EMERSON, RALPH WALDO | Essays. First and Second Series

The Property of a Gentleman

EMERSON, RALPH WALDO

Essays. First and Second Series

Essays. Boston: James Munroe and Company, 1841. 8vo (4 1/4 x 7 1/8 in.; 110 x 182 mm). Half-title; some foxing primarily to preliminary leaves, some pencil annotations. Original black ribbed cloth (BAL binding C, but the sequence is "almost entirely arbitrary"), covers ruled and decoratively stamped in blind, yellow coated endpapers; very minor rubbing to covers and head and tail of spine, some discoloration to endleaves. [With:] Autograph note signed ("R.W. Emerson"). 1 trimmed ticket (3 x 1 1/2 in.; 76 x 38 mm) on cream-colored coated card, reading in full "Admit the Bearer to | Mr Emerson's Lecture"; edges discolored. Together in custom quarter brown morocco over cloth slipcase and folding chemise. First edition, with autograph note signed. BAL 5189 — Essays: Second Series. Boston: James Munroe and Company, 1844. 8vo (4 1/4 x 6 7/8 in.; 110 x 176 mm). Publisher's advertisements at end; some primarily marginal foxing. Original black ribbed cloth (BAL binding B), covers ruled and decoratively stamped in blind, yellow coated endpapers; minute break in cloth at head of spine. Custom quarter brown morocco. First edition. BAL 5198

Together two first editions

“Nothing is at last sacred but the integrity of your own mind.” ― Emerson, "Self-Reliance"

The essays collected here are some of the most central texts of Emerson's transcendentalist philosophy, including "Self-Reliance", "The Over-Soul," "Experience," and "Politics." These were largely based on lectures that Emerson gave in the 1830s, but are here published for the first time, and are together regarded as cornerstones of the Transcendental movement. 

An unusually lovely set of Emerson's essays