Available Copies from Independent Booksellers
Thoreau, Henry D.. The Maine Woods. Ticknor and Fields, Boston, 1864.
Price: US$265.00 + shipping
Condition: Fair
Description: Original black cloth. Crudely rebacked with black tape with original spine remounted; cover edges and corners worn; blank leaf removed after front flyleaf; small stain in gutter through about first half of text. Advertisement for "Mr. Thoreau's writings" list four titles with prices. Catalog at back dated June 1864. Last leaf advertising "the fourteenth volume."
Seller: By Books Alone, Woodstock, NY, U.S.A.
Henry David Thoreau. The Maine Woods. Ticknor & Fields, Boston, 1864.
Price: US$650.00 + shipping
Condition: Very Good
Description: FIRST EDITION/FIRST PRINTING in original rebacked green boards; chocolate original endpapers + new pastedown over original and 2 new additional endpapers front and back; 328pp + 22pp of "A List of Books" by Ticknor & Fields + 1pp advertising "The Atlantic Monthly." Very Good in professionally rebacked cover (see photos) with gilt titling on spine; corners worn; old owner name on original flyleaf (very faint); another owner signature back of flyleaf; and another on title page signed vertically; other text clean and tight; slight toning on page edges; no foxing. A very nice collectible copy of a scarce title in first edition.
Seller: North Slope Books, Lancaster, PA, U.S.A.
Thoreau, Henry David. THE MAINE WOODS. Ticknor and Fields, Boston, 1864.
Price: US$800.00 + shipping
Description: 12mo., 304 pages plus appendix and publisher's advertisement; VG-; Rebound in green cloth with original dark green spine laid down, slightly faded gilt lettering within wreath ornament; Minimal shelfwear to boards and corners; Faint scratch to textblock fore-edge, small chips to pages 141-144, and a small faint damp-stain at top edge that is visible on interior pages from roughly p. 200 - end; Ex Libris of former owner on front pastedown; CX consignment; shelved case 10. BAL 20113. 1346128. Shelved Dupont Bookstore.
Seller: Second Story Books, ABAA, Rockville, MD, U.S.A.
Thoreau, Henry David. THE MAINE WOODS. Ticknor and Fields, Boston, 1864.
Price: US$800.00 + shipping
Description: Octavo, [i-viii], 1-328 pages. In Good minus condition. Bound in purple cloth with gilt lettering on sunned spine. Boards show significant splitting to front joint, partial splitting to rear joint, moderate rubbing to corners exposing boards, bending to corners, spine edges chipped off, sunning to spine, and boards exposed on head and fore edges of both covers. Text block has splitting to front and rear interior hinges, light foxing to some pages, bottom corner of page 35 missing. Ex library, with glue staining to pastedowns and endpapers, faded stamp to page 328. Presumed Second printing with no prices for Thoreau's other works, thought also no mention of second edition. Does not have publisher's catalog in rear. BAL 20113. Shelved in Room A. 1370596. Special Collections.
Seller: Second Story Books, ABAA, Rockville, MD, U.S.A.
Henry David Thoreau. The Maine Woods. Tickner And Fields,, Boston:, 1864.
Price: US$900.00 + shipping
Description: Very good in brown, blind stamped cloth covered boards with decorative blind stamping on the boards with the spine decorated with a gilt wreath and gilt text which is worn and fading. A 12mo measuring 7 1/8 by 4 1/2 inches with coated brown end sheets with the cloth over the joints worn in several areas and at the head and heel of the spine. The cloth over the tips of the boards is worn through. The last half of the text block shows a very faint dampness stain to the upper fore corner in the margins. The hinges, joints and the contents are sound and tight. 328 pages including an appendix. This edition was not bound with the publisher's catalog. The page facing the title page shows a list of Thoreau's books published by Ticknor And Fields with the sizes of each book listed. One of only 500 copies of the second edition printed. (BAL, 20113; Borst, A4.1.b)
Seller: Town's End Books, ABAA, Deep River, CT, U.S.A.
THOREAU, HENRY DAVID.. The Maine Woods. Boston: Ticknor & Fields, 1864, 1864.
