A Little Book of Nature Themes (SECOND EDITION WITH RARE GLASSINE WRAPPER)

Portland, Maine: Thomas B. Mosher; Printed by Smith and Sale, 1912. Second Edition . Softcover with Dust Jacket & Glassine Wrapper. Near Fine. 7" x 4.25" x 0.5. SECOND EDITION, 1912. RARE GLASSINE WRAPPER. Softcover. Binding is a light textured blue with red lettering and a Celtic-type design on the cover in red and black. Spine bears black lettering. Rare, glassine wrapper is present, protecting the cover. All edges deckled, but most prominently at the foredge. Red and black title page with small black and white illustrative engraving. Indexed. xvi, 80 pp. Shows overall minimal wear and age toning of the glassine wrapper. Leaves are beautiful and quite bright for their age. Unmarked. Some flyleaf endpapers are uncut at the head. A lovely copy. Full refund if not satisfied. <br><br>EXCERPT FROM THE FORWARD: Thoreau's themes are many sided. They reflect much truth and beauty; lights and shadows of a remarkable and unique personality; things mundane which it is the privilege of the reader to accept or reject, but one can overlook any strata of alloy when he considers the pure ore he has mined in such profusion. [...] The aim of this little book is to so group together the 'most attractive sentences' that they in no way lose 'the hue and fragrance of the thought,' but by their very suggestiveness, bring us in closer harmony with the author's power or interpretation. [...] Standing at Thoreau's graveside, Emerson said, 'The country knows not yet, or in least part, how great a son it has lost.... His soul was made for the noblest society; he had in a short life exhausted the capabilities of this world; wherever there is knowledge, wherever there is virtue, wherever there is beauty, he will find a home.' he gave to the world his best, and his fame is sure to steadily increase, for he has left a vital and lasting impression upon the literature of his country. <br><br>ABOUT THE AUTHOR: Henry David Thoreau (1817 to 1862) was an American naturalist, essayist, poet, and philosopher. A leading transcendentalist, he is best known for his book Walden, a reflection upon simple living in natural surroundings, and his essay "Civil Disobedience" (originally published as "Resistance to Civil Government"), an argument for disobedience to an unjust state. Thoreau's books, articles, essays, journals, and poetry amount to more than 20 volumes. Among his lasting contributions are his writings on natural history and philosophy, in which he anticipated the methods and findings of ecology and environmental history, two sources of modern-day environmentalism. His literary style interweaves close observation of nature, personal experience, pointed rhetoric, symbolic meanings, and historical lore, while displaying a poetic sensibility, philosophical austerity, and attention to practical detail. He was also deeply interested in the idea of survival in the face of hostile elements, historical change, and natural decay; at the same time he advocated abandoning waste and illusion in order to discover life's true essential needs. Thoreau was a lifelong abolitionist, delivering lectures that attacked the fugitive slave law while praising the writings of Wendell Phillips and defending the abolitionist John Brown. Thoreau's philosophy of civil disobedience later influenced the political thoughts and actions of such notable figures as Leo Tolstoy, Mahatma Gandhi, and Martin Luther King Jr. Thoreau is sometimes referred to as an anarchist. In "Civil Disobedience", Thoreau wrote: "I heartily accept the motto,—'That government is best which governs least;' and I should like to see it acted up to more rapidly and systematically. Carried out, it finally amounts to this, which also I believe, 'That government is best which governs not at all;' and when men are prepared for it, that will be the kind of government which they will have. ... But, to speak practically and as a cit­i­zen, unlike those who call themselves no-gov­ernment men, I ask for, not at once no gov­ernment, but at once a better government." (Wikipedia)