[Rarebooks] FS: THE MAINE WOODS Owned by a Friend of Thoreau's, price reduced
Charles Agvent
charles at charlesagvent.com
Thu Aug 29 14:44:38 EDT 2019
Price reduced to $1300 NET
THOREAU, Henry David. THE MAINE WOODS. Boston: Ticknor & Fields, 1864.
First Edition. Original plum TR cloth. BAL 20113: 1650 copies printed
though Borst A4.1.a states that 1450 copies were printed. True first
printing with list of Thoreau's books priced. No catalogue bound into
this copy. From the library of John Shepard Keyes with his ownership
SIGNATURE in ink on the front fly: "John S. Keyes." Keyes was a close
friend and classmate of Henry David Thoreau, just a year or two younger.
He was also a fellow suitor of Ellen Sewall, who famously declined
Thoreau's marriage proposal. Their friendship was often strained for
other reasons; about the same time Thoreau was living in his cabin at
Walden Pond, Keyes was seeing his father's will through probate-- the
largest estate ever probated in Concord up to that time, and soon after
he built a grand home near the town center. Keyes became a prominent
citizen of Concord, later serving as a judge. Like Thoreau, Keyes was
also friends of the Emerson family and kept a diary that echoed many of
Thoreau's views of life. But Keyes was less conflicted about getting on
in the world, was politically conservative, and openly admitted his
philistine leanings. After Thoreau's death he was interviewed from time
to time about his dead friend, and like other Concordians, he usually
provided a candid and negative account. For the most extended
biographies of Keyes, consult THE CONCORD SOCIAL CIRCLE, and Smith,
HISTORICAL GUIDE TO HENRY DAVID THOREAU, pages 212-220 et seq. Also see
Thoreau, CORRESPONDENCE, pages 192 and 656, for letters of Thoreau
mentioning Keyes and Meltzer & Harding, A THOREAU PROFILE, pages 30-31,
for a diary entry by Keyes about Thoreau. Association copies of
Thoreau's posthumous books are scarce, and this is an important one.
Contents clean. Spine sunned, gilt a little dull, and frayed at tips and
along edges with a large vertical piece missing but not affecting the
lettering.
About THE MAINE WOODS, Dave Foreman, Earth-First eco-warrior/author, has
written that it is "Thoreau's finest book, far deeper and more important
than WALDEN ... on his two trips into the deep Maine wilderness
[Thoreau] had the epiphany that enabled him to realize that 'in wildness
is the preservation of the world.' MAINE not WALDEN changed American
intellectual history." (#015690) $2,000.00
https://www.charlesagvent.com/shop/agvent/015690.html
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the International League of Antiquarian Booksellers (ILAB).* Please feel
free to contact us with any wants or offerings. Thank you.
CHARLES AGVENT
37 Ridge Drive
Fleetwood, PA 19522-9638
484-575-8825
info at charlesagvent.com
Please visit our shop: https://www.charlesagvent.com
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