Books

First edition. This pivotal work of nature writing was a back-to-nature classic which made Thoreau one of the prophets of the early American environmental movement; one of 2,000 copies printed. This is a lovely copy in the original cloth. "The writing of Walden, completed after Thoreau's 1847 return to Concord, was an extended process in which Thoreau worked through seven drafts. Midway through the composition, in the early 1850s, Thoreau underwent an intellectual reorientation that can be described as a conversion from poet-philosopher to naturalist-scientist. He devoted effort to his Journal as a record of nature observation during his daily hikes. The gathering and organization of the particular facts of natural history gradually became his principal task until his death in 1862. The recent discovery that Thoreau's seasonal records could serve as a source for the scientific measurement of climate change has brought a new attention to the value of his later natural history investigations, showing him as a naturalist fully in step with the developments of 19th-century science" (Robinson). This copy has advertisements dated May 1854. The earliest date of advertisements is April 1854, but the book was not published until 12 July 1854 and there is no priority of issue; other advertisements are dated as late as September 1855, although BAL states that these are of "no known bibliographical significance". Nevertheless, some collectors prefer copies with the pre-publication advertisements, as here. From the library of the American outdoorsman and passionate amateur lepidopterist Richard Bayard Dominick, with his bookplate on the front free endpaper. Dominick has commemorated a visit to Walden Pond by preserving two oak leaves inside the custom jacket with his notes. Inside the front panel, he has noted "Bracken from Walden - July 1960. We took the Children to see Walden - The Woods are still quiet & lovely - Now a Mass. State park, many visitors come fishing & picnicking - RBD". Inside the rear panel, he has captioned an "oak leaf from Walden Pond - July, 1960, RBD". BAL 20106; Borst A2.1.a; Grolier American 100, 63. David M. Robinson, "Henry David Thoreau", Oxford Bibliographies, available online. Octavo. Original brown ribbed cloth, spine lettered in gilt, large decorative device within panels in blind to covers, pale yellow endpapers, 8-page publisher's catalogue, dated May 1854, bound between rear endpapers. Housed in a custom cloth jacket, spine lettered in gilt on red morocco label, and leather-entry slipcase. Wood-engraved title page vignette of Thoreau's hut, chart of Walden Pond facing p. 307. With 8 pp. advertisements at rear dated May 1854. Bookseller's ticket of A. Stacy, Concord, on front free endpaper. Spine ends bumped with slight wear, light bump to top edge of rear board, covers a little rubbed with a few marks; jacket roughly cut, spine panel just cracking at centre, leaves on verso professionally re-affixed, small marks where previously taped; slipcase rubbed with a little wear at entry. An excellent copy.

Walden is a reflection upon simple living in natural surroundings written by Henry David Thoreau.