Nov 08, 2018 - Sale 2492

Sale 2492 - Lot 351

Price Realized: $ 4,420
?Final Price Realized includes Buyer’s Premium added to Hammer Price
Estimate: $ 3,000 - $ 4,000
WALDEN'S LAST INHABITANT: IRISHMAN HUGH QUOIL HENRY THOREAU. Autograph Manuscript, unsigned, a fragment from an undated entry of his journal, recounting meetings with Hugh Quoil. 2 pages, 4to, written on the recto and verso of a single sheet; inlaid, horizontal fold. Np, [1945-47]
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Additional Details

". . . [I was crossing the road with a pail in my hand,] when Quoil came down the hill, wearing his snuff-colored coat as in winter--& shaking with delirium tremens. I hailed him and told him that my errand was to get water at a spring close by at the foot of the hill over the fence. He answered with stuttering & parched lips bloodshot eye & staggering gesture--He'd like to see it. . . ."

Quoil's name is introduced in the "Former Inhabitants" chapter of Walden, which work Thoreau wrote at about the same time as his journal.

Published in Bradford Torrey, ed., the Writings of Henry David Thoreau, vol. VIII (Boston, 1906).