THOREAU HENRY DAVID (1817-1862). Écrivain et philosophe américain.

Lot 181
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Estimation :
4000 - 5000 EUR
THOREAU HENRY DAVID (1817-1862). Écrivain et philosophe américain.
Autograph MANUSCRIPT (fragmentary), undated; 1 page and a quarter, in-4 format ; in English. Rare fragment containing early reminiscences of self-reliance and independence. The manuscript is here a rough draft, in brown ink, with erasures and corrections, and a few notes added in pencil. Thoreau writes a youthful recollection of his being solicited by a gentleman with a business proposal: “I see advertisements for active young men, as if activity were the whole of a young man’s capital. Yet I have been surprised when a man has with confi dence proposed to me, a grown man, to embark on ‘some enterprise’ of his, as if I had absolutely nothing to do, my life having been a complete failure hitherto. What a doubtful compliment this is to pay me ! As if he had met me half way across the ocean beating up against the wind but bound nowhere—& proposed to me to go along with him! If I did, what do you think the underwriters would say? No! no ! I am not without employment at this time of life, at this stage of the voyage. To tell the truth I saw an advertisement for able-bodied seamen when I was a boy sauntering in my native port—and as soon as I came of age I embarked. The community has not bribe that will tempt a wise man…”
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