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THE CONCORD SAUNTERER 6 ^^^z^ 4Z^r7^ A^Zu.j. **£ ( ^n£^ ^y /%Z^*^ ^^^f *Z*z^ ^=w>^ /*£f. New Series Volume 7 1999 Published Annually by The Thoreau Society THE CONCORD SAUNTERER Published Annually by The Thoreau Society Original Series, Volumes 1-20, 1966-1988 New Series Begun Fall 1993 (ISSN 1068-5359) Editor Ronald Wesley Hoag Advisory Editors Michael Berger Ronald A. Bosco Robert E. Burkholder Bradley P. Dean Wesley T. Mott Joel Myerson PatrickF. O'Connell Sandra H. Petrulionis William Rossi RichardJ. Schneider Nancy Craig Simmons LauraDassow Walls Editorial Assistants Stacey Cochran Melissa Fodrey Watson Computer Consultant Stephen C. Harding The front-cover drawing of Thoreau's Walden Pond cabin accompanied the first printing of Walden in 1854. This drawing was based on an original executed by Henry's sister Sophia. The passage about sauntering is from Thoreau's "Walking" manuscript,courtesyoftheConcordFreePublicLibrary. ThelikenessofThoreauon the backcoveris from an 1856 Benjamin D. Maxham daguerreotype, owned by the Thoreau Society. THE CONCORD SAUNTERER, an annual publication of The Thoreau Society, seeksbiographical, historical, textual,bibliographical, andinterpretive articlesrelat- ing to Henry Thoreau and his associates, Concord, and Transcendentalism. Submis- sions ofalllengths areinvited; shorterpiecesnotusedwillalsobeconsideredforthe quarterly THOREAU SOCIETY BULLETIN. Contributions shouldconformto The ChicagoManualofStyle forendnotedocumentation. Sendtwocopiesplus SASE to the Editor, THE CONCORD SAUNTERER, Department ofEnglish, East Carolina University, Greenville, North Carolina 27858-4353; e-mail [email protected]; phone (252) 328-6580. Decisions are reported within three months. Subscription to THECONCORDSAUNTERERisbymembershipintheSociety; seethebackcover for additional information. THE CONCORD SAUNTERER is referenced inAmeri- canLiteraryScholarship,AmericanHumanitiesIndex, andtheMLA Bibliography. THE CONCORD SAUNTERER New Series Volume 7 1999 Editor's Pages 1 Joseph C. Wheeler Where Thoreau Was Born 4 Joseph C. Wheeler Growing Up On Thoreau Farm 20 Madeleine Minson Seeds ofOptimism: Thoreau's Late Field Studies 32 Henrik Gustafsson Tenth Muse Errant: On Thoreau's Crisis ofTechnology andLanguage 54 Patrick F. O'Connell Keeping Pace With His Companion: Thomas Merton andHenry Thoreau 114 Dale R. Schwie Herbert W. Gleason: A Photographer's Journey to Thoreau's World 150 The Concord Saunterer Leslie Perrin Wilson The Herbert Wendell Gleason Negatives in the Concord Free Public Library: Odyssey ofa Collection \1A Joel Myerson and Susan M. Stone Letters andPoemsfrom Ellery Channing to Fanny Cummings, 1880-1882 200 Charles Colbert Thoreau's Panoramic Vision and theArt ofGuido Reni 218 Allan D. Burns TheArt andLegacy ofHenry Beston's The Outermost House 236 Notes on Contributors 253 Presidents ofThe Thoreau Society 255 The Jhoreau^ Society^- Foundedin1941 Copyright ©1999 by The Thoreau Society, Inc. — Editor's Pages Although spring 2000 is exploding all over the coastal plain of North Carolina, this issue of The ConcordSaunterer, with a c—over date marching to its own drummer, is our last blast from the past century and from me as editor. After presiding over seven annual issues, all of which similarly lied about their birth date, I'm deposing myself in order to live some other lives. In my new experimentinThoreauvianeconomy,Iwillspendmoretimeonfamily(especially sons Drew, almost five, and Wesley, almost seven, whose April 19th and 20th birthdays also mark Concord's shot heard round the world and the birth of Thoreau Society founder Walter Harding), on writing (mostly about Thoreau, includingare-visittomyoldhaunts "Ktaadn" andTheMaine