Thoreau, Henry David | The Writings of Thoreau, manuscript edition

Thoreau, Henry David 

The Writings of Henry David Thoreau. Boston and New York: Houghton Mifflin and Company, 1906

20 volumes, 8vo. Signed by the publisher, photogravure frontispieces and title page vignettes, titles and half-titles printed in red and black, numerous photogravure illustrations, 2 pages of manuscript bound in to volume 1. Half green morocco over boards, top edge gilt; spines sunned.

Limited manuscript edition, number 100 of 600 copies, signed with manuscript leaves bound in.

The present set boasts one autograph manuscript leaf with two pages of text, one with 27 lines, the other with 22 lines, both with some corrections and deletions, totaling approximately 285 words, including text is from his journals, January-April 1851, where Thoreau laments that no book honestly addresses the central question of how to earn a living poetically and with integrity, insisting that society’s accepted modes of work feel lifeless and degrading compared with a harder but more meaningful path.

REFERENCES

BAL 20145; Borst B3