WALDEN; or, Life in the Woods

Boston: Ticknor and Fields, 1854. First Edition. Hardcover. First edition, first printing with the title page vignette of Walden's hut, the map facing p.307 with the S.W. Chandler imprint, and the publisher's ads dated April, 1854. Critical of 19th century America's booming commercialism and industrialism, Thoreau (1817-62) moved to a small cabin in the woods of Concord, Massachusetts in 1845. Walden, the account of his stay near Walden Pond, conveys at once a naturalist's wonder at the commonplace and a transcendentalist's yearning for spiritual truth and self-reliance. Octavo: 357, [7, blanks], 8 [ads] pp. The original brown cloth binding was been expertly (truncated) rebacked with most of the original spine laid down. Light foxing to the contents; else very good. BAL 20106. (Inventory #: 78405)