Woods), andonfly- fishing (afootandfromboats, infresh waterand salt, with and withoutluck). For me these areideas whosetime has come. I'm pleased to announce that the editor for the new century of The ConcordSaunterer,althoughhemaynotwantthejobfortheentireduration,ismy friend and colleague-in-academiaDick Schneider. In his own words, "RichardJ. SchneiderisProfessorofEnglishandSlifeProfessorintheHumanitiesatWartburg College in Waverly, Iowa, where he teaches Thoreau in American literature courses andinboth freshman and seniorlevel interdisciplinary courses. He is the author of Henry David Thoreau in the Twayne United States Authors Series (1987) and the editor of two collections of essays on Thoreau, Approaches to Teaching Thoreau's Walden and Other Works (Modern Language Association, 1996) and Thoreau's Sense ofPlace: Essays inAmericanEnvironmental Writing (Univ. ofIowaPress, forthcoming July 2000). He has also published essays on a variety ofThoreauvian subjects, including Thoreau's interest in optics, in land- scapepainting, andincomparativegeography, aswellasessaysonspecificworks by Thoreau, such as Cape Cod and "Walking." He has been a member of the Thoreau Society for more than twenty-five years and has organized, and given papers for, Thoreau Society panels at conferences of the Modern Language Association and the American Literature Association, as well as at the annual Thoreau Society meeting. Raised in the lake country ofnorthern Minnesota, he counts among his Thoreauvian pastimes both hiking and fishing." Dick, I might add, is a good fellow with whom everyone will enjoy working. I might also add thatwhileHenryThoreautraveledagooddealinConcordandadvisedagainstcat- counting excursions to Zanzibar, he knew that quality sauntering is ubiquitously available because heaven is universally underfoot. Olympus is but the outside of the earth everywhere, and the perceived flatness of Iowa's soil is an illusion causedby superficial seeing. —When I assumed the editorship of The Concord Saunterer in 1993, the journal whichbeganoperatingin 1966andhadpublishedmanynotedarticles ss 2 The Concord Saunterer had been "on hiatus" for five full years. Resuscitating a moribund publication, designinganewformat,establishingprotocols, developingan advisory board, and expanding each successive issue with more articles and, eventually, with appro- priate advertisements to inform readers and help pay bills: all were challenging and rewarding tasks. The greatesttrial and satisfaction, however, was toblendthe workofestablished,emerging,andindependent(academicallyunaffiliated)scholars — inajournal withbothscholarlycredibilityandpopularappeal andtoaccomplish this not schizophrenically but by presenting a majority of articles interesting to bothcamps. Sometimestheaccessibilityofapiecehadtobeenhanced, sometimes research and documentation needed buttressing, but reviewer and reqder re- sponses suggestthatonthewholewe succeeded. Forthis Ithank, in large part, the twelve advisoryeditorswhosenames appearonthe masthead, amongthemthatof ournexteditor, who sharesmycommitmentto inclusiveThoreauvian diversityas an editorial principle. Anotherprinciple still in force is that authors should see their articles in print within their lifetime. This latest issue is longer than its predecessors not becauseof"millennial" inflationbutbecauseofabacklogofarticles, withmore in thepipeline. (Indeed, intermsofboththeinheritance ofarticles andthe workload. Dick Schneider has truly got his hands full.) Timeliness ofpublication can be a problem for annual journals, but The Concord Saunterer has published most articles within a year of their final acceptance, and this prompt turn-around will remainapriority.Readersofthepresentissuebenefitfromanarrayofoutstanding