A Memoir of Ralph Waldo Emerson by James Cabot, First Edition, Volumes I and II, 1887

A Memoir of Ralph Waldo Emerson. James Cabot. The Riverside Press: Cambridge, 1887. First edition. Volumes I and II. Original marbled boards with half calf. Gilt title on spine. 5.25 x 7.5 inches. 382 pages and 303 pages respectively. First volume with black and white portrait of Emerson inside front free end paper with tissue guard. "The position of literary executor to which he appointed me," begins Cabot, "and the desire of his family that I would write a memoir of him, have given me access to his unpublished writings (including many letters confided to me by some of his most valued correspondents, to whom I render hearty thanks), and to sources of (truncated) information in the memories of persons who knew him in his early years and in his home. My aim has been to use these opportunities to furnish materials for an estimate of him...he did not readily communicate his feelings of the moment, before they were tried and sifted by reflection." Cabot's account of Emerson came out five years after his death and was commissioned by the estate to provide a closer representation of the great man than already existed. As such it captures Emerson in a particular moment in time, the memory of who he was in life still close enough that history had not yet made him a giant. Light shelfwear. Spine cracked to show binding but still sturdy in first volume. Owner ex-libris on front pastedowns. Very small stain to back free endpaper in both. Small wormhole through second volume textblock. Textblocks clean and tight. In very good condition. (Inventory #: 18219)