Search Results: Transcendentalism from Charles Agvent

Concord, 4 November n.y. [1867?]. Letter. Typical folds from mailing. About Fine. A 2-1/4-page letter on a 9-3/4" x 7-3/4" sheet of paper folded in half, addressed to [Cyrus Augustus] Bartol regarding a change of dinner party plans with Charles Eliot Norton and Katharine Louisa Russell, Viscountess Amberley on account of the death of Governor John Albion Andrew (1818-1867), with hopes to re-schedule. SIGNED "R. W. Emerson."

Boston: Ticknor & Fields, 1865. First Edition. Hardcover. Light to moderate foxing. Spine gilt bright with some fraying to the tips and edges. Very Good. Original purple cloth. Binding A, no priority. BAL 20115: 2,040 copies printed. Borst A5.1.a states that 2000 copies were printed. Catalogue dated December 1864.

Boston: Ticknor & Fields, 1865. First Edition. Hardcover. Light to moderate foxing. Spine a touch rubbed but gilt still sharp. A bright, Near Fine copy. Original brown cloth. Binding C, no priority. BAL 20115: 2,040 copies printed. Borst A5.1.a states that 2000 copies were printed. Catalogue dated December 1864.

Boston & London: E. P. Peabody/John Green, 1842. First Edition. Hardcover. Contents with light to moderate foxing; several ink and blindstamp library stamps. Binding Fine. Recently and handsomely bound, without wrappers, in half green morocco leather and marbled boards with morocco corners and gilt-lettered red and brown morocco spine labels. A prototype of the 20th-century little magazine, the DIAL was the most important American literary periodical of the 19th century and one of the scarcest with print runs never exceeding 300 copies. First edited by Margaret Fuller (1840-42) and then by Ralph Waldo Emerson (1842-44), it not only featured many of their most important works but also introduced the writings of Henry David Thoreau. Published only from July 1840 to April 1844, Volume II's four issues contain two poems by Thoreau, including his important "Friendship," later collected in his first book, as well as contributions by Elizabeth Palmer Peabody and much by Emerson including his defining piece… Read More

Boston: Phillips, Sampson, & Co, 1856. First Edition. Hardcover. A few small, faint stains to the cloth; a small gouge on the spine, not terrible in appearance. Otherwise the cloth is in very nice shape with the spine ends intact and the gilt bright. Contents very clean as well with the owner name of C.H.A. Carter on the front endpaper. Near Fine in a Very Good custom-made slipcase. Original black cloth, blindstamped with gilt lettering on the spine, yellow endpapers. BAL 5226; Myerson A24.1.a. This copy with the battered type at the bottom of page 230 and the "1" on the half title page. Emerson's superb book on his travels in England including a chapter on Stonehenge. Housed in a cloth chemise and a half brown morocco slipcase with gilt lettering on the spine.

Boston: James Munroe, 1841 & 1844. First Edition. Hardcover. Tasteful bookplate on each front pastedown; somewhat faint dampstain to preliminaries and first 10 pages of the second volume. Near Fine. First Editions of Emerson's two essential collections of essays, each uniformly bound in later 3/4 brown morocco leather and boards with gilt rules, gilt-lettered spines with five raised bands, top edges gilt. Half-title in first volume, second volume bound without advertisements. One of the defining texts of American Transcendentalism. BAL 5189 and BAL 5198; GROLIER AMERICAN 47: "In effect a single book.... Timeless, and without a trace of 'dating'"; MYERSON A10.1.a and A16.1.a-b.

Boston: Ticknor & Fields, 1863. First Edition. Hardcover. One signature pulled, scattered foxing and staining. Covers lightly soiled with minor wear to the spine, gilt bright. Very Good. Original blue-green Z cloth. Portrait frontispiece, the first book to include a portrait of Thoreau. BAL 20111: 1558 copies printed. Borst A3.1.a states that 1558 copies were printed but only 1500 were bound. Ten pieces are contained within, including a Biographical Sketch by Emerson of Thoreau and nine essays by Thoreau, among them the famous "Walking." Early owner name of Edward L. Temple on the front blank and the early bookplate of the Rutland High School on the front pastedown.