articles. JosephWheeler,—aConcordian by birth and an internationa—listby profes- sion,leadswithahistory human,architectural, andenvironmental ofThoreau' Virginia Road birth house, then follows himself with a separate account of his family's life at Virginia Road's Thoreau birthplace in the pre-World War II twentiethcentury. To avoidconfusingthe birthhouse andthe birthplace in casual — conversations,readthesefascinatingarticles.Thenexttwopieces on"Thoreau' Late Field Studies," by Madeleine Minson,—andon 'Thoreau's Crisis ofTechnol- ogy and Language," by Henrik Gustafsson together demonstrate the breadth of Thoreau'sinterestsandhisincreasinginternationalappeal.MinsonandGustafsson are both Swedes, the formernow residing in England, the latterin. well. Sweden. And both of these compelling young scholars have previously published in The ConcordSaunterer. PatrickO'Connell's "KeepingPace With His Companion" is the most substantial commentary yet on Thoreau's influence on, and confluence with, the latter-day monk Thomas Merton. Dale Schwie's "A Photographer's JourneytoThoreau'sWorld"examines the ministerialandphotographic careerof Thoreau Country- pictorial chronicler Herbert W. Gleason, while Leslie Perrin Wilson's history ofthe "Gleason Negatives in the Concord Free Public Library" recounts the colorful odyssey ofthisblack-and-white collection. The "Letters and Poems from Ellery Channing to Fanny Cummings." by Joel Myerson and Susan Stone, documents the quixotically gallant, quaintly platonic attachment of an Editor's Pages 3 elderlyCharmingtoacharmingandkindlyyoungwoman,whileCharlesColbert's essay on "Thoreau's Panoramic Vision and the Art of Guido Reni" extends the acknowledged scope ofThoreau's use ofpaintings as models forhis own literary art.Finally,AllanBurns's "TheArtandLegacyofHenryBeston's The Outermost House" relates Beston's thinking and most famous writing to theirphilosophical and literary antecedents, Henry Thoreau and Walden. I placed Burns's crafty essay where anoutermosthousebelongs, on the edge ofthings, atthe end. ThelastsevenyearsofTheConcordSauntererhavebeenbroughttoyou, inpart,byEastCarolinaUniversity, whichfreedsomeofmyboughtentime, gave meabigofficeandtemporarilystate-of-the-artcomputer, andpaidasuccessionof graduatestudentstobemyeditorialassistants; andbythoseassistantsthemselves, without whom this new series of The Concord Saunterer would definitely not havebeenpossible, atleastwithmeasLudditeeditor.Ithankthemallnow,forall ofus. Finis! RWH Where thoreau "Was ^orn Joseph C. Wheeler Thoreauvians know that on July 12, 1817, Henry David Thoreau was — bornonVirginiaRoadinConcord,Massachusetts ashesaid, "intheverynickof time."1 In 1997 the Town of Concord bought Thoreau's birth house and some twenty acres, saving the landfrom development. As this article is being written a citizen'sgroupcalledTheThoreauFarmTrust,Inc. isneartosigningathirty-year leasewiththeTowntorestoreandmanagethehouse. InthisarticleIwillconsider theimportancetoThoreauofthishouseandofthemanwhohadownedit,Captain Jonas Minot(1735-1813).2 Thoreau's grandmother Mary Jones (1748-1830) married the Rev. Asa Dunbar (1745-1787) in 1772. Afterherhusband died in 1787 at the age offorty- one, Mary remained in Keene, New Hampshire. Eleven years later, in 1798, she married the widower Captain Jonas Minot of Concord, Massachusetts. By this time the youngest ofJonas's nine children was nearly twenty. Mary brought her ownchildrenwithhertoliveonthefarmwithhernewhusband. Mary's daughter CynthiaDunbar, whobecameThoreau's mother, livedontheVirginiaRoadfarm some fourteen years before her marriage in 1812 to John Thoreau. After Jonas Minotdiedin 1813,MaryMinotaskedCynthiaandJohnThoreautotakeoverher "widow'sthird" ofthefarm,buttheyleftitin 