Price: US$1000.00 + shipping
Description: First Edition. Bookplate; front hinge started; minor page staining; very good. With the April ads, which is not significant, but still preferred to copies issued with later ads. All books described as first editions are first printings unless otherwise noted.
Seller: Peter L. Stern & Co., Inc, Newton, MA, U.S.A.
Henry D. Thoreau. The Maine woods. Ticknor and Fields, Boston, 1864.
Price: US$1050.00 + shipping
Condition: Good
Description: [viii], 328. 22-page catalog dated April 1864 at rear, followed by the advertisement for the thirteenth volume of the Atlantic Monthly; a priced list of Thoreau's books opposite title-page. This is a sound and attractive copy of the first printing of what is regarded by some as Thoreau's finest work, in the publisher's pebbled blind- and gold-stamped green cloth-covered binding. The binding is sturdy though moderately rubbed, with light wear to its corners and rubbing to the head and foot of its spine, the gold-stamped lettering and device to its spine faded but legible; the inner hinges are sturdy, one signature is detached, the text bears a thoughtful reader's marginal lines in pencil and their notes in pencil (with one in pen) at final two blanks. 460 grams.
Seller: Carothers and Carothers, Albany, CA, U.S.A.
Thoreau, Henry D.. The Maine Woods. Ticknor and Fields, Boston, 1864.
Price: US$1350.00 + shipping
Description: 8vo, 328pp, no ads; plum cloth. From the library of businessman, philanthropist, and New Jersey Democratic political figure George Mason LaMonte. Bookplate; two small name labels partly removed, one from front pastedown and one from first blank leaf; hinges rubbed; slight wear to spine-ends; slight fading, still an attractive copy.
Seller: Locus Solus Rare Books (ABAA, ILAB), Los Angeles, CA, U.S.A.
Thoreau, Henry D.. THE MAINE WOODS. Ticknor and Fields, Boston, 1864.
Price: US$1400.00 + shipping
Description: Octavo, 328 pages, 22, [1] ads; VG; bound in publisher's blind and gilt-stamped brown cloth, gilt titling to spine; housed in a VG custom buckram covered slipcase with matching chemise, leather label with faded titling; ink signature dated 1864 on ffep; light foxing; gutters beginning to crack, tail of front hinge cracking; one page of ads facing title page, April 1864 catalogue and one-page ad for the Thirteenth Volume of The Atlantic at rear; CX consignment; shelved case 1. BAL 20113, Borst A4.1.a.; Henry D. Thoreau traveled to the backwoods of Maine in 1846, 1853, and 1857, and this account of his published posthumously in 1864 from his lectures and essays.; 1345503. Shelved Dupont Bookstore.
Seller: Second Story Books, ABAA, Rockville, MD, U.S.A.
Henry David Thoreau. THE MAINE WOODS. Ticknor and Fields., Boston, 1864.
Price: US$1800.00 + shipping
Condition: Very Good
Description: 8 vo. Octavo. 328 pp. First edition. Original publisher's plum PD cloth. List of Thoreau's books with prices, 22 pp publisher's catalog dated April 1864, last leaf advertising the Thirteenth Volume. Blindstamped wreaths on covers with borders. Gilt spine titles with "Author of Walden." Brown coated endpapers. Condition is VERY GOOD+ ; covers extremely clean. Edges and spine moderately sunned. Minimal wear to corners, spine ends have some slight wear with a few teensy chips. Binding tight. Text extremely bright, clean and unmarked. Bookplate of an earlier collector on front pastedown, printed with a scene of a woman on a porch, a book on her lap and sailboats in the distance. BAL 20113. Phil. Rare. RGR.
Seller: Andre Strong Bookseller, Blue Hill, ME, U.S.A.
THOREAU, Henry David. THE MAINE WOODS. Ticknor & Fields, Boston, 1864.
