EMERSON, RALPH WALDO | A Group of Five First Editions

The Property of a Gentleman

EMERSON, RALPH WALDO

A Group of Five First Editions

Lot includes:

An Address Delivered Before the Senior Class in Divinity College Cambridge, Sunday Evening, 15 July, 1838. Boston: James Munroe and Company, 1838. 8vo. Ownership signature to title-page, foxing and pencil annotations. Original blue wrappers; minor soiling, one or two chips, tear with loss to rear wrapper. First edition. BAL 5184. Provenance: James Thornton (label to verso of front wrapper). In folding slipcase. — An Oration, Delivered Before the Literary Societies of Dartmouth College. July 24, 1838. Boston: Charles C. Little and James Brown, 1838. 8vo. One or two stray spots. Original blue wrappers; ownership signature to front wrapper, minor soiling, one or two chips, previously folded. First edition. BAL 5185. In slipcase and folding chemise. — An Address Delivered in the Court-House in Concord, Massachusetts, on 1st August, 1844, on the Anniversary of the Emancipation of the Negroes in the British West Indies. Boston: James Munroe and Company, 1844. 8vo. A few stray spots. Original brown wrappers; a few spots, a few chips, primarily to spine. First edition. BAL 5199. In slipcase and folding chemise. — Ceremonies at the Dedication of the Soldiers' Monument, in Concord, Mass. Concord: Printed by Benjamin Tolman, 1867. 8vo. Tipped-in photographic frontispiece; occasional and minor foxing. Original lavender wrappers; minor rubbing and soiling. First edition. BAL 5254. Slipcase and folding chemise. — Dedication of the New Building for the Free Public Library of Concord, Massachusetts, Wednesday, Oct. 1, 1873. Boston: Tolman & White, 1873. 8vo. Two plates, photographic frontispiece; minor toning. Original cream wrappers: ownership signature to front wrapper, one or two splits and chips with loss to one corver and spine, stitching loose. First edition. BAL 5267. 

Group lots not subject to return. 

Emerson returned form his sojourn through Europe in 1833, and in 1834 he moved to Concord, Massachusetts to live with his step-grandfather, Dr. Ezra Ripley (at what was later named The Old Manse, the future home of Emerson's friend, Nathaniel Hawthorne). Upon witnessing the growing Lyceum movement, which provided lectures on numerous topics, Emerson saw a possible career as a lecturer. On 5 November 1833, he delivered "The Uses of Natural History," the first of his some 1,500 lectures.