1818,lessthanayearaftertheirson Henry David Thoreau was born there. Jonas Minot was the only father Cynthia knew, sinceherown fatherdied amonth afterherbirth.3 Lemuel Shattuck, in his History ofthe Town ofConcord, speaks ofthe Minots as a distinguished family going back to Thomas Minot, Secretary to the AbbotofWaldeninEssex.4ThomaswasJonasMinot'sgreat-great-greatgrandfa- ther. When Thoreau in his Journal quoted Shattuck on this he understandably addedanexclamationpointaftertheword"Walden."5BycoincidencetheWalden we all associate withThoreaureceived its name fromhis step-relatives! Bornin 1594,ThomasMinot's sonGeorge, who wasJonas's great-great grandfather, came to New England among the first settlers ofDorchester. He in turn had four sons: John, James, Stephen and Samuel. John Minot (1626-1669), THE CONCORD SAUNTERER, N.S. Volume 7, 1999 6 The Concord Saunterer Jonas's great grandfather also had four sons: James, John, Stephen and Samuel. This James Minot, who was born in 1653 and was Jonas's grandfather, attended Harvard and came to Concord about 1680. Shattuck tells us that he preached in Stow, Massachusetts, in 1685, for twelve shillings six pence per day "one half cash andonehalfIndiancorn." He "practicedphysic, was acaptain,justice ofthe peace,representative [totheMassachusetts "GeneralCourt"orhouseofrepresen- tatives] and, eminently, auseful man."6 He diedin 1735. HereImustexplainthatthestoryoftheConcordMinotsisalsoastoryof ConcordWheelers. There were anumberofWheelers among the early settlers of Concord: GeorgeWheeler, ObadiahWheeler, Lt. JosephWheeler, Capt. Thomas Wheeler, Timothy Wheeler and Sgt. Thomas Wheeler. The relationship among these Wheelers is not completely clear but it is understood that Capt. Thomas Wheeler (a hero ofKing Philip's War) and Timothy Wheeler were brothers and Sgt. Thomas Wheeler was theirnephew.7 (Incidentally, Charles Stearns Wheeler of Lincoln, whom Thoreau knew at Harvard, was a direct descendant of Sgt. Thomas Wheeler.) Concord's Capt. James Minot, Jonas's grandfather, married Rebecca Wheeler (1666-1734), the daughter of early settler Timothy Wheeler (c.1601- 1687). Timothy Wheeler, among other things, had come to own the mill in Concord. (TheshoppingareaatthecenterofConcordisstillcalledthe"Milldam," this being where the settlers had dammed the brook and established their first mill.) Timothy Wheeler, who died not long after Rebecca's marriage, left her the millinhis will.8 This made the James Minotfamily among themoreprosper- ous inhabitants. Of course the definition of prosperity has evolved through the years. Anassessors' reportdonein 1717, theoldestassessors' reportremainingin Concord'srecords,valuedtheirestateataboutfortypounds,halfinrealestateand the rest consisting of one horse, two oxen, five cows, nine sheep and "faculty." ("Faculty" was assessed for tradesmen and blacksmiths and in this case presum- ably coveredthe equipmentforthemill.) ThatpropertyputtheMinots, inwealth, among the top tenpercentofConcord's citizenry.9 James and Rebecca Wheeler Minot had ten children. The fifth ofthese was also named James (1694-1759) and Shattuck called him "one of the most distinguished men ofhis time. He was a military officer about thirty years, and advanced to colonel, justice of the peace, representative, and a member of the King's Council"10 The tenth child of James and Rebecca Wheeler Minot, was Samuel Minot (1706-1766) who married Sarah Prescott. Samuel and Sarah had three children: Samuel, Jonas and Thankful. Sarah Prescott was a granddaughter of early settler George Wheeler. Thus Jonas was directly descended from two of those early-settler Wheelers, with both George and Timothy his great-grandfa- thers. In a second marriage to Sarah's younger sister, Samuel had five more