The Concord saunterer

192 Pages·1997·11.3 MB·English

CONCORD SAUNTERER
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New Series Volume 5 Fall 1997
Published by The Thoreau Society
THE CONCORD SAUNTERER
(ISSN 1068-5359)
Published by The Thoreau Society
Original Series, Volumes 1-20, 1966-1988
New Series Begun Fall 1993
Editor
Ronald Wesley Hoag
Advisory Editors
Bradley P. Dean Wesley T. Mott Joel Myerson
Editorial Assistants
William Stacey Cochran Alicia L. Uhlin
The front-cover image ofThoreau's Walden Pond cabin, based on a drawing by
Henry's sister Sophia, appeared in the first printing of Walden in 1854. The
passage about sauntering is fromThoreau's "Walking" manuscript. The likeness
ofThoreau on the back cover is from an 1856 Benjamin D. Maxham daguerreo-
type, ownedby the Thoreau Society.
THE CONCORD SAUNTERER, an annual publication ofThe Thoreau Society,
Inc., seeks biographical, historical, textual, bibliographical, and interpretive ar-
ticlesrelatingtoHenryThoreau andhis associates, Concord, andTranscendental-
ism. Submissions ofall lengths are invited; shorter pieces not used will also be
considered for the quarterly THOREAU SOCIETY BULLETIN. Contributions
shouldconformto TheChicagoManualofStyleforendnotedocumentation. Send
two copies plus a stamped return envelope to the Editor, THE CONCORD
SAUNTERER, Department of English, East Carolina University, Greenville,
North Carolina 27858-4353. Decisions are reported within three months. Sub-
scription toTHECONCORDSAUNTERERisbymembershipinthe Society; see
the back cover for additional information. THE CONCORD SAUNTERER is
indexed in the MLA International Bibliography.
THE CONCORD
SAUNTERER
New Series Volume 5 Fall 1997
Editor's Pages andAnnouncements 1
Frank N. Egerton and Laura Dassow Walls
Rethinking Thoreau and
the History ofAmerican Ecology 5
Madeleine Minson
In Search ofSpring and Fall:
Anticipation ofSeasons in Thoreau's Journal 23
Henrik Gustafsson
Henry Thoreau and the Advent ofAmerican Rail 47
James Porter
Thoreau andAustralia:
Sauntering Under the Southern Cross 73
Edmund J. Banfield
Australia's Literary Beachcomber:
Confessions ofa Different Drummer 83
David Lyttle
"The WorldIs a Divine Dream":
Emerson \s Subjective Idealism 93
The Concord Saunterer
Ronald A. Bosco
Twelve UngatheredPoems
by Franklin B. Sanborn (1831-1917) 113
Parker Huber
J.
John Muir and Thoreau's Cape Cod 133
Anne LaBastille
Home Places: Excerptsfrom Woodswoman III 157
David G. Fuller
Correcting the Newspapers:
Thoreau and "A Pleafor Captain John Brown" 165
Sharlene Roeder
UncapturedMonsters:
The OstracizingAllusions ofWalden 177
Notes on Contributors 89
1
Presidents ofThe Thoreau Society 193
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Foundedin 1941
Copyright 1997© by The Thoreau Society, Inc.
Editor Pages
's
It's been an eventful and auspicious year in Thoreau Country. The new
library at the Thoreau Institute in Lincoln is finished and now being stocked with
the core collections of(in alphabetical order) Raymond Adams, Walter Harding,
and Roland Robbins, given to the Thoreau Society for this specific purpose.
Modestly scaled and harmoniously integrated into Walden Woods, the library is
nothing short of monumental in its contents and reach. Soon Thoreauvians
everywhere will be able to visit the most comprehensive Thoreau-related library
in the world, many in person but most through the internet as the evolving
—
holdingsgoonline. Buttechnology andHenry Thoreau? Itishelpful toremind
ourselves that, ambivalentabouttechnology though he was, Thoreau objected not
to"improvedmeans"butrathertothe"unimprovedend"towhichthey wereoften
put. (See,onthispoint, "HenryThoreauandtheAdventofAmerican Rail" inthis
issue.) The goal of the Thoreau Society and the Thoreau Institute is, first and
foremost, the improved end ofThoreauvian education.
In addition to the library, that mandate to educate has also involved the
Thoreau Society inothercollaborative efforts. Now in its second successful year,
a lecture series at the Concord Museum has featured many Society volunteers as
speakers and organizers. The same is true ofthe various programs for educators
and students of all grade levels offered at or through the Thoreau Institute. The
Society has alsobegun an ambitious program ofpublications including aseries of
books presenting Thoreau's comments on various topics as edited by experts in
those areas of Thoreauvian thought. To be published by long-time Thoreau
purveyor Houghton Mifflin, these books will all carry the Thoreau Society im-
print. That same imprint will also grace a separate series of classic works on
Thoreau that are presently out ofprint.
