Page:The writings of Henry David Thoreau, v1.djvu/11

 Two only of Thoreau's books were published during his lifetime, although a number of the papers afterward collected into volumes were printed by him in magazines. The volumes succeeding A Week on the Concord and Merrimack Rivers and Walden were composed of papers grouped according to convenience at the time. Later, Mr. H. G. O. Blake drew from Thoreau's manuscript journals the four volumes corresponding to the seasons. With the publication of Autumn the entire series of Thoreau's works acquires a certain completeness, and the opportunity therefore arises for a new and uniform edition of his writings on the same general plan as that followed with the works of Longfellow, Hawthorne, Lowell, Emerson, Whittier, and Holmes.

The present edition contains not only all that has heretofore been published in the volumes under Thoreau's name, but papers also not heretofore included. Since it has been necessary to make the older books anew, it has been thought advisable to bring the groups into better