first edition
1863 · Boston
by Thoreau, Henry D.
Boston: Ticknor and Fields, 1863. First Edition. Very good+ in the publisher's original dark green sawtooth cloth covered boards with copper colored text and decorations and text on the spine, blind embossed borders with a blind stamped wreath on both boards and brown coated end papers. A 12mo of 7 by 4 1/2 inches with the cloth at the head and heel of the spine worn in small spots. An early prior owner's name is in ink on the verso of the first free end page which is duplicated, in pencil, but upside down, on the last fixed end sheet. As is typically seen the frontispiece portrait of Thoreau shows light spots of foxing which have bled through the facing tissue guard to the title page. The contents are otherwise predominantly free of foxing and tanning. 319 pages of text the first 29 pages of which is a biographical sketch of Thoreau written by his friend and mentor Ralph Waldo Emerson. The first edition of this title consisted of only 1,500 bound copies of 1,558 printed. It was the first of his books to carry an image (an engraved frontispiece) of the author. (BAL 20111; Borst A3.1.a)
(Inventory #: TB29397)