Boston: Osgood, 1876. First Edition. Hardcover. The rear hinge is broken and the front hinge is ready to go with some external splitting there as well. The spine tips are frayed. Good example of one of the finest Emerson Presentation copies extant. Original terra cotta cloth. BAL 5272: Signature mark N present on page 209; Myerson A34.1.a: correct readings on page 308. Myerson also notes that "Emerson was greatly assisted in compiling this volume by James Elliot Cabot and Ellen Emerson." This copy is INSCRIBED and SIGNED by the author: "J. Elliot Cabot, Esq./His book/R. W. Emerson/14 Dec. 1875." Below the inscription, likely in Cabot's hand, is the following: "This, Miss Ellen Emerson says, was the first copy that came to him from the publisher." Myerson states that 5000 copies were printed 15 December 1875, the same day the book was advertised as being published that day in a Boston newspaper. There are also five pages with comments or corrections in pencil in Cabot's hand as well as notes filling… Read More

Detroit: Edwin B. Hill, 1901. First Edition. Hardcover. Owner name of A. W. Adair dated May 1901 on the front blank. Light wear. Near Fine. Original brown cloth with gilt lettering on the spine; xviii, 171 pages. Although there is no indication of such, this title was apparently limited to only 225 copies according to an issue of The Thoreau Society Bulletin dated July 1949 and the original prospectus, not present here. A collection of ten essays and reviews, some of the earliest appreciations or criticisms of Thoreau. Includes George Ripley's and James Russell Lowell's reviews of Thoreau's first book, Charles Frederick Briggs's review of WALDEN, as well as a piece by Amos Bronson Alcott and Henry Williams's memories of the Harvard Class of 1837, where he was a classmate of Thoreau's. The editor was Thoreau's first bibliographer. Publisher Edwin Hill was one of the outstanding pioneers in the spreading of Thoreau's fame. He set the type of this book by hand, a task that took nearly two years, as he… Read More

@1880s. Framed Photograph. Not examined out of the frame but appears to be Fine. Fine portrait of Emerson, image size 8-1/2" x 12-1/2" matted and framed to an overall size of 15" x 20". On the rear of the frame are two labels from Holman's Print Shop of Boston, circa 1940, on which is stated the following: "This photograph was in J. J. Hawes' studio at the time of his death and was stored with the rest of the contents until 1934, when it came to us for sale. It is a photographic copy of a daguerreotype portrait made by Mr. Hawes in the 1840's. The negative was a collodion-process plate ('wet plate'). This print could have been made as late as the 1890's, but more probably dates from the 1880's. When Mr. Hawes made the copy of the daguerreotype is not known." Southworth and Hawes produced some of the finest daguerreotypes of the 19th Century. Among their subjects, besides Emerson, were John Quincy Adams, Zachary Taylor, Daniel Webster, Harriet Beecher Stowe, and Henry Wadsworth Longfellow. Hawes died… Read More

Boston & New York: Houghton, Mifflin and Company, 1900 (1880s). Reprint. Hardcover. Minor rubbing and wear. Near Fine and with a charming look on the shelf. Ten small (4-1/2" x 6-1/8") volumes bound by Stikeman & Co. for Charles Scribner's in 3/4 green morocco leather with gilt-lettered and decorated spines, top edges gilt. Though not numbered on the spines, these appear to be from a 12-volume set and includes NATURE, ADDRESS AND LECTURES, ESSAYS I: FIRST SERIES, ESSAYS II: SECOND SERIES, REPRESENTATIVE MEN, ENGLISH TRAITS, SOCIETY AND SOLITUDE, LETTERS AND SOCIAL AIMS, LECTURES AND BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCHES, MISCELLANIES, and NATURAL HISTORY OF INTELLECT. Lacking are CONDUCT OF LIFE and POEMS. One volume has the date of 1900 on the title page, and most have 1880s dates on the copyright pages. A nearly complete set of Emerson's writings which, without numbers on the spines, passes as complete in appearance.

Boston: Ticknor & Fields, 1866. First Edition. Hardcover. Internally Fine in a Fine, attractive binding. Bound in modern half dark green morocco leather and marbled boards with matching morocco corners with new endpapers. BAL 20117: only 1546 copies printed. Borst A7.1.a notes 1500 copies printed. Edited by Sophia Thoreau. Distinguished for its containing, in addition to the title piece, the first book publication of "Civil Disobedience" and "Life Without Principle," Thoreau's two most famous essays, as well as all of his major political writings. "Civil Disobedience" influenced, among others, Gandhi and Martin Luther King Jr. who cited it as his first intellectual contact with the theory of nonviolent resistance.