Books

Boston: Ticknor & Fields, 1864. First Edition. Hardcover. Contents clean. Spine sunned, gilt a little dull, and frayed at tips and along edges with a large vertical piece missing but not affecting the lettering. Original plum TR cloth. BAL 20113: 1650 copies printed though Borst A4.1.a states that 1450 copies were printed. True first printing with list of Thoreau's books priced. No catalogue bound into this copy. From the library of John Shepard Keyes with his ownership SIGNATURE in ink on the front fly: "John S. Keyes." Keyes was a close friend and classmate of Henry David Thoreau, just a year or two younger. He was also a fellow suitor of Ellen Sewall, who famously declined Thoreau's marriage proposal. Their friendship was often strained for other reasons; about the same time Thoreau was living in his cabin at Walden Pond, Keyes was seeing his father's will through probate-- the largest estate ever probated in Concord up to that time, and soon after he built a grand home near…

A collection of essays recounting Henry David Thoreau's experiences in the forests of Maine, USA, portraying the natural beauty and untamed wilderness of the area.