EMERSON, RALPH WALDO | Nature. Boston: James Munroe and Company, 1836

The Property of a Gentleman

EMERSON, RALPH WALDO 

Nature. Boston: James Munroe and Company, 1836

12mo (7 3/8 x 4 1/2 in.; 187 x 115 mm). Pencil correction to p. 32 in the hand of Emerson himself or his assistant, Charles S. Wheeler; scattered foxing, "By Ralph Waldo Emerson" added to title-page in pencil (not in Emerson's hand). Publisher's brown cloth (Myerson's "Cloth 3" with "Stamping E"), upper cover gilt-lettered; some fading and spotting, minor wear to corners, faint dampstaing at the bottom of the rear cover. In custom red cloth covered clamshell case.

First edition of Emerson's first book, apparently corrected by him, and published the year after he had settled in Concord

“The health of the eye seems to demand a horizon. We are never tired, so long as we can see far enough.” — Emerson

Based on his earlier lectures, Nature was the fundamental document of Emerson's

transcendental philosophy. The entire first printing of Nature is believed to have consisted of only 1,500 copies. In the present copy p. 94 is properly numbered, which is probably, but not certainly, indicative of the later state.

REFERENCES

BAL 5181; Myerson A3.1a

PROVENANCE

Roswell Dwight Hitchcock (bookplate to front pastedown)