A Fine Collection of American Literature and History

Boston: Ticknor and Fields, 1865. First edition. 8vo. (vi), 252, 23, (1) pp. (ads, dated December, 1864). From the library of American politician and lawyer Ebenezer Rockwood Hoar, and with his ownership signature on front paste-down and on title-page. Publisher's purple cloth-covered boards, stamped in blind and in gilt, spine browned, boards unevenly faded; all edges trimmed; red morocco book-plate of Estelle Doheny on front paste-down; final two leaves of ads unopened.

From the library of American politician and United States Attorney General, Ebenezer R. Hoar (1816-95). Hoar served as the United States Attorney General from 1869-70 and was the first to head the newly created Justice Department. In 1846 he was elected to the Massachusetts Senate, and with his father, helped establish the Free Soil Party in the state, that opposed the spread of slavery into the Western territories. He served as Judge of the Court of Common Pleas in Boston, until 1855, and in 1859 was appointed to the Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court. In 1871 he was appointed by President Ulysses S. Grant to serve on the five-man commission to settle Civil War claims with Great Britain. His brother Edward (1823-93) was a close friend of Thoreau's, and his sister Elizabeth (1814-78) was at one time engaged to marry Ralph Waldo Emerson's brother, Charles.

A lovely copy of Thoreau's fifth published work, the third following his death.