Peabody, Elizabeth W.

Estimate

4,000 - 6,000 USD

bidding is closed

Description

Peabody, Elizabeth W.
Aesthetic Papers. Boston and New York: The Editor and G.P. Putnam, 1849
printed book

8vo (245 x 150 mm). Original printed wrappers and very rare thus, some minor wear to paper at spine ends. Cloth slipcase.

Provenance

acquisition: Goodspeed

Catalogue Note

First edition of this cornerstone transcendentalist anthology, edited by Elizabeth Peabody. Contains the first appearances of Hawthorne's "Main Street," Emerson's "War" and most crucially, Thoreau's "Civil Disobedience" in its original form, "Resistance to Civil Government."

Nearly all examples of Aesthetic Papers are from a stack of unbound copies discovered in Peabody's attic after her death. A copy in original wrappers is somewhat of a "black tulip" in American literature. We can trace no copies at auction in decades and presumably few if any in this condition have circulated in the trade.