Scope and arrangement
Collection consists of holograph fragments by Henry David Thoreau: from Cape Cod, Chapter V, The Wellfleet Oysterman, 2 p. on 1 leaf (removed from NYPL copy of The Writings of Henry David Thoreau, Manuscript Edition, Boston: Houghton, Mifflin, 1906); a poem, “I will obey the strictest law of love,” 2 p. on 1 leaf (recto page numbered 387 from Thoreau’s journal of 1848-1850); and an account of night sights and sounds, 2 p. on 1 leaf: “made nothing of it. It is easy to see how by yielding to such feelings…,” which closely follows his published journal entry of 1851 August 8. Also present is a brief autograph letter signed by Thoreau at Concord, 1853 (?) July 26 to William H. Sweetser at Charlestown, Massachusetts (“This is the way I write when I have a poor pen and still poorer ink.”) and an envelope, front only, addressed to C.M. Tracy at Lynn, Massachusetts.