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THE CONCORD SAUNTERER £^S\ ^S5^ <^«VV*- ^v ^^^r^^ /i^^^, J& *z£*o*^*zz ^^ /^<f ^^^^x^7^r^^ ^^> -^^ New Series Volume 1, Number 1 Fall 1993 Published by The Thoreau Society, Inc. THE CONCORD SAUNTERER (ISSN 1068-5359) Published by The Thoreau Society, Inc. Original Series, Volumes 1-20, 1966-1988 New Series Begun Fall 1993 Editor Ronald Wesley Hoag Advisory Editors Thomas Blanding Bradley P. Dean Joel Myerson Editorial Assistants Burt Aycock Lois Redmond Thefront-coverdrawingofThoreau'sWaldenPondcabinwasexecutedbyHenry's sister Sophia; it accompanied the first printing ofWalden in 1854. The passage aboutsaunteringisfromThoreau's"Walking"manuscript. ThelikenessofThoreau onthebackcoverisfroman 1856BenjaminD. Maxhamdaguerreotype,ownedby theThoreauSocietyandhousedinitsarchivesattheConcordFreePublicLibrary. THE CONCORD SAUNTERER, an annual publicationofThe Thoreau Society, Inc.,seeksbiographical,historical,textual,bibliographical,andinterpretivearticles relating to Henry Thoreau and his associates, Concord, and Transcendentalism. Submissions of all lengths are invited; shorter pieces not used will also be consideredforthequarterlyTHOREAUSOCIETYBULLETIN,editedbyBradley P.Dean. ContributionsshouldconformtoTheChicagoManualofStyleforendnote documentation. Send two copies plus SASE to the Editor, THE CONCORD SAUNTERER, Department of English, East Carolina University, Greenville, NorthCarolina27858-4353. Decisionsarereportedwithinthreemonths. Subscrip- tion to THE CONCORD SAUNTERER is by membership in the society; see the backcoverforadditionalinformation. THECONCORDSAUNTERERisindexed MLA in the InternationalBibliography. : 3 THE CONCORD SAUNTERER N.S. Volume 1 Fall 1993 Number 1 Editor sPage 1 Robert D. Richardson,Jr. The StalkoftheLotus: 3 ConcordsMostFamousFriendship Wesley T. Mott "Captain ofaHuckleberryParty" 1 Thoreau andaNewEnglandRitualofSummer Guy R. Woodall ConversFrancisandthe Concordians: 23 Emerson,Alcott, andOthers Joel Lang Forever Wild: 61 A PortraitofWalden WarriorMarySherwood Joan Goodwin SarahAldenRipley,AnotherConcordBotanist 11 Harmon Smith Ellery Channing: The TurningPoint 89 Notes on Contributors 95 Copyright 1993©by The Thoreau Society, Inc. Editor*s Page We're back. After an interruption of several years, during which the human and financial resources ofthe Thoreau Society were necessarily spent in otherways,includingthestagingofanambitiousandsuccessful50thAnniversary Jubileein 1991,THECON—CORDSAUNTERERresumespublicationwithanew series of annual editions bigger and, we trust, at least as good as ever. The society'sadministrative,membership,andpublicationscenterisnowlocatedinthe English Department ofEastCarolina University, wherethe editors ofthisjournal andTHETHOREAUSOCIETYBULLETINarefacultymembers. Wearegrateful to ECU for providing office space, graduate student assistants, word-processing equipment, bulkmailingprivileges, and ahighly advantageous arrangement with theuniversityprintshop. Asalways,thespiritualcenterofthesocietyisConcord, HenryThoreau's"mostestimableplaceinalltheworld"andthepresent-dayhome ofboth the Thoreau Lyceum, with its year-round educational enterprises, and the annual July convention of the Thoreau Society, a ritual homecoming with the surprisingly harmonious flavors of an academic conference, a church-of-nature social, and afamily reunion. Aboutthoseflavors. Sinceitsinceptionmorethanahalf-centuryago,the ThoreauSocietyhasbeenmorethanascholarlyassociationoraliterarysociety. It hasbeen,instead,aninstitutionasdeliberatelydiverseasthemanithonors: author, ecologist, natural historian, surveyor, Transcendentalist, mystic, pencil-maker, surveyor, socialre—former, spiritualeconomist,philosopher,andcaptainofmany a huckleberryparty Henry DavidThoreau. By inspiration anddesign, we are an eclectic, multicentric (some might even say eccentric) amalgamation ofinterests and personalities. As our principal journal, THE CONCORD SAUNTERER should