Source: Walter Harding, Thoreau's Library (Charlottesville: University of Virginia Press, 1957)
Harding's catalog records the books Thoreau physically owned. The entries below focus on volumes that intersect with the cabinet's mystical, esoteric, and Eastern territory, and with the broader currents of Hindu, Buddhist, and classical thought that shaped Transcendentalist reading.
| Author | Title | Publication | Source |
|---|---|---|---|
| Amos Bronson Alcott | Conversations with Children on the Gospels | Boston: Munroe, 1836–37 | |
| Francis Bacon | Essays | Boston | |
| Thomas Brown | Philosophy of the Human Mind | Hallowell, 1833 | |
| François de Salignac de La Mothe Fénelon | Les aventures de Télémaque, fils d'Ulysse | Besançon, 1823 | |
| Manu | Institutes of Hindu Law: or, the Ordinances of MenuTr. by Graves Chamney Haughton, preface by Sir William Jones. This edition differs from the one excerpted in The Dial, which was listed without a date in the published catalogue. | London: Rivingtons & Cochran, 1825 | Cholmondeley collection |
| Elizabeth Peabody | Record of a School | Boston: Russell, Shattuck & Co., 1836 | |
| Pindarus (Pindar) | Alcoei, Sapphus, Stesichori, Anacreontis, Simonidis, Alcoonis, etc. Graece et Latine | Heidelbergae, 1597 | Greaves / Fruitlands |
| Lucius Annaeus Seneca | Medea | Cambridge: Munroe, 1834 | |
| Ralph Winterton | Fragmenta quaedam accedunt etiam observationes Radulphi Wintertoni in Hesiodum | Cantabrigiae, 1766 | Greaves / Fruitlands |
| Xenophon | Xenophontis de Cyri institutione libri octo | Philadelphia: Watts, 1806 | |
| Samuel Taylor Coleridge | The Poetical Works of Coleridge, Shelley, and Keats | Philadelphia: Howe, 1832 | |
| Asiatic Society of Bengal | Bibliotheca Indica, Vol. XV, Nos. 41 & 50Contains the Taittiriya, Aitareya, Svetasvatara, Kena, Isa, Katha, Prasna, Mundaka, and Mandukya Upanishads, tr. by E. Roer. | Calcutta, 1853 | Cholmondeley collection |
| Christian Carl Josias Bunsen | Christianity and Mankind, Their Beginnings and Prospects | London, 1854 | Cholmondeley collection |
| Christian Carl Josias Bunsen | Egypt's Place in Universal History | London, 1848 | Cholmondeley collection |
| Gotama (Akshapada) | Aphorisms of the Nyaya PhilosophyWith illustrative extracts from the commentary by Viswanatha. Printed for the use of Benares College. | Allahabad, 1850 | Cholmondeley collection |
| Robert Spence Hardy | Eastern Monachism: An Account of the Origin, Laws, Discipline, Sacred Writings, Mysterious Rites, Religious Ceremonies, and Present Circumstances of the Order of Mendicants Founded by Gotama Buddha | London: Partridge & Oakey, 1850 | Cholmondeley collection |
| Robert Spence Hardy | A Manual of Buddhism, in Its Modern Development | London: Partridge & Oakey, 1853 | Cholmondeley collection |
| Hindu Laws | A Code of Gentoo Laws, or Ordinations of the PunditsTr. by N. B. Halhed. | London, 1776 | Cholmondeley collection |
| Isvara Krishna | The Sankhya Karika, or Memorial Verses on the Sankhya PhilosophyTr. by Henry Thomas Colebrooke; also the Bhashya or commentary of Gaurapada, tr. by Horace Hayman Wilson. | Oxford: Oriental Translation Fund, 1837 | Cholmondeley collection |