For those wondering wher—e, in all this "Thoreauvian" education, is the
eye-openingencounterwithnature calledbyEmerson"the firstin importanceof
—
the influencesupon the mind" there isawelcomeanswer. TheJuly 1997 annual
meeting in Concord involved more contact with nature than any other Society
gathering ever (with the possible exception ofthe much longer Fiftieth Anniver-
sary Jubilee). From thoughtful explorations of local gems such as the Concord,
Assabet, and Sudbury Rivers, Estabrook Woods, and Walden Pond itself, to field
trips to Mount Wachusett and other Thoreauvian haunts, the outdoors was con-
—
sciouslyengagedatthe 1997 gathering and will be hereafter. Last summeralso,
a group ofSociety membersjourneyed to Millinocket, Maine, to present a plaque
toBaxterStateParkforitsstewardshipofMount Katahdin, iconoftheThoreauvian
sublime and the "highest land" in Thoreau's pantheon of sacred mountains.
Featuring more than just a standard testimonial dinner, the trip also included a
2 The Concord Saunterer
tributary climb of Katahdin itself and, for some, an aerial excursion over all of
Thoreau'sMaineWoods. Ahighlightinthetruestsense, the Katahdintripwillbe
repeated this summer by another Society-sponsored group. This year, too, a
Society expedition will visit Thoreau's Cape Cod beaches. Participants are now
being enlisted forboth trips.
Because enjoying nature requires preserving it, the Thoreau Society is
rightly involved in the preservation of all Thoreau Country. Close to home, the
salvation and preservation of Walden Pond, Walden Woods, Estabrook Woods,
and Thoreau's birthplace farmstead on Virginia Road are initiatives that de-
— —
serve and receive Society support. All of these endeavors face obstacles
ranging from insufficient finances to, in the case of Estabrook, impending en-
croachment by development on what should be secured as an ecological and
historical treasure. Yet there is also reason to h—ope. In all four instances public
consciousness has to some degree been raised a consciousness that, as Henry
said, has the power, if harbored in the mind, "to float the British Empire like a
chip." ExpressedinotherConcord-relatedterms,thealarmhasbeengivenandthe
— —
citizenry aroused. We wait now to see who and how many will gather to
defendhomegroundinwhichweallhaveastake. ForThoreauCountry,numbers
will determine, one way oranother, how much day is yetto dawn.
Thisfifthanniversaryissueinthe"newseries"ofThe ConcordSaunterer
is the largest in the history of the journal, which began publication in 1966.
Thoreauvians are a varied lot, but there should be something here for almost
everyone. The mix of topics and treatments includes (but is not limited to)
ecology, natural history, nature writing, geography, philosophy, poetry, mythol-
—
ogy, technology, history, and criticism involving (among others) John Muir,
John Brown, Franklin B. Sanborn, Ralph Waldo Emerson, Anne LaBastille, and,
pervasively, Henry David Thoreau. And among the eleven articles in this our
most international issue yet are contributions from Australia, England, and Swe-
den.
Comments and questions about The ConcordSauntererare always wel-
come andshouldbedirectedtotheeditoratEastCarolinaUniversity (full address
on inside front cover). For information on the Thoreau Society, the Thoreau
Institute, efforts to preserve Thoreau Country, and upcoming excursions and
activities, contact The Thoreau Society, 44 Baker Farm, Lincoln, Massachusetts
01773;phonenumber(781)259-4750;[email protected];
website www.walden.org.
RWH
Announcements
ESQ: A Journal of the American Renaissance now offers a twenty percent
discount on subscriptions to Thoreau Society members. See the advertisement at
the end ofthis issue.
BackissuesofThe ConcordSaunterer,NewSeries, Volumes 1-5 (1993-1997) are
available at $10.00 for a single copy and $8.00 each for multiple copies (same or
different annual issues). There is an international postage surcharge of$8.00 per
copy ($2.00 for Canada and Mexico), payable in U.S. funds or by international
money order. International orders are shipped by air mail. Order individual
copies from oureditorial address (inside front cover). Thoreau Society members
receive a subscription to The Concord Saunterer. For membership information
see the inside rearcover.
Books and merchandise advertised in this issue of The Concord Saunterer are
available from the Thoreau Society store, The Shop at Walden Pond. Thoreau
Society members receive a ten percent discount on all purchases. See the
advertisement at the end ofthis issue.
