Week Concord Merrimack Rivers by Henry David Thoreau, First Edition (27 results)

paperback. No Jacket. First Edition. New York. 1961. November 1961. Signet/New American Library. 1st Signet Classic Paperback Edition. Previous Owner's Name Penned in Front, Otherwise Very Good in Wrappers. 0451500989. Foreword By Dennis Sutcliffe. 341 pages. paperback. CT98. Cover: Lambert. keywords: Signet Classic Paperback America Literature 19th Century Nature. DESCRIPTION - Composed largely at Walden Pond from early journals and notes of a trip made with his brother some years earlier, Henry Thoreau's apprentice work wholly reveals his life - obsession with the theme of self - sufficiency. Pages of soaring description of wildlife and woodland living are. merely points of departure for fiery, often exuberant polemics on the need for moral fortitude in a society based on utilitarianism. Platonic ideals and mutability, the Bhagavad - Gita and Christian dogma, highly personal notes on economics and satire, are only a few of the meditative counterpoints engendered by intense contemplation of nature. Throughout this rebellious tract filled with hyperboles of youth emerging into manhood, Thoreau implicitly voices his refusal to live out a life of 'quiet desperation.' Americas ~ foremost example of the free spirit, he stands in every sense, as Emerson described him, 'a bachelor of nature.' inventory #29292 Previous Owner's Name Penned in Front, Otherwise Very Good in Wrappers.

Soft cover. Condition: Good. 1st Edition. Soft Cover. Good. 1st. "PAID" stamped front cover.

Paperback. Condition: new. Paperback. Thoreau's Week shared many themes with his classic Walden- self-renewal in nature, the spiritual meanings of perception, and the shallowness of contemporary culture, religion, and politics. But while Walden portrays a pastoral life essentially impervious to time, A Week dramatizes change and the inevitability of loss. The loss that implicitly informs the narrative, deepening its elegiac treatment of New England's past, is the tragic death of Thoreau's brother, John, only three years after the journey. Yet, through the classic structure of departure and return, Thoreau imaginatively redeems both his personal and historical losses, as he voyages upon the stream of time. A Week on the Concord and Merrimack Rivers, an account of a boat trip Thoreau took in 1839, is a finely crafted tapestry of travel writing, essays, and lyrical poetry. Alternating between observation and reflection, Thoreau interweaves day-by-day descriptions of natural phenomenon, the rural landscape, and local characters with digressions on literature and philosophy, the Native American and Puritan histories of New England, the Bhagavad-Gita, the imperfections of Christianity, and many other subjects. An invaluable companion to Walden, it stands alone as one of the most remarkable literary achievements of the nineteenth century. Shipping may be from multiple locations in the US or from the UK, depending on stock availability.

Hardcover. Condition: Very good. 1st Printing. 5 x 8 in. 1114 pages. Cloth boards. Condition is VERY GOOD ;very lighr spotting on covers, light wear to ruling printed on spine. Binding tight, text spotless. Original slipcase has a few tiny spots, minimal edge wear. L of A Stax.

Softcover. First Edition; First Printing. Very Good+ in wrappers. Edge wear and soiling. ; Writings of Henry D. Thoreau; 7.80 X 4.96 X 1.02 inches; 440 pages.

Hardcover. Condition: Fine. Dust Jacket Condition: Fine. First Edition Thus. A Fine copy in dark blue cloth over flexible boards, in a Fine black glossy dustwrapper. 1114pp. Thoreau's four complete books in one volume, Edited, with Chronology and Notes, by Robert F. Sayre. Q04540.

Paperback. Condition: New. First Edition Thus. New. Very little shelfwear. A lovely set with matching slip case. The slip case has a light scratch that can be felt but not seen. Size: 8vo - over 7¾" - 9¾" tall. Nature Writing and Sociology.

Soft cover. Condition: As New. 1st Edition. First thus. Trade paperback. 8vo. Introduction by John McPhee. (xlvi)415pp. Original price sticker affixed to rear panel near lower edge.

Hardcover. Condition: Very Good+. Dust Jacket Condition: Good+. Holden, R. J. (illustrator). First Edition Thus. First edition thus, slipcased hardcover, signed by Holden and marked no. 379 on the limitation page, the book has a hint of sunning to the spine and to the top edge at the binding, and minor smudges to the fore and tail edges of the text block. Overall, a solid, tight and sharp, Very Good+ copy with the toned glassine jacket folded and laid in at the back. Housed in a Good+ slipcase, which has rubbing and some sunning to the panels, a couple of wide peels to the right panel, and bumps to the corners.