reflect this vital diversity. On the one hand, many of our members are academics,amongthemmostofthetopmenandwomeninthefield;indeed,ourpast presidents include a pantheon of Thoreau scholars, none more renowned than FoundingSecretaryWalterHarding. Becauseofthisnotableacademicrepresenta- tion in the society, ourjournal must uphold its earned reputation as a forum for significant scholarly work. On the other hand, because we are not just another scholarly association, THE CONCORD SAUNTERER must be more than just another scholarly journal. As incoming editor, I have afew ideas about how to interestandinformourspectrumofreaders,butIneedmore. Suggestionsforfuture articles are officially encouraged, and more so the articles themselves. See the inside coverforadditional information. This issue of THE CONCORD SAUNTERER is paid for in part by donations from Frederick Wagner and Bradley P. Dean, whose generosity we gratefullyacknowledge. ThesourceofDean'sdonationisroyaltiesfromhisedited volume FAITH IN A SEED, the most recent publication ofone Henry Thoreau, whose contribution tothe field also deserves amention. RWH Ralph WaldoEmerson inthe 1850s I7te StaCf^ofthe Lotus: Concord's Most famous friendship Robert D. Richardson, Jr. [Note:Thistalk,whichwasthefeaturedpresentationatthe 1993annualmeetingof theThoreauSociety,istakenlargelyfromabiographyofRalphWaldoEmersonto be published by the University of California Press in the fall of 1994. For documentation,readersarereferredtothebook. Theauthorwishestoacknowledge particularly the recent work on Thoreau and Emerson by Robert Sattelmeyerand David Robinson.] Thoreau and Emerson became acquainted in 1837, when Emerson was thirty-fourandThoreauatwenty-year-oldsenioratcollege. InApril,Thoreauread Nature', inJune he read it again. That same month Emerson was writing Harvard PresidentQuincytopleadThoreau'scaseforhonors. Shortlyaftergraduationlate in summer of 1837, about the time he began a short-lived teachingjob with the Concord Public Schools, Thoreau also began ajournal, apparently at Emerson's urging. Emerson's first journal entry about Thoreau comes in February 1838. Already Thoreau was holding his own with much older men. When Edmund Hosmersuddenlybackedaway,inthemiddleofaconversation,fromequatingJesus withahumanmind,healteredhistoneandannouncedgravelythat"Jesusmadethe world, andwastheeternal God."Thoreauremarkedthat"Mr. Hosmerhadkicked the pail over." Emerson delightedinhis young friend; he notedhow "every thing that boy says makes merry with society." He approved ofThoreau's being, as he said,"spicedthroughwithrebellion."ThetwoofthemwentforawalkinlateApril totheCliff,ahighspotwithaspectacularviewovertheSudburyRivervalley;itwas, wrote Emerson, "warm, pleasant, misty weather which the great mountain amphitheatre seemdtodrink in with gladness. Acrow's voice filled all the motes ofairwith sound." THECONCORD SAUNTERER, N.S. Volume 1, Number 1, Fall 1993 4 ConcordSaunterer Theywerealikeinmanyways.Thoreauattwentywasofmediumheight, withslopingshoulders.Hemovedwithunusualenergy.Hewalkedwithhiseyeson theground,watchingforleaves,flowers,andarrowheads.Hehad,likeEmerson,a large nose. Also like Emerson, his most remarkable feature was his eyes, which werelarge,deep set,andalivewithintelligence. Therelationsbetweenthemwere close,changeable,andbesetwithdifficulties. Thoreauwasneithersonnorbrother to Emerson, but was something ofeach. He came to have a special place in the Emersonfamily.HeadoredLidian,writingherextravagant,moonstrucklettersthat lookverymuchlikelove-letters.ThoreaualsolovedtheEmersonchildrenandwas lovedinreturnbythem. WhenEmersonwasawayforlongtrips,Thoreaucameto stay and help out. When Emerson's mother died, Thoreau was delegated to take charge ofBulkeley, the feeble-mindedbrother, atthe funeral. A visitorin 1852 namedJohn Albee has left the best description ofhow Emerson and Thoreau got along together in public. Thoreau was already at Emerson's when Albee arrived. "He was much at home