Books

First edition and printing. 8vo, publisher s original green pebbled cloth lettered and decorated in gilt on spine, embossed in blind on both covers of a wreath within framed boarders. BAL's binding "A", no sequence determined. (6), 252 pp., ads (dated December 1864). A very good and handsome copy with only light edgewear or evidence of shelving to the tips, light and light mellowing internally. SCARCE FIRST EDITION. Thoreau occasionally left his beloved woods to visit and write about other places. He went to Cape Cod, "Wishing to get a better view than I had yet of the ocean, which we are told covered more than two thirds of the globe, but of which a man who lives a few mile inland may never see any trace." Thoreau's account of his meditative, beach-combing walking trips to Cape Cod, reflecting on the elemental forces of the sea. "Cape Cod chronicles Henry David Thoreau s journey of discovery along this evocative stretch of Massachusetts coastline, during which time he came to understand the complex relationship between the sea and the shore. He spent his nights in lighthouses, in fishing huts, and on isolated farms. He passed his days wandering the beaches, where he observed the wide variety of life and death offered up by the ocean. Through these observations, Thoreau discovered that the only way to truly know the sea its depth, its wildness, and the natural life it contained was to study it from the shore. Like his most famous work, Walden, Cape Cod is full of Thoreau s unique perceptions and precise descriptions. But it is also full of his own joy and wonder at having stumbled across a new frontier so close to home, where a man may stand and "put all America behind him." - Penguin Nature Library.

Cape Cod is a collection of essays by Henry David Thoreau based on his experiences and observations while traveling to Cape Cod, Massachusetts.