Taschenbuch. Condition: Neu. Neuware -In 1839, Thoreau and his brother took a small boat upriver and back. Some years later, while in his cabin at Walden Pond, he gathered his notes from that journey and other writings from his journals, and composed this, his first book.Like the rivers it describes, the book meanders through varying territories and climates. He writes of the natural surroundings they encounter and of the history of the region, but also takes long and remarkable detours through topics like friendship, history, a comparison of Christianity and Hinduism, Vedic literature, government and conscience, Thoreaüs philosophy of literature, monuments and graveyards, poetry (in particular Ossian, Chaucer, and certain minor Greek poets), and the satires of Aulus Persius Flaccus. Thoreau also includes several poems of his own.Thoreau had the first edition of this book published at his own expense, and at first it struggled to find an audience. ¿I have now a library of nearly 900 volumes,¿ he remarked at one point, ¿over 700 of which I wrote myself.¿Books on Demand GmbH, Überseering 33, 22297 Hamburg 412 pp. Englisch.

Hardcover. Condition: Near Fine. Dust Jacket Condition: Very Good. 1st Edition. Inscribed in the year of publication: "For Bob Galvin, our Transcendental lawyer, Linck C. Johnson, Concord, MA 1986." Uncommon signed. This book, by a professor at Colgate, traces the development of Thoreau's *A Week* from "inception to publication." Includes the first draft of *A Week* in full. The recipient of the inscription was a longstanding member of the Thoreau Society and its one-time Vice President. Fine book except for one bump to outer edge of front board that's torn the cloth a smidge; in a very good jacket with a small closed tear in that small spot and a larger tape-mended tear to lower edge of rear panel. We invite you to explore our growing collection of signed and inscribed books related to Thoreau. // Wood (+) River (=) Books specializes in ecology, natural history, nature writing, the environment, and environmental literature, with a special passion for association copies and notable inscriptions.

Condition: Fine. R. J. Holden (illustrator). First Edition. A fine, clean and tight copy in a fine slipcase. Signed by the illustrator. Number 1143/2000 copies. A very nice copy. No bumped corners to book or case. No splits to case. Label to spine on case is very nice. A nice copy.

Hardcover. First Edition; First Printing. Near Fine, Leather Bound, Accented in 22kt gold. Printed on archival paper with gilded edges. The endsheets are of moire fabric with a silk ribbon page marker. Smyth sewing and concealed muslin joints. This book is in full leather with hubbed spines.; First Franklin Library Edition.; 8vo 8" - 9" tall.

Hardcover. First Edition; First Printing. Near Fine, Accented in 22kt gold, printed on archival paper with gilded edges, smyth sewing & concealed muslin joints. Bound In full leather with hubbed spines. A Limited Edition. ; First Franklin Library Edition.; 8vo 8" - 9" tall.

Hardcover. First Edition; First Printing. Fine. Accented in 22kt gold, printed on archival paper with gilded edges, smyth sewing & concealed muslin joints. Bound In full leather with hubbed spines. A Limited Edition. ; First Easton Press Edition.; 4to 11" - 13" tall.

Condition: Good+. 1st Edition. 8vo. A scarce 1st Edition, 1st Printing copy of Thoreau's first book, printed at his own expense and one of just 550 copies bound before unsold copies, including 450 copies of just printed sheets, were returned to Thoreau in 1853 due to lack of sales. 413pp, with the ad for Walden: "Soon to be published" at the end. Bound in publisher's original brown cloth, ruled in blind with titling in gilt to spine. Square tight binding. Clean interior, save for front endpaper with contemporary ownership information in iron gall ink, diagonally clipped. Brown cloth along spine with small chips, including along crown of spine, and closed tears. Two short, closed tears to cloth horizontally across spine. Sporadic light foxing. Mild rubbing and edge wear. Borst-A.1.1.a.

