Nothing printed in this book dates it more closely than 1939, and that is worth understanding before buying any Heritage Press Walden. The title page reads "New York: The Heritage Press" and carries no date. The only date in the book is on the copyright page, which reads "The special contents of this edition are copyright 1939 by The Heritage Press for The George Macy Companies, Inc." That is a statement about the edition, not a printing statement, and there is no number line or later-printing note to go with it. The Heritage Press kept its titles in print for years, and dealer listings routinely call copies of this book "1939 first edition" on the strength of the copyright line alone. The book does not support that claim, and it does not rule it out either.
There is also a title-page variant to be aware of. The copy held by the University of Michigan, digitized through HathiTrust, reads exactly as this one does: "New York: The Heritage Press," undated. The copy in UC Santa Barbara's Special Collections is recorded as "New York: For the Heritage Press, 1939," with the date on the title page. We have found no reference that establishes which came first, so we describe this copy by what it says rather than assign it a place in a sequence.
The reason to want this edition is Thomas W. Nason's wood engravings. The George Macy companies built each title as a designed object and issued it in a slipcase rather than a dust jacket. For Walden the Heritage Press went its own way rather than reissuing the Limited Editions Club version, which had appeared in 1936 with Edward Steichen's photographs of Walden Pond, and commissioned Nason, a New England engraver, to illustrate it. His engravings run through the text and carry onto the binding itself, where they are printed in green across the boards.
Thoreau's account of his two years at the pond needs no introduction here. This edition pairs that text with an engraver whose whole subject was the New England landscape, in a slipcased book that was meant to be read and kept.
Heritage Press edition of Walden, with wood engravings by Thomas W. Nason, credited on the title page. The title page reads "New York: The Heritage Press" and is undated; the copyright page carries the 1939 Heritage Press copyright statement for The George Macy Companies. The book was issued without a dust jacket and is housed in the original publisher's slipcase. The Sandglass leaflet that Heritage laid into its books is not present.
The spine is bound in cloth and lettered in green, and the boards are covered in paper printed in green with Nason's engravings. The binding is strong and the corners are unbumped. The spine is faded and soiled, and the green lettering is flaking at the "N" in "Walden." There is a small pencil marking on the front free endpaper. The pastedowns and endpapers show toning. Beyond the endpaper marking, the book is free of writing or marking throughout.
The slipcase is present and in Very Good condition. Very Good book in a Very Good slipcase; no dust jacket, as issued.
When shopping Heritage Press books, treat the copyright-page date as the edition's date and look elsewhere to date the copy. The Sandglass, the small newsletter the Heritage Club laid into each book, carries a number that changed between issues and is the most useful dating evidence a copy can offer. This copy does not have it, and we have described it on that basis rather than guess at a year.
One distinction is easy to make from photographs. Heritage reissued Walden from Norwalk, Connecticut, with a title page dated 1981, bound in orange wood-grain cloth with a brown spine label in a pale yellow slipcase. The New York copies, this one included, have the cream cloth spine and green-printed pictorial boards. A listing that shows only the spine and the copyright page cannot tell you which one you are getting.
On condition, the faults here are cosmetic and they are all on the outside or at the endpapers. The spine fading and the flaking letter are the most visible of them, and the toning at the endpapers is ordinary for paper of this age sitting against the boards. The text and Nason's engravings are clean, and the binding is sound. This is a copy for a reader who wants Thoreau in a handsome illustrated edition, or a Heritage collector filling a gap on the shelf, rather than for someone hunting a pristine example.
Nothing printed in this book dates it more closely than 1939, and that is worth understanding before buying any Heritage Press Walden. The title page reads "New York: The Heritage Press" and carries no date. The only date in the book is on the copyright page, which reads "The special contents of this edition are copyright 1939 by The Heritage Press for The George Macy Companies, Inc." That is a statement about the edition, not a printing statement, and there is no number line or later-printing note to go with it. The Heritage Press kept its titles in print for years, and dealer listings routinely call copies of this book "1939 first edition" on the strength of the copyright line alone. The book does not support that claim, and it does not rule it out either.
There is also a title-page variant to be aware of. The copy held by the University of Michigan, digitized through HathiTrust, reads exactly as this one does: "New York: The Heritage Press," undated. The copy in UC Santa Barbara's Special Collections is recorded as "New York: For the Heritage Press, 1939," with the date on the title page. We have found no reference that establishes which came first, so we describe this copy by what it says rather than assign it a place in a sequence.
The reason to want this edition is Thomas W. Nason's wood engravings. The George Macy companies built each title as a designed object and issued it in a slipcase rather than a dust jacket. For Walden the Heritage Press went its own way rather than reissuing the Limited Editions Club version, which had appeared in 1936 with Edward Steichen's photographs of Walden Pond, and commissioned Nason, a New England engraver, to illustrate it. His engravings run through the text and carry onto the binding itself, where they are printed in green across the boards.
Thoreau's account of his two years at the pond needs no introduction here. This edition pairs that text with an engraver whose whole subject was the New England landscape, in a slipcased book that was meant to be read and kept.
Heritage Press edition of Walden, with wood engravings by Thomas W. Nason, credited on the title page. The title page reads "New York: The Heritage Press" and is undated; the copyright page carries the 1939 Heritage Press copyright statement for The George Macy Companies. The book was issued without a dust jacket and is housed in the original publisher's slipcase. The Sandglass leaflet that Heritage laid into its books is not present.
The spine is bound in cloth and lettered in green, and the boards are covered in paper printed in green with Nason's engravings. The binding is strong and the corners are unbumped. The spine is faded and soiled, and the green lettering is flaking at the "N" in "Walden." There is a small pencil marking on the front free endpaper. The pastedowns and endpapers show toning. Beyond the endpaper marking, the book is free of writing or marking throughout.
The slipcase is present and in Very Good condition. Very Good book in a Very Good slipcase; no dust jacket, as issued.
When shopping Heritage Press books, treat the copyright-page date as the edition's date and look elsewhere to date the copy. The Sandglass, the small newsletter the Heritage Club laid into each book, carries a number that changed between issues and is the most useful dating evidence a copy can offer. This copy does not have it, and we have described it on that basis rather than guess at a year.
One distinction is easy to make from photographs. Heritage reissued Walden from Norwalk, Connecticut, with a title page dated 1981, bound in orange wood-grain cloth with a brown spine label in a pale yellow slipcase. The New York copies, this one included, have the cream cloth spine and green-printed pictorial boards. A listing that shows only the spine and the copyright page cannot tell you which one you are getting.
On condition, the faults here are cosmetic and they are all on the outside or at the endpapers. The spine fading and the flaking letter are the most visible of them, and the toning at the endpapers is ordinary for paper of this age sitting against the boards. The text and Nason's engravings are clean, and the binding is sound. This is a copy for a reader who wants Thoreau in a handsome illustrated edition, or a Heritage collector filling a gap on the shelf, rather than for someone hunting a pristine example.
