Emerson, Ralph Waldo

Essays. [First &] Second Series. Boston: James Munroe & Co., 1841-1844

2 volumes, 8vo (7 x 4 3/8 in.; 178 x 110 mm). Half-title in first volume, 2 pages of advertisements bound in at the end of the second volume; some spotting in preliminaries of second volume and lightly in a few margins. Publisher's black (first volume, BAL Binding "E") and brown (second volume, BAL Binding "A") cloth, covers blindstamped with frames and blindstamped ornaments as are spines, gilt-stamped titles on spines, that of second volume with "2D. Series" below a rule, cream-coated end papers, in brown half-morocco slipcases, visiting card of "Mrs. R.W. Emerson" on front pastedown of first volume;  tiny tears at outer corners of both volumes, 1-inch tear in lower joint and light abrasion to covers of second volume.

Sarah Helen Whitman (signature on title of first volume) — Frederick R. Kirkland (armorial bookplate in second volume)

BAL 189 & 5198; Grolier / American 47

some spotting in preliminaries of second volume and lightly in a few margins. Publisher's black (first volume, BAL "E") and brown (second volume, BAL "A") cloth, covers blindstamped with frames and blindstamped ornaments as are spines, gilt-stamped titles on spines, that of second volume with "2D. Series" below a rule, cream-coated end papers, in brown half-morocco slipcases, visiting card of "Mrs. R.W. Emerson" on front pastedown of first volume; tiny tears at outer corners of both volumes, 1-inch tear in lower joint and light abrasion to covers of second volume.
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First edition, first issue of both volumes, and superb copies in extraordinarily clean bindings, from the library of Edgar Allan Poe's "Helen of a Thousand Dreams" with her signature on the first title.

Sarah Helen Whitman (1803-1878) was a poet and follower of transcendentalism which she discovered through her friendship with Margaret Fuller and other New England intellectuals. An admirer of Poe's stories, she was the object of his attentions in 1848 and 1849, with the prospect of marriage, but he was unable to maintain his vow of sobriety, bringing an end to the relationship.