THOREAU: THE POET-NATURALIST. With Memorial Verses

Boston: Roberts Brothers, 1873. First Edition. 8vo, publisher's original brick red cloth, the spine panel lettered and decorated in gilt, the upper cover pictorially decorated and lettered in gilt. xii, 357 pp. A very well preserved copy, the hinges tight and strong, the text-block with virtually none of the spotting which sometimes occurs with the first edition, some age evidence or rubbing to the upper cover, still the gilt remains bright and the book a handsome copy. SCARCE FIRST EDITION AND ONE OF THE MOST IMPORTANT COMMENTARIES ON THOREAU BY ONE OF NEW ENGLAND'S ICONIC FIGURES. This was the first book to be devoted entirely to Thoreau and to include significant biographical information. It includes extracts from Thoreau's unpublished journal published here for the first time, together with conversations with Thoreau which Channing recorded. Fifteen-hundred copies only were printed.
'William Ellery Channing was the foremost Unitarian preacher in the United States in the early nineteenth century and, along with Andrews Norton (1786–1853), one of Unitarianism's leading theologians. Channing was known for his articulate and impassioned sermons and public speeches, and as a prominent thinker in the liberal theology of the day. His religion and thought were among the chief influences on the New England Transcendentalists although he never countenanced their views, which he saw as extreme. His espousal of the developing philosophy and theology of Unitarianism was displayed especially in his "Baltimore Sermon" of May 5, 1819, given at the ordination of the theologian and educator Jared Sparks (1789–1866) as the first minister of the newly organized First Independent Church of Baltimore.
A bronze statue of Channing by Herbert Adams was erected in 1903 on the edge of the Boston Public Garden, at Arlington St. and Boylston St. It stands across the street from the Arlington Street Church that he served Channing had a profound impact on the Transcendentalism movement though he never officially subscribed to its views. However, two of Channing's nephews, Ellery Channing (1818–1901) and William Henry Channing (1810–1884), became prominent members of the movement.