Henry David Thoreau: a life PDF
Preview Henry David Thoreau: a life
henry david thoreau henry david T h o r e au A Life laura dassow walls The University of Chicago Press Chicago and London The University of Chicago Press, Chicago 60637 The University of Chicago Press, Ltd., London © 2017 by The University of Chicago. All rights reserved. No part of this book may be used or reproduced in any manner whatsoever without written permission, except in the case of brief quotations in critical articles and reviews. For more information, contact the University of Chicago Press, 1427 East 60th Street, Chicago, IL 60637. Published 2017 Printed in the United States of America 26 25 24 23 22 21 20 19 18 17 1 2 3 4 5 ISBN- 13: 978- 0- 226- 34469- 0 (cloth) ISBN- 13: 978- 0- 226- 34472- 0 (e- book) DOI: 10.7208/chicago/9780226344720.001.0001 Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Names: Walls, Laura Dassow, author. Title: Henry David Thoreau : a life / Laura Dassow Walls. Description: Chicago : The University of Chicago Press, 2017. | Includes bibliographical references and index. Identifiers: LCCN 2016053416 | ISBN 9780226344690 (cloth : alk. paper) | ISBN 9780226344720 (e-book) Subjects: LCSH: Thoreau, Henry David, 1817–1862. | Authors, American—19th century— Biography. | Naturalists—United States—Biography. Classification: LCC PS3053 .W28 2017 | DDC 818/.309 [B]—dc23 LC record available at https:// lccn.loc.gov/2016053416 This paper meets the requirements of ANSI/NISO Z39.48– 1992 (Permanence of Paper). To Richard von Dassow (1939– 1967) Artist and poet who went before “Be thou my Muse, my brother— ” Contents Preface ✴ xi Introduction: Land of the Grass- Ground River ✴ 3 Tahatawan’s Arrowhead ✴ 3 Enclosures and Commons ✴ 6 The Genesis of Musketaquid ✴ 9 The Coming of the English ✴ 12 Living the Revolution ✴ 17 PART I ThE MAkInG of ThoREAu Chapter one Concord Sons and Daughters ✴ 23 Coming to Concord ✴ 23 The Early Years of John and Cynthia Thoreau ✴ 31 Making Concord home ✴ 37 Chapter two Higher Learning from Concord to Harvard (1826– 1837) ✴ 50 A Concord Education ✴ 50 A harvard Portrait ✴ 57 Learning to Leave harvard ✴ 72 Chapter three Transcendental Apprentice (1837– 1841) ✴ 82 Sic Vita ✴ 82 Transcendental Self-C ulture ✴ 86 Concord Social Culture ✴ 90 The Thoreau School ✴ 96 “There is no remedy for love but to love more” ✴ 102 Compensations ✴ 114 Chapter four “Not till We Are Lost” (1842– 1844) ✴ 124 The Death of John Thoreau ✴ 124 “Surely joy is the condition of life!”: new friends, new Ventures ✴ 131 Thoreau on Staten Island ✴ 149 The Road to Walden ✴ 163 PART II ThE MAkInG of WALDeN Chapter five “Walden, Is It You?” (1845– 1847) ✴ 181 Preparations ✴ 181 on Walden Pond: The first Season ✴ 187 Going to Extremes I: Thoreau in Jail ✴ 207 Going to Extremes II: Thoreau on katahdin ✴ 216 Leaving Walden ✴ 228 Chapter six A Writer’s Life (1847– 1849) ✴ 232 “Will you be my father?”: Thoreau at the Emersons’ ✴ 232 “Lectures multiply on my desk”: Thoreau finds his Audience ✴ 241 “Civil Disobedience” ✴ 248 A Basket of Delicate Texture: Weaving Thoreau’s “Week” ✴ 254 Chapter seven From Concord to Cosmos: Thoreau’s Turn to Science (1849– 1851) ✴ 273 “The law which reveals”: Cape Cod ✴ 273 “Even this may be the year”: 1850 ✴ 283 “The captain of a huckleberry party” ✴ 307 Chapter eight The Beauty of Nature, the Baseness of Men (1851– 1854) ✴ 313 Abolition and Reform after the fugitive Slave Law ✴ 313 The hermit at home ✴ 321 The higher Law from Chesuncook to “Walden” ✴ 332 Reading “Walden” ✴ 349 PART III SuCCESSIonS Chapter nine Walden- on- Main (1854– 1857) ✴ 359 “What Shall It Profit?”: Thoreau after “Walden” ✴ 359 Illness and Recovery ✴ 372 “The infinite extent of our relations” ✴ 384 Chapter ten Wild Fruits (1857– 1859) ✴ 404 The Last Excursions to Cape Cod and the Maine Woods ✴ 404 Life in the Commons: Village, Mountain, River ✴ 423 “A Transcendentalist above all”: Thoreau and John Brown ✴ 445 Chapter eleven A Constant New Creation (1860– 1862) ✴ 457 The Year of Darwin ✴ 457 “The West of which I speak”: Thoreau’s Last Journey ✴ 476 “The leaves teach us how to die” ✴ 492 Acknowledgments ✴ 501 Abbreviations ✴ 507 notes ✴ 511 Selected Bibliography ✴ 571 Index ✴ 587 image gallery follows page 332
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