Complete Works of Ralph Waldo Emerson: Autograph Centenary Edition.

EMERSON, Ralph Waldo.

Item Number: 64046

Cambridge: Riverside Press, 1903.

Autograph Centenary edition with a double sided manuscript in Emerson’s hand bound into volume one. Octavo, 12 volumes, bound in original cloth. One of 600 copies. Numerous mounted photogravure illustrations. Manuscript page begins: Will any one question the uses of an aristocracy? Not whilst there is any remainder of the substance in the form. For the name is a verdict. The noble ennobles. That is his use. Can there be any greater?” Introduction and notes by Edward Waldo Emerson. In near fine condition. A nice example of this set.

When Emerson died in 1882 he was the most famous public intellectual in America. This edition of the Complete Works includes all of Emerson’s poems, lectures, biographical sketches, letters, and his famous essays, several of which are here printed for the first time. Their "ethical inspiration and stimulation, their occasional startling phrase, their individualistic idealism, which stirred renascent Yankee New England to its depths, speaks with the same simple power and force in the midst of modern complexities" (Grolier, American 100 47).