Ralph Waldo Emerson | The Complete Works of Ralph Waldo Emerson, the autograph centenary edition

Emerson, Ralph Waldo

The Complete Works of Ralph Waldo Emerson. Cambridge: Riverside Press, 1903-1914

20 vols (of 22), lacking final 2 volumes of Journals, 8vo (220 x 125 mm). Autograph manuscript leaf (205 x 125 mm) window-mounted into vol 1, titles in red and black, photogravures and frontispiece portraits of Emerson mounted on india paper, publisher’s signature on limitation leaf; few spots, some leaves unopened, some uncut, lightly toned, small tear to limitation leaf of vol 5. Green morocco boards, gilt-decorated, spine gilt-lettered with raised bands in six compartments, gilt dentelles, pink morocco doubloures, top edges gilt, moiré endpapers; spines variously sunned, minor scuffing and wear to extremities, few volumes with chipping and scuffs to headcaps, front hinge of vol 1 cracked but holding.

The Autograph Centenary Edition of the author's works, journals, and essays, numbered 265 of 600 copies, with a manuscript leaf bound in.

The leaf is a portion of his "Man the Reformer” lecture, delivered in front of the Mechanics’ Apprentices’ Library Association in Boston on 25 January 1841. Emerson posits the role of the farmer and its intimate relationship to land, diligence, and self-sufficiency as the ideal model of social reform.