Table Of Content

5anPi^ t» WOT - ££t2. THE CONCORD SAUNTERER ^f ''g ?. ^-SSS3 ^*<vv»-< ^ ^z^^^^^ p^^^v^^ /fcyz^^*^ «^\^ ; /*#fr ^V^- ^y /%Z7^^>^ ?^Lzs& *&k^ ^-^x^ 9 New Series Volume 3 Fall 1995 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 Bradley P. Dean Wesley T. Mott Joel Myerson Editorial Assistants Heather Burt Lois Redmond The front-cover drawing ofThoreau's Walden Pond cabin, based on an original executed by Henry's sister Sophia, accompanied the first printing of Walden in 1854. The passage about sauntering is from Thoreau's "Walking" manuscript. The likeness ofThoreauonthebackcoverisfroman 1856BenjaminD. Maxham daguerreotype, owned by the Thoreau Society. THE CONCORD SAUNTERER, an annual publication ofThe Thoreau Society, Inc., seeks biographical, historical, textual, bibliographical, and interpretive ar- ticlesrelatingtoHenryThoreauandhis associates, Concord, andTranscendental- ism. Submissions of all lengths are invited; shorter pieces not used will also be consideredforthe quarterly THOREAU SOCIETY BULLETIN, editedby Brad- ley P. Dean. Contributions should conform to The Chicago Manual ofStyle for endnote documentation. Send two copies plus SASE to the Editor, THE CON- CORD SAUNTERER, Department of English, East Carolina University, Greenville, North Carolina 27858-4353. Decisions are reported within three months. Subscription to THE CONCORD SAUNTERER is by membership in the Society; see the back cover for additional information. THE CONCORD SAUNTERER is indexed in theMLA InternationalBibliography. 1 THE CONCORD j SAUNTERER I New Series Volume 3 Fall 1995 Editor's Pages 1 Walter Harding A Rambling History ofthe Thoreau Society 5 Anne LaBastille Thoreau and the Woodswoman 21 Harmon D. Smith AtHome with Lidian: Henry Thoreau in 1847-1848 35 Donna Mendelson Tinker Creek and the Waters o/Walden: Thoreauvian Currents inAnnie Dillard's Pilgrim 5 Janice Milner Lasseter "Boston in the Sixties": Rebecca Harding Davis's View ofBoston and ConcordDuring the Civil War 65 Concord Saunterer Rebecca Harding Davis " "Boston in the Sixties 73 David Lyttle Emerson's Transcendental Individualism 89 Parker Huber John Muir in Thoreau's Maine Woods 105 Kent Ljungquist and Anthony Conti "NearMy Heart" AfterFifty Years: Thomas Wentworth Higginson's Reminiscence ofWorcester 121 Joan Cooney NeitherNonresistance Nor Violence: Thoreau's ConsistentResponse to Social Evils 133 Notes on Contributors 141 The Ihoreau ^'~ Society=s Copyright 1995©by The Thoreau Society, Inc. Editor's Pages Withtheliftingthisfallofthefirstsymbolic shovelfulofearthatthenew Thoreau Institute in Lincoln, a mile from Walden Pond on a woodedroad named Baker Farm, 1995 became a truly groundbreaking year for the Thoreau Society. Underlying all this change, however, isthecontinuityofgrowth. Acentury and a halfafter Henry Thoreau moved from his family's village house to a cabin at the pond, the half-century-old Society that bears his name and honors his life, his works, andhis philosophy has similarly migrated from its town-basedLyceum to anewhome inthe woods. Andwhilethe spacious, technologically sophisticated, and relatively posh Thoreau Institute will never be mistaken for a humble cabin, thephilosophythatbuddedatthelatterhasbeentransplanted,rootsintact,toother Walden Woods soil, to land where Thoreau walked and thought and where the climateandotherconditionsnowarerightforhisinfluencetogrowandbranchout in the future. May the library and educational center planted in that spade-sized hole mature into atwenty-first-century landmarkthat all Thoreauvians, including Henry Thoreau himself, might regard as home. As a Society founded on Thoreauvian ideals, we have now, as did Henry in 1845, put another kind of foundation underourdreams. Part of the continuous change and changing continuity of the Thoreau Society is The ConcordSaunterer, whose appearance looks much the same from yeartoyearbutwhosecontentsvarywitheachannualcropofarticles. Thisyear's — harvestis avery good one. Society founderWal—ter Harding looks back always with fondness if sometimes with irreverence at the first fifty years of our existence. EcologistAnneLaBastillecharmswithhercommentson"Thoreauand the Woodswoman," derived in part from her enthusiastically received talk at last summer's annual meeting in Concord. Harmon Smith offers new insights con- cerning Thoreau's