The Essay on Self-Reliance
East Aurora: The Roycrofters, 1908. Frontispiece portrait. Hardcover. Octavo. 59 pages.
Emerson's "Self-Reliance" emphasizes individualism, personal intuition, and self-trust over societal conformity and external authority. It is a cornerstone of the American Transcendentalist movement.
This handsome edition was printed by Elbert Hubbard's Roycrofters Press on handmade paper and includes a two color portrait sketch of Emerson by Schneider as the tipped-in frontispiece. Typographic elements include decorated initial letters and running title printed in red in side margins of each page. This was the first use of a dust jacket on a Roycroft publication (McKenna) and, remarkably, this copy retains parts of that original dust jacket.
Ref. MCKENNA 160.
Near fine, with remnants of original dust jacket. Bound in printed tan paper over boards with yellow cloth spine, tan endpapers, deckle edges, and top edge gilt. Shallow extremity bumps, else fine. Jacket is in four pieces, which includes the front panel where the only printed content appears. This panel is complete but for a few chips extending into the typographical border ornamentation.
Item #1792
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