| Jaimini | Aphorisms of the Mimansa Philosophy with Extracts from the CommentariesPrinted for the use of Benares College. | Allahabad, 1851 | Cholmondeley collection |
| Jimutavahana | Two Treatises on the Hindu Law of InheritanceTr. by H. T. Colebrooke. | Calcutta, 1810 | Cholmondeley collection |
| Kalidasa | Sacontala, or the Lost RingTr. by Monier Williams. | Hertford: Austin, 1855 | Cholmondeley collection |
| Mahabharata (Bhagavad-gita) | The Bhagavad-gita; or, a Discourse between Krishna and Arjuna on Divine MattersTr. by J. Cockburn Thompson. | Hertford: Austin, 1855 | Cholmondeley collection |
| Mahabharata (Bhagavad-gita) | The Bhagavad-gita; or the Sacred Lay: a Colloquy between Krishna and Arjuna on Divine Matters | Hertford: Austin, 1855 | Cholmondeley collection |
| Mahabharata (Nalopakhyanam) | Nala and Damayanti and Other PoemsTr. by Rev. Henry Hart Milman. | Oxford: Talboys, 1835 | Cholmondeley collection |
| Orpheus | Orphei Argonautica et de Lapidibus accedunt Henrici Stephani in omnia & Josephi Scaligeri in Hymnos notae | Trajecti ad Rhenum: Apud Guilelmum van de Water, 1696 | Greaves / Fruitlands |
| Plutarch | LivesTr. by John Langhorne and William Langhorne. | New York | |
| Puranas (Bhagavata Purana) | Le Bhâgavata Purâna, ou Histoire poétique de KrichnaTr. by Eugène Burnouf. | Paris: Burnouf, 1840, 1844, 1847 | Cholmondeley collection |
| Puranas (Vishnu Purana) | The Vishnu Purana: a System of Hindu Mythology | London: Murray, 1840 | |
| Charles Rollin | The Ancient History of the Egyptians, Carthaginians, Assyrians, Babylonians, Medes & Persians, Macedonians, and Grecians | New York: Long, 1837 | |
| Sadananda Yogindra | A Lecture on the Vedanta, Embracing the Text of the Vedanta-SaraBy J. R. Ballantyne. | Allahabad, 1850 | Cholmondeley collection |
| Saddharmapundarika | Le Lotus de la Bonne LoiTr. by E. Burnouf. | Paris: l'Imprimerie Nationale, 1852 | Cholmondeley collection |
| Willem Sewel | The History of the Rise, Increase and Progress of the Christian People Called Quakers | Burlington, New Jersey: Collins, 1774 | |
| Vedas (Rig-Veda) | Rig-Veda-Sanhita, the Oldest Authority for the Religious and Social Institutions of the HindusTr. by H. H. Wilson. | London: Allen & Co., 1854 | Cholmondeley collection |
| Visvanatha Nyayapancanana Bhattacharya | Bhasha Parichcheda, and Its Commentary, the Siddhanta Mukta Vali, an Exposition of the Nyaya Philosophy | Calcutta: Encyclopaedia Press, 1851 | Cholmondeley collection |
| Horace Hayman Wilson | Select Specimens of the Theatre of the Hindus | London: Parbury, Allen & Co., 1835 | Cholmondeley collection |
| Henry Thomas Colebrooke | Miscellaneous Essays | London: Allen, 1837 | Cholmondeley collection |
| James Mill | The History of British India | London: Madden, 1848 | Cholmondeley collection |
| John Bunyan | The Pilgrim's Progress | New York: Tiebout, 1811 | |
| Johann Georg Zimmerman | Solitude | Albany: Barber & Southwick, 1796 | |
| Henry Ware | Formation of the Christian Character | Boston: Munroe, 1831 | |
| Publius Ovidius Naso | Publii Ovidii Nasonis Metamorphoseon Libri XV | Philadelphia: Long & DeSilver, 1823 | |
| Bible | New Testament (Greek) |
Harding, Walter. Thoreau's Library. Charlottesville: Published for the Bibliographical Society of the University of Virginia [by] University of Virginia Press, 1957.