Walden; or, Life in the Woods.

THOREAU, Henry David.

Item Number: 142541

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.

Combining nature, philosophy and the classics, Thoreau's account of his year in a shack along the shore of Walden pond was wholly unlike what had come before, and his achievement was a uniquely American contribution to literature. "[Walden] still seems to me the best youth's companion yet written by an American, for it carries a solemn warning against the loss of one's valuables, it advances a good argument for traveling light and trying new adventures, it rings with the power of powerful adoration, it contains religious feeling without religious images, and it steadfastly refuses to record bad news" (E. B. White, Yale Review, 1954).