Table Of Content

Bloom’s Classic Critical Views henry david thoreau Bloom’s Classic Critical Views Benjamin Franklin the Brontës Charles dickens edgar allan Poe Geoffrey Chaucer henry david thoreau herman Melville Jane austen John donne and the Metaphysical Poets Mark twain Mary Shelley nathaniel hawthorne oscar Wilde ralph Waldo emerson Walt Whitman William Blake Bloom’s Classic Critical Views henry david thoreau Edited and with an Introduction by harold Bloom Sterling Professor of the humanities yale university Bloom’s Classic Critical Views: Henry David Thoreau Copyright © 2008 infobase Publishing introduction © 2008 by harold Bloom all rights reserved. no part of this publication may be reproduced or utilized in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or by any information storage or retrieval systems, without permission in writing from the publisher. For more information contact: Bloom’s Literary Criticism an imprint of infobase Publishing 132 West 31st Street new york ny 10001 Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data henry david thoreau / edited and with an introduction by harold Bloom. p. cm. — (Bloom’s classic critical views) includes bibliographical references and index. iSBn 978-1-60413-141-3 (hardcover) 1. thoreau, henry david, 1817–1862—Criticism and interpretation. i. Bloom, harold. ii. title. iii. Series. PS3054.h38 2008 818’.309—dc22 2008022014 Bloom’s Literary Criticism books are available at special discounts when purchased in bulk quantities for businesses, associations, institutions, or sales promotions. Please call our Special Sales department in new york at (212) 967-8800 or (800) 322-8755. you can find Bloom’s Literary Criticism on the World Wide Web at http://www.chelseahouse.com Contributing editor: Luca Prono Series design by erika K. arroyo Cover design by takeshi takahashi Printed in the united States of america Bang eJB 10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1 this book is printed on acid-free paper. all links and Web addresses were checked and verified to be correct at the time of publication. Because of the dynamic nature of the Web, some addresses and links may have changed since publication and may no longer be valid. Contents QQQ Series Introduction vii Introduction by Harold Bloom ix Biography xiii Personal 3 nathaniel hawthorne (1842) 8 Louisa May alcott “Thoreau’s Flute” (1863) 8 ralph Waldo emerson “Thoreau” (1862) 10 Moncure daniel Conway (1866) 26 robert Louis Stevenson “henry david Thoreau: his Character and opinions” (1880) & “Preface, by Way of Criticism” (1886) 28 rose hawthorne Lathrop (1897) 51 Bradford torrey “Thoreau’s attitude toward nature” (1899) 52 Frederick M. Smith “Thoreau” (1900) 59 edward emerson “henry Thoreau as remembered by a young Friend” (1917) 68 General 109 Thomas Carlyle (1847) 113 James russell Lowell “Thoreau” (1856) 114 a. Bronson alcott “Thoreau” (1869) 122 William ellery Channing (1873) 126 alexander hay Japp (1878) 131 Thomas Wentworth higginson “Thoreau” (1879) 134 henry James (1880) 136 F.B. Sanborn (1882) 137 vi Contents alfred h. Welsh (1883) 139 edwin P. Whipple “american Literature” (1886) 140 Charles F. richardson (1887) 141 havelock ellis “Whitman” (1890) 141 henry S. Salt (1890) 144 P. anderson Graham “The Philosophy of idleness” (1891) 149 Brander Matthews (1896) 150 Thomas Wentworth higginson “henry david Thoreau” (1898) 150 donald G. Mitchell (1899) 151 Walter C. Bronson (1900) 152 Barrett Wendell (1900) 152 Paul elmer More “a hermit’s notes on Thoreau” (1901) 156 WorkS 169 Walden 173 andrew Preston Peabody (1854) 173 George William Curtis (1862) 173 William dean howells “My First visit to new england” (1894) 173 Theodore F. Wolfe “The Concord Pilgrimage” (1895) 174 Fred Lewis Pattee (1896) 174 Fannie hardy eckstorm “Thoreau’s ‘Maine Woods’” (1908) 175 Chronology 183 index 185 Series Introduction QQQ Bloom’s Classic Critical Views is a new series presenting a selection of the most important older literary criticism on the greatest authors commonly read in high school and college classes today. Unlike the Bloom’s Modern Critical Views series, which for more than 20 years has provided the best contemporary criticism on great authors, Bloom’s Classic Critical Views attempts to present the authors in the context of their time and to provide criticism that has proved over the years to be the most valuable to readers and writers. Selections range from contemporary reviews in popular magazines, which demonstrate how a work was received in its own era, to profound essays by some of the strongest critics in the British and American tradi- tion, including Henry James, G.K. Chesterton, Matthew Arnold, and many more. Some of the critical essays and extracts presented here have appeared previously in other titles edited by Harold Bloom, such as the New Moulton’s Library of Literary Criticism. Other selections appear here for the first time in any book by this publisher. All were selected under Harold Bloom’s guidance. In addition, each volume in this series contains a series of essays by a contemporary expert, who comments on the most important critical selections, putting them in context and suggesting how they might be used by a student writer to influence his or her own writing. This series is intended above all for students, to help them think more deeply and write more powerfully about great writers and their works. vii Introduction by Harold Bloom QQQ i have been so ardent an emersonian since 1965 that only belatedly have i come now to a fuller appreciation of Thoreau. ruggedly his own person, Thoreau nevertheless began as emerson’s disciple, even as Walt Whitman did. Walden remains a very emersonian book, and so does Leaves of Grass (1855), and both works are american masterpieces. The influence of emerson was and is liberating, perhaps because the Concord sage legislates against influence. Thoreau arrived late at canonical status, as did Whitman, whom Thoreau visited and greatly admired. now, in the twenty-first century, it seems almost odd that Thoreau, Whitman, and herman Melville were accepted only in the earlier twentieth century as luminaries of the american renaissance, joining emerson and hawthorne in the pantheon of classic american imaginative literature. The importance of Thoreau is multiform, and i want here to center only on his foundational status as the vitalizing precursor of contemporary american ecological writing. you can argue that, historically considered, the Thoreau of “Civil disobedience” must take precedence over the Thoreau of saving-the-earth since both Gandhi and Martin Luther King, Jr. took their starting point from the Concord woodsman who chose jail in preference to paying poll tax to a society that refused to abolish black slavery and that waged imperialistic war against Mexico. yet the long-range effect of Thoreau as ecological prophet is likely to be even greater. My reflections are moved by a remarkable new Library of america anthology, Bill McKibben’s American Earth: Environmental Writing Since Thoreau. after selections from Thoreau, we are given a thousand pages of those in his wake, including John Muir, Theodore roosevelt, John Burroughs, ix