THOREAU, Henry David (1817-1862). A Week on the Concord and Merrimack Rivers. Boston and Cambridge: James Munroe; New York: George P. Putnam; Philadelphia: Lindsay and Blackiston; London: John Chapman, 1849.

THOREAU, Henry David (1817-1862). A Week on the Concord and Merrimack Rivers. Boston and Cambridge: James Munroe; New York: George P. Putnam; Philadelphia: Lindsay and Blackiston; London: John Chapman, 1849.

The first edition, first issue of Thoreau’s first book, in original cloth. Ostensibly the narrative of the author's boat journey between Massachusetts and New Hampshire, much of the book is Thoreau's meditation on industrialization in his native New England. 1,000 sets of sheets were printed at Thoreau's expense in 1849. The book did not sell well and in 1853 the remaining 706 copies were sent back to Thoreau, where they would sit in his attic bedroom for the next nine years. Ticknor and Fields eventually bought the remaining bound copies and unbound sheets in 1862 for 40 cents each. It is now considered both a classic in its own right and a valuable forerunner to Walden. BAL 20104a.

Octavo (196 x 118mm). One-page advertisement for Walden at end, occasional pencil annotations (faint dampstain to ad leaf). Publisher's original brown cloth, gilt-lettered on spine (discreet repair to head of spine, corners lightly rubbed); green solander box. Provenance: M. Le Baron Russell (pencil inscription on flyleaf; a descendant of the Le Baron Russell family, who were close with Ralph Waldo Emerson) – Maxwell Hunley Rare Books (label).

Pre-Lot Text
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