to teach, and not, when I came to die, discover that I had not lived": First Edition of Henry David Thoreau's Walden
THOREAU, HENRY DAVID.
Walden; or, Life in the Woods.
Boston: Ticknor and Fields 1854.
First edition of Thoreau’s masterpiece, one of 2,000 copies. Octavo, original publisher’s brown cloth decoratively ruled and stamped in blind, gilt titles to the spine, wood-engraved title page vignette of Thoreau’s cottage after a sketch by his sister Sophia, lithographed plan of Walden Pond, 8 pages of publisher’s advertisements dated September 1854. Allen 8; Borst A2.1.a; BAL 20106. In near fine condition with a touch of shelfwear. Contemporary ownership inscription. Housed in a custom half morocco clamshell box. An exceptional example of this cornerstone of Transcendentalism.
Price: $20,000.00 Item Number: 142541
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First Edition of Henry David Thoreau's First Book A Week on the Concord and Merrimack Rivers; one of only 1000 copies printed
THOREAU, HENRY DAVID.
A Week on the Concord and Merrimack Rivers.
Boston: Ticknor and Fields 1862.
First edition, first issue, of Thoreau’s first book, one of only 1000 copies printed and 595 copies returned to Thoreau and purchased by Ticknor and Fields for reissue. Octavo, original publishers cloth stamped in blind with gilt titles to the spine. With the Ticknor and Fields cancel title leaf and advertisement at rear. From the library of American book collector and commodore of the New Rochelle Yacht Club Frank Maier with his illustrated bookplate to the pastedown. In near fine condition with the gilt lettering to the spine bright. Housed in a custom half morocco clamshell box. An exceptional example.
Price: $9,800.00 Item Number: 103210
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"When you come to observe faithfully the changes of each humblest plant, you find that each has sooner or later its peculiar autumnal tint, or tints": The Manuscript Edition of The Writings of Henry David Thoreau; In the Original Binding
THOREAU, HENRY DAVID.
The Manuscript Edition of The Writings of Henry David Thoreau.
Boston: Houghton Mifflin and Company 1906.
The manuscript edition of the writings of Henry David Thoreau. With the original manuscript sheet by Thoreau from his journal tipped-in to volume 1. The two page manuscript fragment comprises 58 lines from “Autumnal Tints,” in altered form, published in the Atlantic Monthly, October 1862, and collected in Excursions the following year. The fragment concludes with the line containing the title phrase: “When you come to observe faithfully the changes of each humblest plant, you find that each has sooner or later its peculiar autumnal tint, or tints […].” Octavo, 20 volumes. Bound in the publisher’s three-quarter green morocco over marbled boards, spine elaborately tooled and lettered in gilt in compartments, raised bands, top edge gilt, marbled endpapers. Signed by the publisher. Illustrated in each volume with a photograph of flowers and a hand-colored scenes used as frontispieces and additional plates inserted throughout. In fine condition without wear.
Price: $18,500.00 Item Number: 97590