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Engraving by James D. Smillie
fromPicturesqueAmerica (published 1874)
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%tthinking 'Tfiorcau and
the 9-tistory ofAmerican "EcoCogy
Frank N. Egerton
Laura Dassow Walls
The current interest in Thoreau and science continues a longstanding
debate over the value of Thoreau's observations to science. This debate was
complicated by the factthatThoreau's theories and observations werecarried out
in a science thatdid not, in any formal sense, yetexist: ecology. The first attempt
to describe Thoreau's ecological studies within a broad historical tradition was
FrankEgerton's 1976 survey articleonthehistory ofAmericanecology.1 Atthat
time, several goodarticlesonThoreauandecologyalreadyexisted, andsincethen
even more such studies have been published, stimulated not by Egerton's article
(which wentlargely unnoticedbyThoreau scholars) butbythe increasing interest
in both Thoreau and ecology.2
While Egerton's survey ofthree centuries of American ecology retains
its usefulness for placing Thoreau's work within a broader context, the recent
publication ofFaith in a Seedhas fundamentally broadened the basis forjudging
the place held by Thoreau.3 Before, the most astute assessment of Thoreau'
relationship to science seemed to him to be that ofthe literary critics, who saw in
Thoreau's work signs of an irresolvable conflict between literary artistry and
scientific methodology. Now, by contrast, it seems clearthatThoreau's scientific
critics, whose evaluations ofhis place in science were both less well known and
far more enthusiastic, were in fact more responsive to Thoreau's considerable
achievements in ecology. In the wake of Faith in a Seed, new, detailed assess-
ments ofThoreau andecology are emerging which offera necessary corrective to
earlier views. The following remarks offer an interim guide to the literature, and
an overview of the reasons for the changing evaluations ofThoreau's contribu-
tions to ecology.
Tounderstand why thischange is sodramatic, one needs tokeep in mind
both the history of ecology and the history of the posthumous publication of
THE CONCORD SAUNTERER, N.S. Volume 5, Fall 1997
The Concord Saunterer
Thoreau's writings. Although "ecology" as a science was named in 1866, it was
only at the end of the nineteenth century that it began to be organized as a
scientific field. Tocomplicate the term still further, since 1970theenvironmental
movement has often borrowed the name "ecology" to signify a concern for
preserving the environment, although the science and the political movement are
quite distinct.4
Despite the terminology being quite recent (meaning that Thoreau lived
before this science was named or organized), an interest in ecological subjects
such as the "balance of nature" has existed since antiquity.5 In Thoreau's day,
discussions of such subjects were lumped under the very broad heading of
"natural history," even as particular sciences were emerging from natural history
asprofessional fieldsintheirown right: chemistry, geology,botany, zoology and,
rathermore slowly, ecology itself.
The olderdomain ofnatural history hadbeen organizedaccording to the
traditional division of animal, vegetable, and mineral, which made theoretical
connections difficulttoidentify andanalyze. Carl Linnaeus (1707-78) offeredthe
earliestconceptual frameworkforatheoryofnaturalrelationshipsby formalizing
the balance ofnature as the "economy ofnature," an influential concept he first
outlined in 1749.6 Linnaeus also developed the study of"phenology," a correla-
tionbetweenclimate andbiological activity; althoughthetermitselfwas notused
until the mid-nineteenthcentury, theideaofthe "calendar" ofnatural activitywas
important through the eighteenth and well into the nineteenth centuries.7 Finally,
in the first half of the nineteenth century, the German naturalist Alexander von
Humboldt (1769-1859) attempted to use the globe itself as a framework for the
study ofthe interconnectedness ofall nat—ural phenomena, organic and inorganic,
in his science of "physical geography"8 a science that Ernst Haeckel, in 1866,
named "ecology."
Thoreau's own ecological perspective came from four sources and was
therefore a complex and changing aspect ofhis intellect. These sources were: (1)
his love of nature, which goes back to his childhood experiences and was an
important part of his feelings throughout his life; (2) his readings, which were
influenced by this love of nature; (3) his experiences in nature, which were
influenced by both his feelings and his readings; and (4) his transcendentalism,
which was influenced by, though not identical with, the views of Ralph Waldo
Emerson.
Three scientists whose work and writings were very important for the
developmentofecologyexertedaparticularinfluence, bothdirectandindirect,on
Thoreau: Linnaeus,9 Humboldt,10 and Darwin.1' Thoreau's firstexposure was to
the ideas ofCarl Linnaeus, who was a very influential professor in Sweden now
best remembered for having founded binomial nomenclature and hence modern
plant and animal taxonomy. Yet Linnaeus was also central to the founding of
ecological ideas, both directly and through his influence on his students: practi-