15.   Ralph Waldo Emerson. Holograph discourse delivered at the bicentennial celebration of Concord’s incorporation, 1835.  Ink on paper; encapsulated. Presented by David Emerson, 1985.

16.   Ralph Waldo Emerson.  A Historical Discourse, Delivered Before the Citizens of Concord, 12th September, 1835.  On the Second Centennial Anniversary of the Incorporation of the Town (Concord: G.F. Bemis, 1835). Letterpress on paper; half bound in light brown morocco and marbled paper boards; original printed blue paper wrapper retained.  Myerson A2.1 (second state).  From the Emerson collection of William Taylor Newton, presented by Edith Emerson Forbes and Edward Waldo Emerson, 1918.
 

   The manuscript of the discourse read by Ralph Waldo Emerson on September 12, 1835 came to the library in 1985 as the gift of David Emerson (great-grandson of Ralph Waldo) in commemoration of the 350th anniversary of Concord’s incorporation.  Containing numerous emendations and deletions in the author’s hand, the manuscript was used not only for delivering the speech, but also (as the presence of footnotes suggests) as printer’s copy for the 1835 first publication of the discourse.

   In his Ralph Waldo Emerson: A Descriptive Bibliography, Joel Myerson refers to a copy of the printed discourse inscribed by Charles Eliot Norton in 1860: “This discourse has become very rare, most of the copies having been destroyed, many years ago, in a fire at the office of the Town Clerk in Concord.”

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