Price: US$1875.00 + shipping
Description: Original plum TR cloth. BAL 20113: 1650 copies printed though Borst A4.1.a states that 1450 copies were printed. True first printing with list of Thoreau's books priced. No catalogue bound into this copy. From the library of John Shepard Keyes with his ownership SIGNATURE in ink on the front fly: "John S. Keyes." Keyes was a close friend and classmate of Henry David Thoreau, just a year or two younger. He was also a fellow suitor of Ellen Sewall, who famously declined Thoreau's marriage proposal. Their friendship was often strained for other reasons; about the same time Thoreau was living in his cabin at Walden Pond, Keyes was seeing his father's will through probate-- the largest estate ever probated in Concord up to that time, and soon after he built a grand home near the town center. Keyes became a prominent citizen of Concord, later serving as a judge. Like Thoreau, Keyes was also friends of the Emerson family and kept a diary that echoed many of Thoreau's views of life. But Keyes was less conflicted about getting on in the world, was politically conservative, and openly admitted his philistine leanings. After Thoreau's death he was interviewed from time to time about his dead friend, and like other Concordians, he usually provided a candid and negative account. For the most extended biographies of Keyes, consult THE CONCORD SOCIAL CIRCLE, and Smith, HISTORICAL GUIDE TO HENRY DAVID THOREAU, pages 212-220 et seq. Also see Thoreau, CORRESPONDENCE, pages 192 and 656, for letters of Thoreau mentioning Keyes and Meltzer & Harding, A THOREAU PROFILE, pages 30-31, for a diary entry by Keyes about Thoreau. Association copies of Thoreau's posthumous books are scarce, and this is an important one. About THE MAINE WOODS, Dave Foreman, Earth-First eco-warrior/author, has written that it is "Thoreau's finest book, far deeper and more important than WALDEN . on his two trips into the deep Maine wilderness [Thoreau] had the epiphany that enabled him to realize that 'in wildness is the preservation of the world.' MAINE not WALDEN changed American intellectual history." Contents clean. Spine sunned, gilt a little dull, and frayed at tips and along edges with a large vertical piece missing but not affecting the lettering
Seller: Charles Agvent, est. 1987, ABAA, ILAB, Fleetwood, PA, U.S.A.
Thoreau, Henry David. The Maine Woods. Ticknor & Fields, Boston, 1864.
Price: US$2000.00 + shipping
Description: First edition. [viii], 328 pp., + 23 pp. publisher's catalogue, dated April 1864. 1 vols. 8vo. Borst A4.1a; BAL 20113; Sprague 25 [viii], 328 pp., + 23 pp. publisher's catalogue, dated April 1864. 1 vols. 8vo
Seller: James Cummins Bookseller, ABAA, New York, NY, U.S.A.
THOREAU, Henry D.. The Maine Woods. Ticknor and Fields, Boston, 1864.
Price: US$2200.00 + shipping
Description: First printing, with prices in the list of Thoreau's previous titles. 12mo (19cm). Blindstamped plum TR cloth, titled in gilt on spine; chocolate brown endpapers; [viii],328pp; list of Thoreau's previous titles facing t.p. Pencil ownership inscriptions of Horace S. Dodd, May 1864. Straight and sound, cloth faded to brown at spine, head and tail rubbed, small loss to front free endpaper corner, else clean: Very Good. A sound copy of Thoreau's fourth book, published posthumously and edited by William Ellery Channing and Sophia Thoreau. The book's first owner, Horace Dodd, must have bought it just days after its publication: Dodd's inscription is dated May 1864, and BAL states that the title was published on May 28. 1650 copies were printed, and some were still being bound as late as July 23. Bound without the publisher's catalogue. BORST A4.1.a. BAL 20113.
Seller: Lorne Bair Rare Books, ABAA, Winchester, VA, U.S.A.
Thoreau, Henry D.. The Maine Woods. Ticknor and Fields, Boston, 1864.
Price: US$2250.00 + shipping
Condition: Very Good
Description: 328 pages with 22 pages of ads dated April, 1864 and one page ad noted as the thirteenth volume. First edition, one of 1,650 copies. Protected in mylar. Original publisher's green BAL TR cloth. Spine not faded, gilt bright, slight wear at corners and head of spine, no chips. Slight break in paper at front inner paste down. Very small (1/4" - 1/2") damp stain upper corner of the first and last few pages. Hinges are tight, book is square, text block is solid and clean. No previous owner's names. A very attractive copy. Photos upon request. BAL 20113.
Seller: ARABESQUE BOOKS, Atlanta, GA, U.S.A.
