Auction Date:2010 Nov 10 @ 19:00 (UTC-5 : EST/CDT)
Location:5 Rt 101A Suite 5, Amherst, New Hampshire, 03031, United States
ALS - Autograph Letter Signed
ANS - Autograph Note Signed
AQS - Autograph Quotation Signed
AMQS - Autograph Musical Quotation Signed
DS - Document Signed
FDC - First Day Cover
Inscribed - “Personalized”
ISP - Inscribed Signed Photograph
LS - Letter Signed
SP - Signed Photograph
TLS - Typed Letter Signed
Monumentally important and influential American author, philosopher, and naturalist (1817–1862) whose Walden, Civil Disobedience, and multi-volume Journal take a place among the central texts of the Transcendentalist movement and of 19th century literature as a whole. Very early, and apparently unpublished, unsigned handwritten manuscript leaf, one page both sides, 8 x 10. The first portion is a passage from his famed work ‘A Week on the Concord and Merrimack River.’ Thoreau writes: “of anticipation of the last result, but a greater refinement already than is ever attained by man. There is papyrus by the riverside, and rushes for light, and the goose only flies overhead, ages before the studious are born or letters invented, and that literature which the former suggest, and even from the first have rudely serves, it may be man does not yet use them to express.”
The second portion articulates a Transcendentalist vision of man’s oneness with nature. “There is a humanity in nature which is not identical with man’s which yet serves him and severely smiles on him, but would much more serve & bless the natural man with its sympathy. Material things are to some extent man’s kindred, and subject to the same laws with him. He and they follow one fate. Ever a taper is his relative, and burns not eternally, but only a certain number of his hours. He sleeps, and ever he wakes a taper is extinguished. Those tapers the fixed stars, which are not both lit and burnt out in the life of a man but it may be in the life of the race, which will be found extinguished when woken from his waking sleep, are his more distant relatives. Yet the farthest and largest star is but a lamp to light the way for man. [Space is but so many of his hairsbreadth wide; the white crescent on his nail is the unit of measure even for starry distances; his middle finger measures how many digits into space; he extends a few times his thumb and finger, and the continent is spanned; he stretches out his arms, and the sea is fathomed.] His hairsbreadth or his nail or his finger or his span or by his outstretched arms are the units of measure…for starry distance. [These things] So much is finite or measured by him & belongs wholly to the same sphere or natural dynasty with himself. He witnesses [their] its birth and [their] its decay. But what man’s life does not thus embrace, he sees from one side, stationary and eternal, and it thrills him to behold. I love to recognize my affinity to Nature in all things.”
In very good to fine condition, with intersecting folds, uniform light toning, creasing to top edges, and light pencil lines through several lines of text, as well as notations to one side of text.
Bearing simply amazing content, this unique page begins with a fragment of a paragraph found in the ‘Thursday’ section of the 1849 publication ‘A Week on the Concord and Merrimack Rivers,’ in which, Thoreau reflects on the refinements of civilization that are present in the immensity of nature: “[In the wildest nature, there is not only the material of the most cultivated life, and a sort] of anticipation of the last result, but a greater refinement already than is ever attained by man....”
The second paragraph, however, is where the true magic lies, reflecting many of Thoreau’s core beliefs, particularly his adherence to Transcendentalism. Believed to be unpublished, the words are pure poetry, again reflecting not only on the wonder of the world around us but the enormity of space and the fleetingness of time itself. “There is a sort of humanity in nature which is not identical with man’s, which yet serves him...Even a taper is his relative and burns not eternally, but only a certain number of his hours. He sleeps and ere he wakes a taper is extinguished. Those tapers the fixed stars, which are not both lit and burnt out in the life of a man....”
Such profound wisdom as Thoreau elevates the common man to new heights and unadulterated admiration is paid to the simple life. His stay at Walden Pond makes so much sense in the context of this page. According to our consignor, this was found in a first edition of the aforementioned book and is believed to have been given away by Thoreau. A literary find of the utmost rarity and desirability!
Auction Location:
5 Rt 101A Suite 5, Amherst, New Hampshire, 03031, United States
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