Nature; Addresses and Lectures
Boston: Phillips, Sampson & Co., 1850. Single volume, measuring 7 x 4.25 inches: [2], vi, 383, [1]. Original dark brown ribbed cloth ruled and decorated in blind, titled in gilt on spine, yellow coated endpapers. Ownership signature of “R.H. Stoddard” to front free endpaper. Occasional light foxing, rubbing to edges and corners, expert repair to spine.
First edition of this mid-career collection of Ralph Waldo Emerson’s most popular writings, including “Nature,” “The American Scholar,” “The Transcendentalist,” and “Literary Ethics:” “you must come to know, that each admirable genius is but a successful diver in that sea whose floor of pearls is all your own.” This copy contains the ownership signature of prominent American man of letters Richard Henry Stoddard (1825-1903). A poet, journalist, and editor, Stoddard would later serve as city librarian of New York. Second issue, with cancel title page dated 1850, listing Phillips, Sampson as publisher after Phillips assumed the remaining stock of this title from James Munroe. Myerson A21.1.a2. A very good copy, with excellent American literary provenance.
Price: $950.00