withEmerson: and as he remainedthroughtheafternoonandevening, andI lefthim still atthefire side,he appeared to me to belong in some way to the household." Emerson continually deferredtoThoreau,Albeerecalled,"andseemedtoanticipatehisviews,preparing himself obviously for a quiet laugh at Thoreau's negative and biting criticisms, especially inregardto education andeducational institutions. Albeehadcome to find out how to get the best kind ofeducation. "Emerson pleaded always for the college; saidhehimselfhadenteredatfourteen.ThisarousedthewrathofThoreau, who would not allow any good to the college course. And here it seemed to me EmersonsaidthingsonpurposetodrawThoreau'sfireandtoamusehimself.When thecurriculum atCambridge was alludedto, andEmersoncasually remarkedthat most of the branches of learning were taught there, Thoreau seized one of his opportunitiesandreplied'Yesindeed,allthebranchesandnoneoftheroots.'Atthis Emerson laughted heartily." Albee noted that "in the evening Thoreau devoted himselfwholly tothe children andthe parching ofcorn by the open fire." TheThoreauEmersonwas seeinginthespringof 1838wasayoungpoet whowasreadingGoethe'sItalianJourney,whofoundinVirgilconfirmationforthe ideathathumannatureisessentiallythesameinalltimesandplaces,andwhowas interestedincrystalformation. He looked alittlelikeEmerson, andpeople would say later that he came to have some ofEmerson's speech mannerisms. He was a disciple whowas incapableoffawning, orofuncritical admiration. Hewasbrash, irreverent, rebellious and amusing. But he was a disciple. Emerson once wrote "Thoreau gives me, in flesh and blood and pertinaceous Saxon belief, my own ethics. Heisfarmorereal,anddailypracticallyobeyingthem,thanI; andfortifies my memory at all times with an affirmative experience which refuses to be set aside." The Emerson Thoreau came to know in 1838 was still a young man himself,verymuchinvolvedinthenaturalworldandfondofwalking."IfIgointo . RobertD. Richardson,Jr. 5 theforest,Ifindallnewandundescribed,"Emersonwrote."Nothinghasbeentold me.Thescreamingofwildgeeseneverheard; thethinnoteofthetitmouseandhis boldignoringofthebystander;thefallofthefliesthatpatterontheleaveslikerain, the angry hiss of some bird that crepitated at me yesterday. The formation of turpentine and indeed any vegetation, any animation, any and all, are alike undescribed. Eachmanthatgoes intothewoodseemstobethefirstmanthatever wentintoawood."Withkeen senses andanevenkeenersenseofthe transforma- tions of everyday life, Emerson had strange depths. "Come out of your warm angularhouseresoundingwithfewvoicesintothechillgrandinstantaneousnight," hewrote. "Intheinstantyouleavefar—behindallhumanrelation, wife,motherand child, and liveonly with the savages water, air, lightcarbon, lime andgranite. . . Ibecomeamoistcoldelement.Naturegrowsoverme.Frogspipe; watersfaroff tinkle; dry leaves hiss; grass bends and rustles; and I have died out ofthe human world and come to feel a strange, cold, aqueous terraqueous, aerial etherial sympathy andexistence. I sow the sun andmoon for seeds." Bestofall, Emerson believed, andcouldpersuade others, thatthe world wasindeednewforeachperson."Youthinkinyouridlehoursthatthereisliterature, history, science, behind you so accumulated as to exhaust thought and prescribe your own future. ... In your sane hour you shall see that not a line has yet been written; thatforallthepoetrythatis intheworldyourfirstsensationonenteringa woodorstandingontheshoreofalakehasnotbeenchauntedyet.Itremainsforyou; so does all thought, all objects, all life remain unwritten still." Thoreau found in Emersonapersonforwhomideaswereasrealasthings.Thoreauoncetoldamutual friend that "he found in Emerson a world where truth existed with the same perfection as the objects he studied in external nature, his ideas real and exact as antennae orstamina." ThoreaugothisstartfromEmerson,butbecamehisownman.Theyshared manythings,aninterestinConcord,innature,inwalks,inWaldenPond.Theywere both modern