Thoreau, Henry David | "I went to the woods because I wished to live deliberately…"

Property from the Workman Collection

Thoreau, Henry David

Walden; Or, Life in the Woods. Boston: Ticknor and Fields, 1854

8vo. Wood-engraved vignette of Thoreau's hut after a sketch by his sister Sophia, lithographed plan of Walden Pond, 8pp. of publisher's advertisements at the end dated September 1854; some relatively minor toning and spotting throughout. Publisher's brown cloth decoratively ruled and stamped in blind, spine gilt-lettered; very minor shelfwear primarily to lower edges. Housed in custom clamshell case.

First edition — one of 2,000 copies.

"I went to the woods because I wished to live deliberately, to front only the essential facts of life, and see if I could not learn what it had to teach, and not, when I came to die, discover that I had not lived."

Combining nature, philosophy and the classics, Thoreau's account of his year in a shack along the shore of Walden pond was wholly unlike what had come before, and his achievement was a uniquely American contribution to literature.

A very handsome, bright copy of this cornerstone of Transcendentalism.

REFERENCE:

Borst A2.1.a; BAL 20106; Grolier, American 63

PROVENANCE:

David Stefe (early and affectionate gift inscription to front free endpaper)