Volume II, Essays First Series, was first published in 1841 by Jas. Monroe & Sons, Boston.  The first reviews were mixed, varying according to biased opinions about this "new thought."  After Emerson's death, the work appeared as Volume II in the Centenary Edition, published by Houghton Mifflin. A newly edited volume was published by The Belknap Press of Harvard University Press in 1979.