Rare Books
Walden, or, Life in the woods
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Daily: 10 A.M.–5 P.M.
Closed on Tuesdays
1151 Oxford Road
San Marino, CA 91108
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Manuscripts
Volume 1 [Draft A], late September 1846 to September 1847; Volumes 2-3 [Drafts B-C], mid 1848 to late summer 1849; Volume 4 [Draft D], early 1852 to September 1852; Volume 5 [Draft E], September 1852-1853; Volume 6 [Draft F], late 1853 to early 1854; Volume 7 [Draft G], February and March 1854; Volume 8 [Additional Material], [1854]. The eight manuscript volumes, partly in pencil, include parts of early versions, with some torn pages; the volumes contain substantial corrections and deletions. The work is a memoir of simple living in natural surroundings that includes spiritual discovery, social experiment, and satire; it was written over the course of two years, two months, and two days but Thoreau compressed the time into a single calendar year.
mssHM 924