New Work

Limited edition book
Projected release in Spring 2026

Written in 1851 by one of America’s most influential thinkers, Walking began as “Walking, or the Wild,” a lecture Henry David Thoreau delivered frequently throughout the 1850s. It is a treatise inspired by the author’s habit of working in the mornings and devoting the afternoons to local explorations, thinking, observation and exercise—that is, walking. Thoreau seems to have considered the essay a turning point in his writing, calling it “a sort of introduction to all that I may write hereafter.” Beginning with a discussion of the chief characteristics of a saunter and a lament for those of his neighbours stuck indoors and in town, Thoreau then turns to the matter of choosing a direction and, once he has set off, speaks to the quality of the wilderness in his country, the expression of wilderness and wildness in literature, and the process of learning, among other things.

This edition is based on the text Thoreau prepared for publication in Atlantic Monthly shortly before his death in 1862. It includes annotations that provide the sources of, and context for, Thoreau’s many quotations and allusions. The book is illustrated with three original wood engravings by Wesley Bates that are printed directly from the blocks. It also includes a second unbound suite of the engravings printed, signed and numbered by Wesley Bates.

Background: In 2008 I printed this edition of Walking and published it under the Gaspereau Press imprint. The plan was to produce 150 copies of a ‘regular’ edition and 26 copies of a ‘preferred’ edition. I printed and folded the sheets, but the person responsible for binding completed only a fraction of the work before losing interest; the project lost momentum and was abandoned. Only 44 copies of the regular edition were ever sold. After this experience, I determined to make any future letterpress limited editions without relying on the labour of others. Walking and Don McKay’s The Muskwa Assemblage were also the only major letterpress limited editions that I ever printed using photopolymer plates, a process that I consider more commercial than bespoke. Thereafter, I employed photopolymer as a supplemental process only, preferring the use of traditional analogue tools and materials for making limited editions. With the establishment of Press of the Varying Hare in 2025, I acquired control of all the letterpress limited edition books I had produced during my time at Gaspereau Press. I decided to finally produce and release the abandoned ‘preferred’ version of Walking in a limited edition of 30 copies. This new Varying Hare edition uses sheets selected from the 2008 printing amended with a newly-printed title page and colophon.

Specifications: Typeset in a digital revival of Frederic Goudy’s Californian types. Printed in black (with some spot colour throughout) on 150 gsm Hahnemühle Biblio paper, mouldmade in Germany. Includes three original wood engravings by Wesley Bates printed in green. The sheets were printed in 2008 and are amended with a new title page and colophon, also printed on Biblio. The sheets were folded, gathered, handsewn and trimmed to 11.5 ×17.5 cm. Doubled endpapers. Casebound, cloth spine with Jemma Lewis’s marbled paper over boards. Includes an additional suite of the three engravings that Wesley Bates made for the book, signed a numbered by the artist. Housed in a cloth-covered solander box.

96 pages + doubled endpaper sections
Includes a suite of three signed and numbered prints
Limited edition of 30 numbered copies­

CND $800 + shipping & taxes [Estimated]