"I NEVER SEEM TO TIRE OF WRITING AND TALKING ABOUT THE CHIPMUNK": AUTOGRAPH MANUSCRIPT SIGNED AND DATED 1919 BY JOHN BURROUGHS FOR HIS ESSAY "A CLEVER BEASTIE"

BURROUGHS, John. Autograph manuscript signed. No place, November 3, 1916. Twenty-eight leaves, each approximately 5-1/2 by 8-12 inches, writing in pencil on rectos, one leaf with attached slip of text; housed in a custom chemise. $9000.

Original 28-page autograph manuscript signed and dated ("Nov 3rd, 1916, 10.a.m.") at the end by John Burroughs, for his essay on chipmunks, "A Clever Beastie."

Burroughs' essay is full of both affectionate praise for the chipmunk—"He is such a pretty little creature, so bright, so alert, so clean and well groomed, not a hair missing or out of place"—and a series of close observations on it social order, with detailed descriptions of distribution of food—"when one chipmunk receives favor in the way of extra food, all his neighbors seem to find it out, and, I suspect, make an effort to equalize things a little." The evidence of Burroughs' writing process is all over this manuscript, with numerous deletions and additions, even including the addition of an extra page (the second leaf of the manuscript is numbered "1a" rather than "2") and a substantial slip of paper with extra material pasted to another leaf; the manuscript closely parallels the essay published in Burroughs' 1919 collection Field and Study.

Evidence of paper clips to a number of leaves.