Henry D. Thoreau, 1854

THOREAU, Henry D. (1817-1862). Walden: or, Life in the Woods. Boston: Ticknor and Fields, 1854.

A bright copy of the first edition. Robert Frost remarked that in this one book Thoreau "surpasses everything we have had in America" (letter to Wade Van Dore, 24 June 1922). "Solid chunks of thought, in the midst of a solid chunk of nature, proving that the minimum of cash expenditure and of creature comfort may result in the maximum of acute observation and cerebration—for almost a hundred years an inspiration to nature-lovers, to philosophers, to those of a Calvin Coolidge turn, and to persons who love to read the English language written with clarity" (Grolier American). BAL 20106.

Octavo (180 x 110mm). 8 pp. of ads at rear dated October 1854, map with imprint inserted at p.306, yellow endpapers (last two leaves a little creased and apparently reinserted). Original brown cloth, spine stamped in gilt (cloth a touch rubbed, corners just showing); custom quarter morocco clamshell box.