This book is a glowing account of Thoreau's character, written later in life by Ralph Waldo Emerson's son Edward. Edward knew Thoreau up until the latter's death in 1862, when Edward was about 17. He has supplemented his own memory with interviews and anectdotes given him by other Concord citizens who knew the Thoreau family. These writings are a valuable resource for anyone who is researching Thoreau, with its humanizing slant and defence of its subject against perceived misunderstandings by the public. Any Thoreau fan will find this brief tract illuminating and amusing.

Dr. Samuel A. Jones (1834-1912) was a physician and Thoreau scholar who lived in Ann Arbor, Michigan. Horace Hosmer (1830-1894) was a small businessman in Acton and Concord, Massachusetts. They formed a friendship when their paths crossed in 1890, and they exchanged letters from that point on until Horace's death in 1894. Much of their correspondence dealt with the then-contemporary image of Henry David Thoreau, who had been popularized in an 1888 biography by F. B. Sanborn. Dr. Jones was a devoted fan of the naturalist; Horace was a family friend who had once been a student in Henry and John Thoreau's school. Both set out to refute details revealed in the Sanborn book.

Enter George Hendrick, an English professor who in 1974 discovered this collection of Horace's letters in the attic of Dr. Jones' daughter-in-law. While the doctor's replies have not survived, Horace's side of the conversation is revealing enough, and we can fill in the blanks. We get a general idea of what life was like in Concord in the 1890s, especially regarding politics. And we learn a great deal about the personal life of Horace Hosmer, of course. He gives specifics about his own health condition, which seems natural enough because he was speaking with a doctor. He talks about his own pencil-making business and compares it to the Thoreau family operation. He dispels rumors that Henry's cabin was a stop on the Underground Railroad. He glows with respect for Henry's brother John and for their parents, John and Cynthia. Just as we come to know and nearly understand this common man, we read a final letter from his daughter, who writes to Dr. Jones the day after her father died.

An informal but revealing and sometimes amusing glimpse of life at a certain time, in a certain place.

While this is a helpful collection of Thoreau's thoughts, it should be pointed out that the claim by Midwest Book Reviews is a little off base. The book, Thoughts of Thoreau, by Edwin Way Teale was published and then re-issued several years ago. It is the single best collection of Thoreau quotes to date. They are arranged by a long list of categories that the reader finds most user friendly. Not to take away from the book in question, this is only submitted to set the record straight. Tom Potter

Just when I think I've seen every modern-day compilation of Thoreau quotations, I turn down an aisle at a used bookstore and gasp in pleasant surprise. Henry David Thoreau wrote in 1850 about "a sweet wild world which lives along the strain of the wood thrush," and here William White reveals glimpses of that realm through selected journal entries arranged by season. White rightly asserts that the transcendentalist's formal poems are clumsy concoctions and are less than memorable, but his prose -- especially portions of his journal -- contains a poetic quality worthy of transcribing into free verse form. Hence, this volume. Individual excerpts appear on separate pages and are enhanced with 16 seasonal pen-and-ink illustrations by Georgia Dearborn. A tasteful gift idea for nature lovers, and certainly less expensive than one of the innumerable coffee table books with full-color photos accompanied by random quotes.

This book gives you a spectacular, vivid, and unique look at the mountains of New England as only Thoreau could provide. This book is a compilation of peak-by-peak short stories which include Thoreaus' own journal writings along with commentary by the author. You join Thoreau as he explores many of New England's more famous mountains. Originally published in the 19th Century, Thoreau gives a glimpse of the mountains before roads, well-graded paths, or even maps gave the average tourist easy access to their beautiful heights. Thoreau explores such peaks as Katahdin in Maine, Lafayette, Monadnock, and Washington in New Hampshire, as well as Greylock and Wachusett in his home state of Massachusetts. The author gives modern day reference points as you follow Thoreau on his adventures across New England. Thoreau even teaches, unintentionaly, some important do's and don'ts for the modern day explorer. As you will discover Thoreau even learned a few lessons that can still be seen to this day! Overall, a very interesting read, especially for anyone at home in the mountains of New England. A book sure to bring out the adventurer in you.

