Complete Works of Ralph Waldo Emerson: Autograph Centenary Edition.

EMERSON, Ralph Waldo.

Item Number: 93755

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 three quarters contemporary morocco over marbled boards, elaborately gilt-decorated spines, raised bands, top edge gilt, marbled endpapers. One of 600 copies. Numerous mounted photogravure illustrations. Preface and notes by Edward Waldo Emerson. In near fine condition. A very sharp 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).