Manuscripts

Walden; or, life in the woods : corrected proof, 1854

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Description: Proof sheets with manuscript corrections of entire printed text of "Walden." Corrections in pencil are in Thoreau's hand. On the title page: E.J. Weir from Sophia E. Thoreau. A separate leaf contains a table of contents (in pencil) in Thoreau's hand.
Type: Manuscripts(Opens in new tab)
Date: 1854
Call number: mssHM 925
Creator: Thoreau, Henry David (1817-1862)(Opens in new tab)
Provenance: Purchased from William K. Bixby library, 1918.
Restrictions: RESTRICTED. Available with curatorial approval. Requires extended retrieval and delivery time.

Walden; or, life in the woods

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

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Henry David Thoreau poems

Manuscripts

Manuscript poems by Henry David Thoreau copied in the hand of Thoreau's sister Sophia E. Thoreau. Contents: Haze (page 1a); The Funeral Bell (pages 1a-b); Voyagers Song. 1837 June (page 2a); Change Not (page 2b); A Rural Scene, afternoon in May (page 3a); The Ark (page 4a); Enoch (page 4a); The Prayer (page 4b); "Every little spring flows on …" (page 5a); "My feeble bark has reached the shore…" (Michelangelo) (page 6a). At the top of page 1 there is a penciled note of authentication by F. B. Sanborn. A leaf containing 2 pages of penciled notes about books, in Sophia Thoreau's hand, is laid with the above.

mssHM 13190

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Index Rerum

Manuscripts

Manuscript (holograph, signed) commonplace book, "Index rerum," containing an index to Thoreau's Journal, a library catalogue, original compositions, and reviews of books. Partly in pencil. Laid into the volume is a letter to Thoreau from Ticknor & Fields, 1862 April 11 (incomplete); a list of books from Thoreau's library by Elizabeth J. Weir; and a list of "Books in my possession," by F. H. Bigelow, 1872 June.

mssHM 945