THOREAU, HENRY DAVID | A Week on the Concord and Merrimack Rivers. Boston: Ticknor and Fields, 1862

The Property of a Gentleman

THOREAU, HENRY DAVID

 A Week on the Concord and Merrimack Rivers. Boston: Ticknor and Fields, 1862

8vo. Cancelled title leaf with ad at end, several pencil annotations presumably in Thoreau's hand; title page toned, some scattered staining and foxing. Stamped green cloth, ruled with decorative blind stamping, gilt-letter spine; some fading, edges rubbed with some fraying, nick to head of spine. Quarter green morocco slip case and folding chemise.

First edition, 1862 issue of the original sheets and Ticknor and Fields cancel title leaf, with three corrections, presumably in Thoreau's hand

Thoreau's Week is one of the best-known failures in American publishing history. Unable to find a publisher, Thoreau printed 1,000 sets of sheets at his own expense in 1849. The book did not sell well and in 1853 the remaining 706 copies were sent back to Thoreau, where they would sit in his attic bedroom for the next nine years. He made corrections to these over a number of years, and not all copies bear the same emendations.  

Ticknor and Fields eventually bought the remaining bound copies and unbound sheets in 1862 and re-issued Week, including the original ad for Walden, which at that point had been in print for eight years.

REFERENCE:

Allen 2-5; BAL 20104; Borst A1.1.a2

PROVENANCE:

George A Purdie (contemporary ownership inscription to front free endpaper)