The task seems straightforward enough: list all the books that Henry David Thoreau owned and / or read. But while the famous Transcendentalist took copious notes from his readings and often cited his sources, he didn't leave us a definitive chronicle of titles to study. Why would he? And why would we even want to consult such a thing today? Because of his frequent use of literary allusions in his writings, especially in the two books published during his lifetime, _A Week on the Concord and Merrimack Rivers_ and _Walden_. Because, too, he was a man who was often affected and impassioned by the words that passed before his eyes. Dr. Sattelmeyer has done a great job finding clues not only within Thoreau's writings themselves but also through extant library records held in Concord and Cambridge. The resulting prepared list takes up only two-thirds of this book, though. The four chapters at the beginning help to make sense of it all. They pose Thoreau's choice of reading material and his subsequent reactions against the perspective of life and events of the mid-1800s. The explanation of the changes occurring in natural history philosophies and theories -- culminating in the release of Charles Darwin's _Origin of Species_ -- is especially enlightening. Thus does the introductory text make this volume useful to anyone with a moderate Thoreau and / or 19th-century interest, and it dispels any first impression that this title focuses on an esoteric subject matter. If you enjoy reading _Walden_ and are interested in Thoreau's life and the prevailing thought of his day, seek out a copy of this book.

I bought three collections of Thoreau's works in addition to this one when I was writing a term paper for my English class. I consider _Political_Writings_ the best one of the four. It contains selections from _Walden_, "Resistance to Civil Government" (better known as "Civil Disobedience"), "Slavery in Massachusetts," "Life without Principle," and a series of speeches in defense of an abolitionist by the name of John Brown. Thoreau's writings are preceded by a well-written and informative introduction that discusses Thoreau's life and political thought.

I consider Thoreau to be one of the best writers of his time. Reading this collection of his works made me question some aspects of my life. It reassured me that society will become more cooperative rather than coercive if individuals such as myself fight for what they believe in.

This edition is excellent - the paper is white, smooth, and well bound. I am planning on buying more books in this series (Cambridge Texts in the History of Political Works).

This book was printed in 1963, so the interpretations provided are mostly from the *first* part of the 20th century and are almost exclusively from male writers. Still, there are some interesting criticisms and assessments voiced here. Don't expect a chapter-by-chapter Cliffs Notes analysis, but rather several opinions on the whole work or on specific themes. The editor himself advises us "to recognize that _Walden_ is a carefully articulated, full-length book." So often we hear or read only snippets or key quotes, and we lose Thoreau's flavor and his descriptions that build up to his points. Most of the selections in this book are positive, and some are absolutely glowing. E. B. White says that "Thoreau, very likely without knowing quite what he was up to, took man's relation to nature and man's dilemma in society and man's capacity for elevating his spirit and he beat all these matters together, in a wild free interval of self-justification and delight, and produced an original omelette from which people can draw nourishment in a hungry day." Wow! John C. Broderick claims that "_Walden_ itself might be regarded as a year-long walk, for as in his daily walk Thoreau moved away from the mundane world of the village toward one of heightened awareness and potentiality, only to return spiritually reinvigorated, so _Walden_ records an adventuring on life which structurally starts from and returns to the world of quiet desperation." Of course this is true; why haven't the rest of us thought of this? Leo Marx focuses in on Thoreau's words about the railroad and the workers (and the riders) on it: "The episode demonstrates that the Walden site cannot provide a refuge, in any literal sense, from the forces of change." Wow, again.

This piece of literary criticism contains 8 major essays and 25 pages of random thoughts from others. It can be enlightening to students of Thoreau and of the transcendentalist movement, though high schoolers may stumble over some of the vocabulary used.

Volumes in the "Twentieth Century Views" series are often found on the library shelves of high schools and colleges, and for good reason. Even though the set was first published in the 1960s, the scholarly pieces of literary criticism found here can provide students with interesting perspectives from which to view an author's work. This kind of book is not designed to be read from cover to cover; even the most devoted followers of Thoreau (in this case) are apt to find themselves reading the same paragraph a dozen times every once in a while, or perhaps even occasionally nodding off. It's not a late-night page-turner. (!)


Nevertheless, this title contains 16 entries that touch on themes in _Walden_, _A Week on the Concord and Merrimack Rivers_, Thoreau's _Journal_, his poetry, and his views on individualism, simplicity, politics, and Indians. All were written in the first half of the 20th century. Appropriately enough, the volume begins and ends with a poetry tribute to Henry David Thoreau: Yeats' "The Lake Isle of Innisfree" and "Letter from a Distant Land" by Philip Booth. The excerpts that appear here do not overlap with those found in _Thoreau in our Season_ or _Twentieth Century Interpretations of Walden_. So if you've got a literature project underway, perhaps you'd better look at all the offerings on the library shelf. Thought-provoking supplemental material for research and understanding.

A summation of every aspect of who this man was and how inspiring he remains. He simply bares his soul to the reader in his unique and scholarly style.