A Week on the Concord and Merrimack Rivers, by Henry David Thoreau
First Edition/First Printing/Second Issue
"Attic Copy" printed in 1849 by James Munroe, and bound in 1862 by Ticknor and Fields with their title page inside. (See history below).
12mo. Hardcover in plum TR cloth. Binding style D. [BAL 20104]
Condition Notes: Very Good Condition save for the following:
The spine is sun faded. The gilt lettering on the spine remains bright and legible (better in person than conveyed in these photos). Cosmetic tear in cloth at the joint of the spine and back cover revealing paper below but not affecting structure. A few spots of wear and sunning on front and back covers.
Inside, the binding is Very Good, and the pages appear unread with minimal to no foxing.
Browning over the title page.
A modern hand (not Thoreau, perhaps a former bookseller or collector) has written in pencil on the back of the flyleaf describing this book. Below that is a pen gift inscription reading, “To a friend and neighbor, Frederick W.S. Riff, from Ella T. Pearsons, April 18, 1935
History of the first edition of A WEEK ON THE CONCORD & MERRIMACK RIVERS:
A Week on the Concord and Merrimack Rivers was Thoreau's first book and was written when he lived at Walden Pond. At Thoreau’s own expense, in 1849, 1,000 copies of the book were published by Boston publisher James Munroe. Of these, 550 were bound into books; the other pages remained loose. Thoreau gave away 75 copies but by 1853 only 219 more copies had sold. Tired of storing the pages in his cellar, published James Munroe required Thoreau to collect the remaining 706 copies (450 of which were still in sheets) an Thoreau was obliged to collect the remaining 706 bound and loose leaf copies from him. The bound books and loose pages were loaded into a cart and a horse conveyed them to Concord where Thoreau stored them in the attic of his family’s “Yellow House” on Main Street (two blocks away from today’s Barrow Bookstore). This prompted Thoreau’s famed 28 October 1853 journal entry, “I have now a library of nearly nine hundred volumes, over seven hundred of which I wrote myself.” For their unfortunately lack of sales and sojourn to the Thoreau attic, the 706 copies are often nicknamed “The attic copies."
Upon Thoreau’s death in 1862, Boston publisher Ticknor and Fields (who had published WALDEN in 1854), purchased the remaining attic copies of A Week on the Concord and Merrimack Rivers. They bound the loose-leaf copies printed by Munroe in 1849 and inserted their own title page dated 1862. The binders forgot to remove the ad leaf at the end of the volume announcing that Walden (1854) would "soon be published."
The volume offered in this listing is one of those “attic copies” that arrived back to Thoreau in loose leaf form and contains Ticknor and Field’s 1862 title page.
Some of the “attic copies” of A Week contain pencil corrections by Thoreau. This volume does not have any pencil markings but does have all errors in keeping with the first edition/first printing.
What was this book about?
In 1839, Henry David Thoreau and his brother John took a week-long canoe trip on the Concord and Merrimack Rivers. They traveled from Concord to New Hampshire and back. In 1842, while shaving, John cut himself with a rusty razor and soon after died of lockjaw (tetanus) in Henry’s arms. Devastated at the loss of his brother and best friend, Henry moved to WALDEN POND where he built his cabin on the shore. While living at Walden, Thoreau wrote A WEEK ON THE CONCORD AND MERRIMACK RIVERS. The book tells the story of the canoe trip he took with John and explores the natural history of the area and immortalizes their adventures. Together, forever.
References: BAL 20104. BORST A 1.1.a2