8vo (180 x 108 mm). Wood-engraved map of Walden Pond; 8pp. publisher's ads at end dated "April 1854." (Scattered spotting or browning, closed tear repaired on front free endpaper, tears with losses to last leaf of ads.) Original blind-stamped brown cloth, gilt-lettered spine (spine ends strengthened and repaired, some scuffing to covers); folding chemise and slipcase.

FIRST EDITION OF THOREAU'S AMERICAN MASTERPIECE. "... a central document of the American experience" (Thorpe, Gifts of Genius p.169). Equal parts social experiment, a treatise on self-discovery, and satire, Walden chronicles the two years, two months, and two days Thoreau spent living in a cabin he'd built near Walden Pond in Concord, Massachusetts. Over a century and a half after its initial publication John Updike would write of the work, "Walden has become such a totem of...the civil disobedience mindset...that the book risks being as revered and unread as the Bible" (Updike, "A Sage for All Seasons," The Guardian, 25 June 2004). Borst A2.1.a; BAL 20106; Grolier, American 63.