relationship with Lidian Emerson in the period after he left Walden Pond, and Donna Mendelson adroitly follows Annie Dillard's Pilgrim at Tinker Creek to its headwater source in Walden. Janice Lasseter introduces our reprinting ofa generally unavailable memoir ofRebbecca Harding Davis's 1862 visit to Concord. David Lyttle sheds new light on "Emerson's Transcendental Individualism," andParkerHuberfinds inthe letters andmarginaliaofJohnMuir evidence ofMuir's fruitful fascination with Thoreau's The Maine Woods. Also, Kent Ljungquist and Anthony Conti examine Thomas Wentworth Higginson's affectionate association with Worcester, Massachusetts; and, lastly, Joan Cooney offers a compelling new interpretation of Thoreau's approach to social evils. Regrettably,onearticlenotinthisissueistheanticipatedessaybyWalterBrainon the ecology, history, and Thoreauvian connections of the land containing the Thoreau Institute. Although health problems prevented Walter from completing thatproposed essay this year, a shorter version ofhis findings was published in a recent issue of the Thoreau Society Bulletin, and we hope to present his full accountin afuture issue ofThe ConcordSaunterer. 2 Concord Saunterer Letthe record show, it was humorandhumility, not hubris! Last year's "Editor's Pages" concluded with the comment that "while the last Concord Sauntererwasreasonablyfreefromerrors,thisissueisflawless. Ourbeagle-eyed proofreaders have eliminated all mistakes." At least half a dozen readers, who shall remain unnamed, wrote to inform me that not only was the entire issue not flawless, but they had found an error (reversed quotation mark) in the four- paragraph editor's essay itself. Well, folks, there were two errors in that same essay, only one ofthem unintentional. Knowing the impossibility ofproducing the perfect issue, I decided to concede imperfection up front and not try to competewiththegods. Ifthosesixormoreeagle-eyed readershadconsideredthe metaphorical merit of my compliment to the proofreaders, they would have smelledthe rat I planted. As it was, only Jim Anderson ofCovington, Georgia, wrote to tell me that he got thejoke: "My opinion, which may scarcely be worth yourtimetoread,isthatanypublicationbearsanelementofenrichmentwhenever its editor/contributors apply a little humor. Specifically, thank you for your remarkon the last line of 'Editor's Pages,' ConcordSaunterer, Fall 1994. I wish you continued success with this publication." Jim, assumingthatyourcomments arenotironicallyintended,Ifindthemmuchtomylikingandwellworthmytime. And I, too, hope we succeed. Keep laughing with me. Let the record show also thatanyerrorsinthisissueofTheConcordSauntererareasunintendedastheyare unwelcome and, alas, seemingly unavoidable. Once again thanks are due to ProfessorFrederickWagnerforhis gener- ous financial contribution to help support this publication. And once again our readers are encouraged to submit essays for possible publication in these pages. Ourmastheadpage identifies therangeofmaterialwepublish, andperusalofthis issue will provide examples from most ofthose categories. Yourcomments and criticisms are always welcome, whetheryou getmyjokes ornot. RWH Digitized by the Internet Archive in 2013 http://archive.org/details/concordsaunterer19953unse Among those present at the first meeting of the Thoreau Society on July 12th, 1941,were(backrow,lefttoright)WallaceB.ConantofConcord,OdellShepard, Rev. RolandD. Sawyer, RaymondAdams, unknownwoman,RolandSawyer,Jr.; (frontrow) T. L. Bailey, Allen French ofConcord, andWalterHarding. PhotoCourtesyofWalterHarding A gamblinghistory OfThe Thoreau Society Walter Harding People keep telling me that since it is the oldest (fifty-four years) and largest (fifteen-hundred members) society devoted to an American author, the Thoreau Society shouldhaveitshistory written. Since I amtheone whostartedit and am one ofonly two charter members still alive (Fred McGill is the other and heisinhis nineties), I suppose I am the logical one to provide that account. As a matter of fact, though, when I talked four or five years ago of writing such a historyforthefiftiethanniversaryofthe society, I wastoldbyoneofthe society's leaders thatI shouldnotdoitbecauseIcouldnotbeobjectiveenough. Well, I am notgoingtobe objective, oreventry tobe. This willbemyhistory and ifanyone doesn't like it, he can