Beschreibung:

EMERSON, RALPH WALDO. The Method of Nature. An Oration, Delivered before the Society of the Adelphi, in Waterville College, in Maine, August 11, 1841. Boston: Samuel G. Simpkins, 1841. 8vo, original printed light brown wrappers, ends of spine slightly chipped . FIRST EDITION, one of possibly 500 copies printed, AN EXTRAORDINARY PRESENTATION COPY TO HENRY DAVID THOREAU, inscribed in Thoreau's hand in pencil at top of title-page: "Henry D. Thoreau from R.W.E.". Myerson A11.1; BAL 5190; Walter Harding, Thoreau's Library (Charlottesville, 1957), p. 47 (Concord Public Library, since deaccessioned). "Emerson's fame as a speaker before educational bodies continued to bring him invitations...This address [at what is now Colby College], which purported to see how far the method of nature was 'transferable to the literary life,' was not a success. Emerson had difficulty putting it together, and the commencement audience had trouble understanding him" -- John D. Gordan, Ralph Waldo Emerson... Catalogue of an Exhibition from the Berg Collection (New York, NYPL, 1953), p. 16. A fine copy, connecting Emerson and Thoreau -- one of the most profound associations in American literature. Provenance : Ralph Waldo Emerson, presentation to Henry David Thoreau (inscription in hand of latter); Concord Public Library (later deaccessioned); George Talbot Goodspeed (private collection).