Hardcover. Condition: Very Good. 1st Edition. First edition, First Issue (1849), this is one of the first 550 bound copies of "A Week On The Concord and Merrimack Rivers" and contains the original James Munroe 1849 title page. * * * ABOUT Written while he was living in his cabin at Walden Pond in Concord, "A Week on the Concord and Merrimack Rivers" was Thoreau's first book. Unable to obtain a publisher, Thoreau paid out of his pocket and hired Boston Publisher James Munroe to print the book for him. Munroe refused to market the book for Thoreau, but printed 1,000 copies for Thoreau. Of these, 550 were initially bound, and the remaining 450 copies remained in loose sheets. Without a traditional publisher to do the work and promotion for him, Thoreau struggled to sell "A Week". He gave away 75 copies but by 1853 only 219 more copies had sold. Munroe, who had been storing the extra copies in his basement for nearly two years, told Thoreau to come pick them up. Thoreau hired a horse and cart and transported the remaining 706 copies (450 of which were still in sheets) to his family's house in Concord prompting his famous October 28, 1853 journal entry, "I have now a library of nearly nine hundred volumes, over seven hundred of which I wrote myself." By the time of his death in 1862, Thoreau had sold or given away only another 111 copies. Ticknor and Fields bought the remaining 450 sets of sheets and 145 bound copies, and reissued the unbound copies with a cancelled title page carrying their own imprint. * * * CONDITION The original brown cloth has been rebacked, preserving most of the original spine and the original endpapers. The covers are blindstamped with an elaborate design of plumes and scrolls with an oval-shaped scroll design in the center, all within a five-rule border. There is a 19th century church library blindstamp on the title-page and on a couple of internal pages. On the front pastedown is the bookplate of Edward Borncamp [the curate of the church from 1897-1903]. There is some discoloration and offsetting to the endpapers and evidence of an earlier removal from the front pastedown beneath the aforementioned bookplate. Otherwise the book is very clean inside; some pages, (including the ad at the back of the book for the upcoming "Walden"), are still uncut. * * * PHOTOGRAPHS - more photographs available on request. Pictures with pennies highlight uncorrected words that were changed in later printings of the book.

Hardcover. Condition: Fine. 1st Edition. First edition of Thoreau s first book 1000 copies published at his own expense of which only 550 were bound - less than 300 were sold or given away by the publisher and Thoreau, and in 1853 the remainder was returned to him whereupon he hauled it up to his attic and sarcastically bemoaned the dismal sales. Top edge uncut. Minor wear to spine ends, minor sporadic foxing, lettering at spine foot rubbed off(a common occurrence with the wispy spine cloth), else a Fine, crisp copy with bright gilt.  Scarce in this condition, even 100 years ago when this copy sold at auction.*** Ex-Jacob Chester Chamberlain, famed turn of the century collector with three lines of text dropped by the publisher penciled in his hand on page 396, along with his acquisition slip from another noted collector, Beverly Chew of the Grolier Club in New York City. Housed in an amazing contemporary custom pull off case with elaborate tooling, commissioned by Chamberlain, as was his custom for many of his most fantastic books. Sold at Anderson's 1st Editions of Ten American Authors Chamberlain auction of 1909 along with a myriad of rarities. Dead at 45 in 1905, Chamberlain amassed a par excellence collection of American literature - he held a magical wonderment for the choicest pieces.*** In the late summer of 1839, Thoreau and his older brother John made a two-week boat-and-hiking trip from Concord, Massachusetts, to the White Mountains of New Hampshire. After John's sudden death in 1842, Thoreau began to prepare a memorial account of their excursion. He wrote two drafts of this story at Walden Pond, which he continued to revise and expand until 1849, when he arranged for its publication at his own expense. The book's heterodoxy and apparent formlessness troubled its contemporary audience. Thoreau interweaves descriptions of natural phenomena, the rural landscape, and local characters with digressions on literature and philosophy, the Native American and Puritan histories of New England, the Bhagavad Gita, the imperfections of Christianity, and many other subjects. Modern readers, however, have come to see it as an appropriate predecessor to Walden, with Thoreau's story of a river journey depicting the early years of his spiritual and artistic growth."(Princeton)*** This copy also contains two contemporary ownership signatures - most interestingly one of a Roswell Foster - a reverend in the Concord/general New England area and a contemporary of Thoreau. A few notes in the book about landmarks would point to Foster's hand or at least someone else with intimate knowledge of the areas Thoreau traversed with his brother.Quite simply, a wonderful copy of a beautiful classic by an American legend.***Please email us for better pricing.

Hardcover. Condition: Near Fine. 1st Edition. First Edition, First Printing. A beautiful copy in the original publisher's brown cloth. The book is in nice shape. The binding is tight, and the boards are crisp with minor wear to the edges. The pages are clean with no writing, marks or bookplates in the book. Overall, a lovely copy of this TRUE FIRST EDITION in collectors condition. We buy Thoreau First Editions.

