Thoreau, Henry David

20 vols. 8vo (8 3/4 x 6 in.; 220 x 150 mm). 3 portraits of Thoreau, map of Concord and environs, 101 full-page photogravure plates after photos by Herbert W. Gleason; as well as color frontispieces and a colored carbon photograph of a flower in each volume after Gleason and 2 page autograph manuscript from the author inserted in first volume.  Three-quarter green morocco and marbled boards, spine gilt with raised bands and floral devices in spine panels; few head caps with minor repairs and some light scuffs to joints.

BAL 20145; Borst B3.

Number 146 of 600 copies of the Manuscript Edition. Contains a substantial leaf of manuscript written recto and verso demonstrating the keen eye of Thoreau the naturalist, who writes of the change of season and the effects of the first frost (about the first of October) on the leaves of trees, shrubs, fireweed, and the cinnamon fern. The text corresponds closely but is not identical to the text of the Journal for early October 1857; there are also similarities to the late essay "Autumnal Tints".