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Lot 161
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Original draft of Thoreau's most successful writings on nature, Autumnal Tints
Original draft of Thoreau's most successful writings on nature, Autumnal Tints
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Thoreau, Henry D. (1817-1862) An original draft from Thoreau's most successful writings on nature, "Autumnal Tints", expanding his descriptive powers acquired at Walden Pond

Autograph Manuscript, 2 pages (recto & verso), 7.5" x 9.75", [n.p., n.d., but c. 1858-1859], being a draft for his essay "Autumnal Tints," which Thoreau first presented as a lecture in early 1859 and then published posthumously in October 1862. Horizontal separation expertly repaired, else fine condition.

A fine manuscript draft of Thoreau's essay on autumn leaves. The first page features what would become the final paragraph of the essay's introduction: "I formerly thought that it would be worth the while to get a specimen leaf from each changing tree[,] shrub and herbaceous plant when it had acquired its brightest characteristic color in its transition from the green to the brown state, outline it and copy its color exactly with paint in a book, which should be entitled October, or Autumnal Tints. Beginning with the earliest reddening - woodbine and the lake of radical leaves, and coming down through he maples[,] hickories, and sumacs, and many beautifully freckled leaves less generally known, to the latest oaks and aspens. What a memento such a book would be! You would need only to turn over its leaves to take a ramble through the autumn woods whenever you pleased. Or if I could preserve the leaves themselves unfaded, it would be better still. I have made but little progress toward such a book; but I have endeavored instead to describe these bright tints in the order in which they present themselves. [Below in pencil:] I will read you some extracts from my notes."

The second page features a passage that first appeared in his Journal on October 27, 1858. Although it did not make the final edited version that appeared in the Atlantic Monthly four years later, it very well may have been used in Thoreau's Worcester lecture, delivered in February 1859: "It is impossible to describe the infinite variety of hues tints & shades, for language affords no names for them, and we must apply the same term monotonously to 20 different things. If I could exhibit so many trees, only leaves, it would be another affair. Who will undertake to describe the difference in ting, & purity of tint, between not merely 2 weight bearing leaves on the same tree, but 2000, for by so many the eye is apprehended in a glance, & it is these subtle differences which especially attract us. In speaking of some richly spotted leaves, how often we find ourselves using words which merely indicate faintly our good intentions; giving them in our despair a terminal twist toward our mark, such as reddish, yellowish, purplish. We cannot make a hue of words, for they are not to be compounded like colors, and hence we are obliged to use such ineffectual expressions as reddish brown. They need to be ground together. In short, to describe these colored leaves, we must have colored words - which will speak of the eye as well as the ear."

Thoreau had first presented "Autumnal Tints" as a lecture on February 22, 1859 in Worcester, Massachusetts presenting specimens of the leaves he discussed. One of the audience members, Sally Holley, wrote that the lecture was, "beautiful and, I doubt not, a faithful report on the colors of leaves." Another member of the same audience, Caroline Dall, remarked, "Never since have I been in the country at that season when his description of the royal ranks of the purple poke berries and the steady beaming of the yellow hawk week on the hillside has not risen in my mind. He fascinated every one of us." (Walter Harding, The Days of Henry Thoreau: A Biography, 2015, 412-413) The Atlantic Monthly first published Thoreau's "Autumnal Tints" in October 1862 - only a few months following the author's death in July. ("Autumnal Tints," Atlantic Monthly, October 1862, 385-402).

In some respects, the second (omitted) passage is superior in many respects to the first - most especially his plea for "colored words." But, for reasons unknown, he omitted it from the final published draft. The passage also deviates slightly from the version he first wrote in his journal entry for October 27, 1858, adding, after the plea for colored words: "which will speak of the eye as well as the ear" which suggests that the present draft postdates Thoreau's original journal entry.

In many respects, Thoreau's "Autumnal Tints" follows in the path of his classic book, Walden. His desire to live simply and meditate on his surroundings allowed him to observe his environment in intricate detail observing subtleties and characterizes that would elude more casual observers. His observations of Walden Pond in winter offers a compelling parallel: "Like the water, the Walden Ice, seen near at hand, has a green ting, but a distance is beautifully blue, and you can easily tell it from the white ice over the river, or the merely greenish ice of some ponds... I have noticed that a portion of Walden which in the state of water was green will often, when frozen, appear from the same point of view blue. So the hollows about this pond will, sometimes, in the winter, be filled with a greenish water somewhat likes its own, but the next day will have frozen blue..." (Thomas Y. Crowell & Co., ed, 392).

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