THOREAU, HENRY DAVID | A Week on the Concord and Merrimack Rivers. Boston: Ticknor and Fields, 1862

The Property of a Gentleman

THOREAU, HENRY DAVID

A Week on the Concord and Merrimack Rivers. Boston: Ticknor and Fields, 1862

8vo (7 5/8 x 4 1/2 in.; 194 x 115 mm). Cancelled title leaf with ad; title page toned with minor staining and foxing. Stamped green cloth, ruled with decorative blind stamping, gilt-letter spine; minor wear at spine tips and corners. Half morocco slip case with gilt stamped spine and decorative border. 

First edition, 1862 issue of the original sheets and Ticknor and Fields cancel title leaf. 

Thoreau's Week is one of the best-known failures in American publishing history. Unable to find a publisher, Thoreau printed 1,000 sets of sheets at his own 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 and re-issued Week, including the original ad for Walden, which at that point had been in print for eight years.rs.

REFERENCES

Allen 2-5; Johnson High Spots 73

PROVENANCE

Frank Maier (bookplate to front pastedown) — Carolyn Wells (bookplate to front pastedown)