art nouveau publisher's cloth

A lovely copy of this 1910s edition of Thoreau's Excursions (originally published in 1863) with elaborate Art Nouveau-style publisher's cloth binding.

Excursions collects nine of Thoreau's essays: 'Natural History of Massachusetts', 'A Walk to Wachusett', 'The Landlord', 'A Winter Walk', 'The Succession of Forest Trees', 'Walking', 'Autumnal Tints', 'Wild Apples', and 'Night and Moonlight', as well as Ralph Waldo Emerson's 'Biographical Sketch' of Thoreau.

The illustrator of this edition, Clifton Johnson (1865-1940), grew up in western Massachusetts and became a prominent artist, photographer, and writer. He published newspaper and magazine articles, travel books, works on education and children's literature, and folklore collections and often illustrated his own texts.

8vo; frontispiece and 32 plates, free endpapers toned, a little spotting to the early leaves, contents faintly toned; original green cloth elaborately blocked in gilt and yellow Art Nouveau design, cloth a little rubbed with a few small spots and marks, corners bumped, a very good copy; 303pp.