ConCORD and the Transcendentalists

AN EMERSON RARITY

“Orations, Lectures, and Addresses. By Ralph Waldo Emerson. London: H. G. Clarke and Co., 66, Old Bailey. 1845” FIRST ENGLISH EDITION, SECOND PRINTING. Publisher’s full black morocco, elaborately gilt-stamped and decorated, with pale yellow endpapers. All edges gilt. With the original illuminated front wrapper bound in after the half-title. The wrapper is a variant unseen by Myerson. Regarding another Emerson title from this series, BAL states that while “[r]umors persist of copies in illuminated boards...[c]ontemporary notices indicated that the book was issued in illuminated wrappers only.” Myerson, likewise, describes only wrappered issues of this and Clarke’s other Emerson titles. Jane Austen bibliographer David Gilson, however, notes that copies of Clarke’s 1844 edition of Sense and Sensibility are found, as here, in full morocco gilt with “all edges gilt, pale yellow endpapers, [and] with the front “illuminated wrapper’ bound in.” Michael Sadlier (Excursions in Victorian Bibliography) claimed that “several of the titles in (Clarke’s Cabinet) series were reissued...by George Slater bound in...morocco...with gold decoration and titling on the spine.” Clarke opened business in 1843, was bankrupt by January of 1846, with his unsold stock auctioned of in 1848. I have seen other copies of Clarke’s Emerson and Austen titles similarly bound, and an identically bound copy of this title, with an 1847 owner signature. So, whether a deluxe binding by Clarke or an anonymous remainder binding by Slater, circa 1846 or 1847, it is clearly a publisher’s binding. The front joint is cracked at the top and bottom and the front board is slightly bowed. Some mottling to the rear board. Good to Very Good. The First appearance in England of Emerson’s most famous orations, including The American Scholar address (Man Thinking) and The Divinity School Address, as well as the first book appearance of Emerson’s “The Young American,” first published a few months earlier in The Dial. Rare. Myerson located only four copies of the First, and a single copy of this Second Printing. BAL 5197. Myerson A 14.1.b.

Ralph Waldo Emerson’s First Book

“A Historical Discourse, Delivered before the Citizens of Concord, 12th September, 1835, on the Second Centennial Anniversary of the Incorporation of the Town. By Ralph Waldo Emerson. Published by Request. Concord: G. F. Bemis, Printer. 1835.” FIRST EDITION, Only Printing. Presumed Second State with the signature mark ‘3’ present. Untrimmed in the original blue wrappers, though lacking the blank rear wrapper. The front wrapper is tired, with creasing, some light staining at the bottom, and chipping to the edges, but is more or less complete but for one silver-dollar sized chip at the fore-edge. There is a smudged and indecipherable contemporary ink signature at the top right and one small archival tape repair to the inner margin of the verso. Chipping and dog-earing to the fore-edge of the text block with an occasional short closed tear in a blank margin. There’s a 3” x 5” rectangular patch of ghosting on pages 16/17 and a mild circular dampstain to the last couple of pages, otherwise the book is fairly clean internally with only minimal foxing or toning. Only a Good copy, but a book that rarely survives in original condition. Myerson A 2.1.

Concord Sketches

by May Alcott

A scarce and unusual bit of Concordiana, which consisted of twelve photographs of drawings by (Abigail) May Alcott. May was Louisa's sister and the model for the artist Amy in Little Women.  The photographs were divided into sections on Emerson, Hawthorne, Alcott, and Thoreau. Louisa provided the prefatory text for each section.  Only 160 copies were printed.  By comparison, There were 2000 copies of the First Edition of Walden. Pictured on the lower left is Alcott's drawing of Thoreau on Walden Pond.

A wrappered ALCOTT RARITY

The Rose Family

Boston: James Redpath, Publisher, 1864