Henry David Thoreau. The Maine Woods. Ticknor and Fields, 1864.
Price: US$2250.00 + shipping
Condition: Fair
Description: June 1864 ads in the rear, some spine separation (see photo). Brown stamped endboards with gilt lettering on spine. Some tearing at the top of the spine (see photo), slightly cocked. Some internal markings. More photos provided if interested.
Seller: Albert & Rosie's Books, WEBSTER, MA, U.S.A.
Thoreau, Henry D.. The Maine Woods. Ticknor and Fields, Boston, 1864.
Price: US$2500.00 + shipping
Description: Handsomely bound in heavy textured green cloth blindstamped with bordered rectangles and floral motifs on the front and rear boards. With bright gold lettering on the spine. Wear and fraying to the top and the bottom of the spine ends. Clean chocolate endpapers; with tight hinges and clean text throughout. With a faint acid shadow 3" x 5" from a photo or article on the 2nd and 3rd endpapers. A scarce first edition of Thoreau's fourth book, published posthumously. With 23 pages of ads (last page unopened) dated April, 1864 at the back of the book. BAL notes that the edition consisted of 1,650 copies only. A very good plus, collectible copy. Uncommon in this condition. The Maine Woods is a posthumously published collection of three essays related to Thoreau's travels and experiences in the Maine woodlands. Specifically, this volume contains the essays "Ktaadn," "Chesuncook," and "The Allegash and East Branch." Additionally, it includes a brief appendix that contains Thoreau's notes on the varieties of plants and animals one might encounter in the Maine woods as well as some suggestions about proper attire for the region and a helpful glossary of Native American phrases. In these essays, Thoreau relates adventures as an early observer of Maine, which he visited three times from 1846-1857. Thoreau recounts experiences climbing Mount Katahdin (Maine's tallest mountain) and Mount Kineo and visiting Grand Lake Matagamon and Chamberlain Lake. Throughout the text, Thoreau explores man's relationship to and effect on the wilderness. First Edition with matching dates of 1864 on the title and copyright pages.
Seller: Brainerd Phillipson Rare Books, Holliston, MA, U.S.A.
Henry David Thoreau. The Maine Woods. Ticknor and Fields, 1864.
Price: US$2500.00 + shipping
Condition: Good
Description: Ticknor and Fields, Boston, 1864, true first edition with the April, 1864 advertisements with the last referring to The Thirteenth Volume. One of 1,650 copies. Thoreau born in 1817, accomplished much during his short life dying at the age of 44. He was an abolitionist, tax resister, a pioneer of civil disobedience and conscientious objection, anarchist, environmentalist and believer in simple living. Today, Thoreau is regarded as one of the foremost American writers, both for the modern clarity of his prose style and the prescience of his views on nature and politics. His memory is honored by the international Thoreau Society and his legacy honored by the Thoreau Institute at Walden Woods, established in 1998 in Lincoln, Massachusetts. His most famous work was Walden published in 1854. He was and continues to be extremely influential. A list of those acknowledging his influence includes Gandhi, J. F. Kennedy, Martin Luther King, Jr., Tolstoy, Sinclair Lewis, Hemingway and many, many more. This book, The Maine Woods, recounts his trips through the Maine Wilderness in 1846, 1853 and 1857. Thoreau's evocative renderings of the life of the primitive forest--its mountains, waterways, fauna, flora, and inhabitants--are timeless and valuable on their own. But his impassioned protest against the despoilment of nature in the name of commerce and sport, which even by the 1850s threatened to deprive Americans of the "tonic of wildness," makes The Maine Woods an especially vital book for our own time. What would he think if he retraced his steps today? This book, 328 pages plus 22 pages of advertisements, is in good condition. The top and bottom of the spine are missing about 4mm each. The top of the spine is missing the cloth on the left hand side 13mm long by 5mm wide. The green cloth has come away from the joint between the spine and the front cover in three places for about half of the book. The wording on the spine has faded. Nevertheless, the book is very sound and square without a hint of looseness. A label with a previous owners name is pasted on the inside of the front cover. The pages of the book and the printing are in great condition with no hint of staining or foxing.