First Edition. THOREAU, Henry David. A Week on the Concord and Merrimack Rivers. Boston and Cambridge: James Munroe, 1849. Octavo, original brown cloth gilt; housed in a custom chemise and half morocco slipcase. $25,000.First edition, first issue, of ThoreauÕs first book, one of only 1000 copies printed and one of less than 400 copies in the publisher's cloth, a beautiful copy from the famed collection of Arthur Swann.In residence at Walden Pond, "Thoreau's first concentrated effort (was) to assemble, flesh out, and then rearrange material about the trip he and (his brother) John had taken on the Concord and Merrimack riversÉ in August and September of 1842É A Week literally evolved from Thoreau's materials at handÉ It is the first of the many American books shaped along a river trip, the first in which the river becomes a stream, not just of water or even of time, but of consciousness itself" (Richardson, 155). Despite some good reviews, the first edition (consisting of one thousand copies) did not sell. Thoreau wrote, "For a year or two past, my publisher, falsely so called, has been writing from time to time to ask what disposition should be made of the copies of A Week on the Concord and Merrimack Rivers still on hand, and at last suggesting that he had use for the room they occupied in his cellar. So I had them all sent to me here, and they have arrived today by express, filling the man's wagon-706 copies [256 bound copies and 450 still in sheets] out of an edition of 1000 which I bought of Munroe four years ago and have ever since been paying for, and have not quite paid for yet. The wares are sent to me at last, and I have an opportunity to examine my purchaseÉ Of the remaining two hundred and ninety and odd, seventy-five were given away, the rest sold. I have now a library of nearly nine hundred volumes, over seven hundred of which I wrote myself" (Harding, 254). In 1862, 595 copies of the first edition were bought from Thoreau by Ticknor and Fields and rebound with a new title page bearing their imprint. Borst A1.1a1. Allen, pp. 2-5. BAL 20104. With the bookplate of Arthur Swann. Swann's collection, known for the excellence of its copies, was auctioned in 1960 at the Parke-Bernet Galleries in New York. In the catalogue for the auction, this copy is described as "an unusually fine copy," noting "the very important point that the imprint at the foot of the backstrip is intact; this imprint is usually defective or entirely lacking."A few contemporary ink marks to text block fore-edge, lower front joint with an expert cloth repair. A beautiful copy.

First edition, first issue, of the author's first book, published at his own expense in a run of 1,000 copies. Due to slow sales, 706 remainder copies were returned to Thoreau in 1853, prompting him to declare, "I have now a library of nearly 900 volumes, over 700 of which I wrote myself". Most of those copies were reissued in 1862 with a cancel title page. Thoreau first established a literary reputation through the newspapers, under the mentorship of Ralph Waldo Emerson. Aided by Emerson, Thoreau sent his first book to publishers, but none were interested unless he covered the costs himself. The advert leaf advises that "Will soon be published, Walden or Life in the Woods.", but due to the commercial failure of his first work, it was not until 1854 that Walden was finally published by Ticknor and Fields. A Week recounts Thoreau's 1839 trip with his brother John. After John's sudden death at age 27, Thoreau planned the work as a tribute to him. "As A Week grew in range and depth, so did Thoreau's understanding of the ways the Industrial Revolution was already, in less than a decade, rewriting the New England landscape, as the ribbons of railroad displaced commerce from the rivers of yore. Into A Week, this intensely personal and private work of his Walden days, Thoreau poured all the best of his younger self, all the passion and poetry of three decades" (Walls, p. 196). Thoreau further developed these themes in his famous second book, Walden (1854). Though under-appreciated during his lifetime, his posthumous reputation has placed him among the major American writers and conservationists. The present copy has the three lines of text that were dropped from the bottom of page 396 by the printers supplied in pencil in a contemporary hand, as also the corrections at pages 94, 120, and 139. Allen, p. 1; BAL 20104; Borst A1.1.a; Howes T220. Laura Dassow Walls, Henry David Thoreau: A Life, 2017. Duodecimo (197 x 122 mm) in sixes. Original brown cloth (BAL binding variant T, trade binding), title gilt to spine with blind rules forming compartments filled with arabesques in blind, blind panels to boards, buff endpapers. Housed in custom dark red cloth flat-back box by the Chelsea Bindery. Slight wear at extremities, spine chipped at head and tail, publisher's name still largely legible at the tail, free endpapers irregularly discoloured, last 3 leaves torn along the bottom margin, no loss of text. A very good copy.