write his own. This may be egotistical (Did you ever see a Thoreauvian who wasn't egotistical?), but I have got to begin this history with me, for I was the one who startedthewholethingoff. Inthefallof1939,justfreshoutofcollegeandstarting at my firstjob as principal ofthe Center Grammar School in Northfield, Massa- chusetts, up wherethe ConnecticutRiverenters Massachusetts fromNew Hamp- shire and Vermont, I was terribly lonely. During my college days I had become very excited about Henry Thoreau, but here in N—orthfield I could find no on—e to talkwithabouthim. Ifanyoneknewwhohewas andpracticallynoonedid he thought ofhim as a crank not worth bothering with. And so I started writing to people abouthim—justto maintain my own sanity. IfI read abook or an article about him, I wrote a letter to the author. If I heard a complete stranger was enthusiastic about him, I wrote a letter. The amazing thing was thatjust about everyone wrote back sharing my enthusiasm forHenry. Itwasn'tlongbeforeIbegantohearaboutRaymondAdams. Hewasthe Thoreau scholar of the day. He taught at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and was in the midst ofwriting the definitive biography ofThoreau (unfortunately, a book that was never completed or at least never published). I wrote him about my enthusiasm and received in reply his latest "Thoreau News- THE CONCORD SAUNTERER, N.S. Volume 3, Fall 1995 — 6 Concord Saunterer letter," a little, several-paged mimeographed collection of various notes about Thoreau that he had been issuing to a few friends for several years. I was so thrilledwithitthatIwrotea—replylongerthanthenewsletterandheinturnsentme abackfileofthenewsletters allbutthefirstone,whichhehadneverkeptacopy of. (Years later, after Raymond's death, I ran across this first issue in the Fred PiperThoreaucollection in theLexington, Massachusetts, public library andwas — able to make a xerox ofit so I guess I have the only complete file of"Thoreau Newsletters"inexistence, oneofmyprizedpossessions. AfewyearsagoIranan article about it in the Thoreau Society Bulletin excerpting most of the still pertinent material so others could enjoy it.) That was the beginning of my friendshipwithAdams,whichlasteduntilhisdeathafewyearsago. Thesummer of 1940 I enrolled in the University ofNorth Carolina graduate school to study underhim. Ironically,hewasnotteachingthatsummer,butIspentmanyahappy afternoonoreveninginhis officetalkingThoreau orlooking athis greatThoreau collection. — Thatfall,whenIgotbacktoNorthfield,Idecidedthatwe oratleastI hadtohave aThoreau Society. I started writingtoeveryone Icouldthinkof, but to my amazement I got very discouraging replies. I was told by everyone that there were not enough Thoreauvians in the country to form a society. Besides, Thoreauvians were too much individuals to everwant a society. Even Raymond Adams discouraged me. Finally I got one favorable reply! The Rev. Roland D. Sawyer, aUniversalistministerinWare,Massachusetts, wrotethathehadalways wantedtohavea"ThoreauBirthdayMecca" onJuly 12thinConcord. IfIwould help him arrange one in 1941, then I could try to talk the people who came into forming aThoreau Society. Sawyer, incidentally, was a colorful soul. Not only was he a minister, but he was also a state representative in the State House in Boston,knownthroughoutMassachusettsasthebarefootlegislator. Wheneverhe gotintoaroom, hetookoffhis shoes and socks andwalkedaroundbarefoot! He had long been a Thoreau enthusiast and in 1917, the hundredth anniversary of Thoreau's birth, he hadpublished alittlepamphlet onThoreau that was then still inprint. Sawyersentmealistofnames andaddressesofalltheThoreauenthusi- astsheknew about. RaymondAdams also sentmehis list. I addedalltheones I knew of, mimeographed an announcement, and sent it out. Raymond put me in touch withAllenFrench, theConcordhistorian, andhe organized ahostcommit- teethere. IgotannouncementsintothemajornewspapersoftheNortheast. Then, about ten days before our gathering, French called me up and suggested we call everything offbecause there had been so little response. I did some fast talking andpersuadedhimto keepon with it. ThatsummerIwasworkingasnaturecounselorinaprivateboyscampin the Berkshires. July 12th was a Saturday and under no circumstances were we ever supposed to take Saturdays off, but by some more fast talking I persuaded