Thoreau, Henry David | The Works, with autograph manuscript leaf written at Walden

Thoreau, Henry David

The Works of Henry David Thoreau. Boston: Houghton, Mifflin and Co., 1906

20 volumes, in 8s (225 x 152 mm), uncut and partially unopened, each volume with engraved or photogravure frontispiece, numerous photogravure plates after Herbert Gleason on Japan paper; owner's signature on front pastedowns of vols. 1, 2, 3, and 7. Original green buckram, printed paper spine labels; spines uniformly faded, a few slightly frayed at spine ends, scattered minor soiling. 

Manuscript edition, no. 180 of 600 copies of the Manuscript Edition

Contains a substantial 2 pp. inlaid leaf of autograph manuscript tipped into the first volume, with sections from Thoreau's journals of at least 17 December 1859, and 21 February 1860. Evidently written, in part, at Walden (19:30-33).

The 17 December entry, published in his Journals under the heading "To Walden" reads: "By the side of the Pout's nest I see on the pure white snow what looks like dust for half a dozen inches under a twig. Looking closely, I find that the twig is hardhack and the dust its slender, light-brown, chaffy-looking seed, which falls still in copious showers, dusting the snow, when I jar it."

PROVENANCE

George M. Pflaumer (his sale, Sotheby's New York, 3 June 1997, lot 202)