Seller: Raven & Gryphon Fine Books, Hackett's Cove, NS, Canada
THOREAU, Henry David. Maine Woods. Ticknor & Fields, Boston, 1864.
Price: US$2750.00 + shipping
Description: Full Description: THOREAU, Henry David. The Maine Woods. Boston: Ticknor & Fields, 1864. First edition, first issue. Octavo (7 1/8 x 4 5/8 inches; 181 x 119 mm). [viii], 328, [23, ads], [1, blank] pp. With list of Thoreau's writings on p. [ii] priced. Publisher's ads dated April, 1864 and The Atlantic Monthly advertising 'The Thirteenth Volume.' Original purple morocco grain cloth. Covers decoratively ruled and stamped with a wreath in blind. Spine stamped and lettered in gilt. Brown coated endpapers. Spine lightly sunned. Chemeised and and housed in a quarter morocco slipcase. Overall about fine. "The Maine Woods, autobiographical narrative by Thoreau, posthumously published (1864) as edited by the younger W.E. Channing. It contains three accounts of trips to Maine: 'Ktaadn' (Union Magazine, 1848), describing an excursion to Mt. Ktaadn in 1846; 'Chesuncook' (Atlantic Monthly, 1858), about a journey from Bangor to Chesuncook Lake in 1853, with an Indian guide, Joe Aitteon; and 'The Allegash and East Branch,' concerned with a voyage (1857) with 'a relative' and the Indian guide Joe Polis, from Bangor to St. Johns lakes by way of Moosehead and Chesuncook, returning by the East Branch of the Penobscot. During this excursion, Thoreau made an extended study of Polis, 'one of the aristocracy' of the Penobscot Indians, a silent, capable hunter and backwoodsman." (Oxford Companion to American Literature, 515). Allen pp. 17-18. BAL 20113. Borst pp. 45-46. Johnson, American First Editions, p. 501. HBS 68991. $2,750.
Seller: Heritage Book Shop, ABAA, Beverly Hills, CA, U.S.A.
THOREAU, Henry D.. The Maine Woods. Ticknor & Fields, Boston, 1864.
Price: US$3000.00 + shipping
Condition: Very Good
Description: 8vo, original dark brown embossed cloth with spine stamped in gilt. Boston: Ticknor & Fields, 1864. First edition. Complete with the advertisements dating April, 1864, and with the "preferred" (Johnson) state of the last page of the ads reading "The Thirteenth Volume." Spine evenly sunned to green & slightly eroded at the ends. 10 leaves, starting with title page are very slightly crimped at the bottom edge. One of 1650 copies printed. BAL 20113.
Seller: Argosy Book Store, ABAA, ILAB, New York, NY, U.S.A.
THOREAU Henry David. Maine Woods. , 1864.
Price: US$3300.00 + shipping
Description: "THOREAU, Henry David. The Maine Woods. Boston: Ticknor and Fields, 1864. Small octavo, original green cloth. $3300.First edition of Thoreaus acclaimed account of his ascent of Mount Katahdin and related writings, in original cloth.At the end of August 1846, "Thoreau left Walden for a two-week excursion to the Maine woods The ascent of [Mount] Katahdin was the central experience both of the trip and of Thoreau's subsequent account of it. It was an experience of nature as vast, drear and indifferent to humankind" (ANB). Thoreau published his essay about his excursion, "Ktaadn," in the Union Magazine in 1848. "Emerson reading over the essay decided it was the first piece of American literature he had seen in ten years that was worth binding" (Harding). It would not, however, appear in book form until 1864 after Thoreau's death, as part of the present volume, accompanied by other accounts of two earlier visits to Maine, together "with several appendixes listing the trees, flowers, shrubs, plants, birds and quadrupeds he had found there, a description of an outfit for such an excursion, and a list of Indian words The book as a whole gives an effective bosky and moosey picture of the deepest wilderness Thoreau was ever to explore The Maine Woods smells of hemlock and balsam" (Harding, 395). First printing, with priced list of Thoreau's books (page [ii]). Bound without publisher's advertisements, as often. One of 1450 copies printed. Borst A4.1.a. BAL 20113. Allen, 17. Faint owner signature dated year of publication on front free endpaper.Interior fine, original cloth with very shallow chipping to spine head. Near-fine condition."
