At Sea [drop title]

[Esopus, N.Y.?], ca1883. Full gilt stamped dark blue morocco with gilt inner dentelles and marbled endpapers; ca 1930. Binder's stamp: Blackwood.. Near fine.. Royal 8vo, 29 leaves; autograph - in Burrough's hand, and signed. Each leaf neatly inset into a larger sheet and then bound.

All the appearances of a working manuscript, with corrections, revisions, and insertions. It first appeared in the April 1883 issue of The Century and published in book form as the final piece in Fresh Fields in 1885. There are variations between this manuscript and the final printed version in Fresh Fields. Burroughs is best known for his naturalist writings and close friendship with Whitman. In his younger days he travelled to Jamaica, Bermuda, Hawaii, and Yosemite (with Muir). Fresh Fields was a product of these travels and it was fitting that this essay on sailing as an experience of distance and vacancy should be the final contribution included in that volume. A wonderful example of Burrough's sympathetic writings as a naturalist. DAB III, 330-334.