stoics, interested in self-rule and autonomy. Both believed in the stabilityofhumannature, theessentialequivalenceofall times andplaces, andin Kantian rather than in Lockean theories ofmind. Both believed in the process of individuationandintheauthorityofconscience.Emerson'sideasonpoetry,history, self-reliance,andfriendshipshowupinThoreau'sjournals,andmanyofThoreau's subjectsappearinEmerson'sjournals. Itis sometimesimpossibletosaywhotook whatfromwhom.Emersonwastalkingabout"sauntering"justashecametoknow Thoreau.EmersonownedlandatWaldenPond,tookalmostdailywalksthere,and feltasortofproprietaryinterestintheplace. ShortlyafterThoreau's"Ktaadn"was published, Emerson returned to the theme of wildness. Not long after the first versionofWaldenwaswritten,Emersonwasmeditatingontheflowingsandinthe railroaddeep-cut. Thoreau'slateunfinishedprojectshaveanalogiesifnotroots in Emerson. Asearly as 1835, Emersonthoughthe would writea"naturalhistoryof the woods around my shifting camp forevery month ofthe year." Emerson also 6 ConcordSaunterer found (via the Quakers) apowerful metaphor in the dispersion ofseeds. "George Fox'schosenexpressionoftheGodmanifestinthemindisthe seed. Hemeansthe seed ofwhich the Beauty ofthe world is the flowerandgoodness the fruit." But,astimewentby,theirmanysimilarsubjectscouldnotobscurethefact thatthetemperandgrainoftheirmindswereverydifferent. WhatinEmersonwas — aninterestinoriginality (meaningthepowertooriginate start-upenergy) wasin Thoreau anemphasis on the wildness which is the fundamental building blockof everything,includingcivilization.Emerson'sinclinationtopacifism,asseeninhis essay on "War," is quite at odds with the combativeness and the military spiritof Thoreau's "The Service." Emerson was much less interested in the classics than Thoreau. Emersonwas stronglyaffectedbyPlato, Marcus Aurelius, andPlutarch, buthewashappytousetranslations.Toinsistonreadingbooksintheoriginal,when translations were available, seemed to him perverse, like insisting on swimming across the Charles Riverevery time he went toBoston, insteadoftaking abridge. EmersonwasmuchlessscholarlythanThoreau,andnotjustinlanguages.Emerson came to detest conventional scholarship, mocking it as books written by the dead forthe dead. Thoreau isnotonlymore classical andmore scholarly, buthe is also moremethodical,moreinterestedinscience,morecommittedtocloseobservation. Emersonismoreopenemotionally,moresocial.Helivedmoreinaworldofstrong friendships,andwasincreasinglyatthecenterofalargefamilythathadmanyclaims onhim. He was more deeply grounded in Christian thought and feeling. Thoreau preferredAristotle, EmersonPlato. Emerson prepared the way for his own disappearance into his text. He wrote no memoir, he distrustedchronology, andaimed forthe timeless. Thoreau wrote about himself and about his own excursions. Emerson did neither. His writings are distillations on different topics, deliberately detached from time and place, except through illustration, anecdote, imagery, and diction. Emerson was working for a completely different kind ofexpression than was Thoreau, though theyhadoneimportantthingincommon. Bothwerewritingfirst-handaccountsof personal experience, not what they knew of others' opinions, not commentary. Thoreauwentinfornarrative,Emersonforepiphany. Emerson'sgreatliteraryform wasthesentence. "Iamarocketmanufacturer,"hesaidofhisownwork. Emerson madehistopicalandabstractessayslivebymetaphor,anecdote,andothernarrative devices. Thoreaugavehisnarrativesdepthandresonancebymakingtheminclude andencapsulate moments ofepiphany. Both were only fair-to-middling as letter writers,butsplendidasjournalwriters. Bothhadveryelaboratenotebooksystems forkeepingtrackofmaterialandfortreasuringuptheirmomentsofilluminationand insight. Both were capable of living with astonishing intensity for months at a stretch,thoughEmersonseemstohavehadmoregreatmoments,moreexperiences of pure "contact," to use Thoreau's word for his great moment on top of Mt. Katahdin.