Condition: Fine. First Edition. First edition, first printing of the author's first book, which was published at his own expense. 413, [1], [1, ad for Walden: "Soon to be published"] pp. Bound in publisher's original trade binding with boards ruled in blind and spine decoratively stamped in blind and lettered in gilt, pale yellow endsheets. Small ownership bookplate of former Wall Street executive and 2016 Republican candidate for Vermont Governor Bruce Lisman to front pastedown, as well as the more contemporary ownership signature of William Ingersoll Bowditch dated 1862. Bowditch was a Boston lawyer who participated in the anti-slavery movement, aided freedom seekers on the Underground Railroad as a member of the Boston Vigilance Committee, and served as a leading figure in the Womans' Suffrage Movement. A Fine copy with remarkably bright pages, sharp gilt. Light rubbing to cloth, bruising to spine ends, fore edge cut by binder a little rough. A very bright and sharp copy, unusually nice and scarce thus; one would be hard-pressed to find a nicer copy. Housed in a custom slipcase.

Condition: Very Good. First Edition. First edition. (Three blank lines on p. 396 not filled-in. Trade binding; BAL 20104.) 413, [1], [1, ad for Walden: "Soon to be published"] pp. Original blindstamped brown cloth, spine lettered in gilt, pale yellow endpapers. Very Good with worn and slightly chipped spine ends, edge-rubbing that is heaviest along front joint, a few ink drops to cloth. Top third of front free endpaper excised, penciled former owner's signature to following page, light dampstaining to margins at lower fore-edge, bookplate of John S. Wood on paste down, portrait of Thoreau from early magazine affixed to page facing title page. Housed in custom green cloth with snapping chemise, gilt spine titles. Thoreau's first rare book, published at his own expense.

First edition of the author's first book. 413, [3] pp. With terminal advertisement leaf announcing "Will Soon Be Published Walden, or Life in the Woods ". 1 vols. 8vo. A notable copy of Thoreau's first book, largely overlooked when initially published, and now a recognized classic. Emerson famously declined to review his friend's book; but the present copy makes it clear that some did commit their opinions to print: tipped in at the verso of the announcement for Walden is a 500-word review of the 'Week', signed in type "F.", and with initials "O.B.F." in ink below, in the hand of Octavius Brooks Frothingham (18221895), Harvard class of 1843, Divinity School class of 1846, and in 1849 the minister of the North Church in Salem, Mass. It is likely from a Salem paper, possibly the Observer. Thoreau's lectures were announced in the paper, and in the early 1850s, Frothingham had pamphlets printed at the Observer print shop and his discourses were reported in the paper. Frothingham's biographer Caruthers (page 28): "One wonders what he thought of Henry Thoreau, who in Frothingham's later History of Transcendentalism, received a mere parenthetical reference." This can now be answered. The review opens as follows: In looking over this book we have been agreeably disappointed. [] With all this, however, Mr. Thoreau's book has rare merits. The author is an enthusiast and a scientific one upon the works and scenes of Nature [] This copy includes 2 pencil corrections in the margins, likely in Thoreau's hand, executed in the text in ink in a precise hand (almost certainly that of Frothingham): at p. 120, wash; at p. 139, diency, experience corrected in ink to expediency. After he moved to Jersey City and New York, Frothingham became a champion of nonsectarian religious thought, and wrote frequent criticism, reviewing, for example, Renan's Life of Jesus for the Christian Examiner in 1863. He was also the first historian of Transcendentalism; his work, Transcendentalism in New England (1876), remains the most comprehensive in its historical scope (yet even when it first appeared, it was faulted for neglecting Thoreau). This review is not recorded in Borst's Henry David Thoreau, A Reference Guide (1987), nor in Scharnhorst (1992) or Cameron's two Supplements (1997). It is notable that no reference is made to Thoreau's theology, which so incensed other contemporaries; and that the reviewer has identified Thoreau as an important writer on nature in the line of Gilbert White. A contemporary copy with AN UNREPORTED REVIEW OF THOREAU'S FIRST BOOK. BAL 20104; Borst A1.1.a; for Frothingham, see: Caruthers, Octavius Brooks Frothingham, Gentle Radical (Univ. of Alabama Pr., 1977) Original brown blindstamped cloth. Spine perished, boards edgeworn and detached. Textblock clean and sound. Review of the book tipped in at end on verso of advertisement leaf and facing blank (clipping partly toned). Half morocco slipcase and chemise 413, [3] pp. With terminal advertisement leaf announcing "Will Soon Be Published Walden, or Life in the Woods ". 1 vols. 8vo First edition of the author's first book.