Seller: Bauman Rare Books, Philadelphia, PA, U.S.A.
THOREAU, Henry David. THE MAINE WOODS. Ticknor & Fields, Boston, 1864.
Price: US$3750.00 + shipping
Description: Original purple Z cloth. BAL 20113: 1650 copies printed though Borst A4.1.a states that 1450 copies were printed. True first printing with list of Thoreau's books priced. Catalogue dated April 1864 with last leaf advertising "The Thirteenth Volume." About THE MAINE WOODS, Dave Foreman, Earth-First eco-warrior/author, has written that it is "Thoreau's finest book, far deeper and more important than WALDEN . on his two trips into the deep Maine wilderness [Thoreau] had the epiphany that enabled him to realize that 'in wildness is the preservation of the world.' MAINE not WALDEN changed American intellectual history." Contents clean. Spine pleasantly sunned, tips a bit frayed, gilt clear. Near Fine and scarce in this condition
Seller: Charles Agvent, est. 1987, ABAA, ILAB, Fleetwood, PA, U.S.A.
Henry David Thoreau. The Maine Woods. Ticknor and Fields, 1864.
Price: US$4200.00 + shipping
Condition: Very Good
Description: THE MAINE WOODS by Henry David Thoreau Edited by William Ellery Channing and Sophia Thoreau First Edition, First Printing, 1864 1,650 copies printed. Into the back of a select few of these, Ticknor and Fields bound a 24 page catalog advertising other books. This book contains that catalog at the back. (BAL 20113) The handwritten signature of John Greenleaf Whittier (1807-1892) is pasted into the front of this book. Alas, the reason for this is unknown. could this copy have belonged to Whittier who was an abolitionist, poet, and contemporary of Thoreau? Or was it pasted in by a collector? 'Tis a mystery, but a special one. Condition / Notes: In good/very good condition, this First Edition of THE MAINE WOODS was printed two years the 1862 death of Thoreau. Bound in original purple PD cloth with chocolate endpapers at front and back. The cover and back are in good/very good condition with minor bumping at the corners, and one small bulging spot near top of front cover (please see closeup). The spine has sun-faded to brown. Gold gilt on spine remains in very good, crisp, clean and readable condition. Small tear in cloth at the top of the spine likely from being pulled off a shelf (see closeup photo). A few black spots on spine near gold gilt flourish (see photo). Binding is good and secure. Small cracking in binding noted between pages 238 and 239. Appears cosmetic and does not alter structure. Very minimal foxing in places throughout. Overall, this is a lovely first edition of Henry David Thoreaus THE MAINE WOODS, with the uniqueness of John Greenleaf Whittiers signature pasted inside. About: Over a period of three years, Thoreau made three trips to the largely unexplored woods of Maine. The Maine Woods was the second volume collected from his writings after Thoreaus death. Of the material which composed it, the first two divisions were already in print. Ktaadn and the Maine Woods was the title of a paper printed in 1848 in The Union Magazine, and Chesuncook was published in The Atlantic Monthly in 1858. The book was edited by his friend William Ellery Channing.
Seller: Barrow Bookstore, Concord, MA, U.S.A.
Thoreau, Henry D.. Maine Woods. Ticknor and Fields, 1864.
Price: US$4500.00 + shipping
Condition: Fine
Description: First Edition, First Printing. A spectacular copy of this TRUE FIRST EDITION "with a list of Thoreau's books with prices, publisher's catalogue dated April 1864 and the last leaf advertising The Thirteenth Volume." This magnificent copy is the nicest copy that we have seen and probably the best a collector could hope to find. The lettering on the spine is present, not worn like most copies, and the cloth has retained the rich colors of dark brown, while most copies of this book are so faded that the cloth looks light brown. The binding is tight, and the boards are crisp with light wear to the spine ends and folds. The pages are exceptionally clean, with no writing or marks in the book. Overall, a wonderful copy of this TRUE FIRST EDITION housed in a custom slipcase for preservation and presentation.
Seller: Magnum Opus Rare Books, Missoula, MT, U.S.A.