Thoreau, Henry David

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Mr. Thoreau's Work: Walden
A beautiful guide to life and nature.
Discover what is truly important
An essay on life
An experiment, some observations , and a powerful message

Walden: (Writings of Henry D. Thoreau)
Henry David Thoreau
Manufacturer: Princeton University Press
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

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ASIN: 0691096120

Book Description

Originally published in 1854, Walden, or Life in the Woods, is a vivid account of the time that Henry D. Thoreau lived alone in a secluded cabin at Walden Pond. It is one of the most influential and compelling books in American literature.

This new paperback edition--introduced by noted American writer John Updike--celebrates the 150th anniversary of this classic work. Much of Walden's material is derived from Thoreau's journals and contains such engaging pieces as "Reading" and "The Pond in the Winter." Other famous sections involve Thoreau's visits with a Canadian woodcutter and with an Irish family, a trip to Concord, and a description of his bean field. This is the complete and authoritative text of Walden--as close to Thoreau's original intention as all available evidence allows.

For the student and for the general reader, this is the ideal presentation of Thoreau's great document of social criticism and dissent.

Customer Reviews:

Mr. Thoreau's Work: Walden.......2007-04-22

It looks like I rated it 4 stars. I can't seem to change that. I really meant to rate it a 3.

Fortunately, I read The Annotated Walden, annotated by Phillip Van Doren Stern. Thank goodness I chose it. Without Mr. Van Doren Stern's introduction, side bars, pictures and comments, I think I would have been thoroughly lost.

I have to agree with a few of the reviewers who stated how pompous Thoreau sounds; he does. He tries to act superior,only to have the side bar notations state something different; something that a friend mentioned. For example, he says he "could easily do without the post-office," yet a contemporary, Sanborne, is quoted off to the side of the annotated version as having said about this quote: "Few residents of Concord frequented the Post Office more punctually or read the newspapers more eagerly than Thoreau."

He contradicts himself constantly. He mocks people who don't read, and then says he barely read a few pages of one book in the two years he was at Walden pond. He could be vindictive; lashing out at Flint's Pond (and Mr. Flint) because Flint would not let him build a cabin on his pond. He comes off as a snob, saying most men learn to read only as a necessity; for work, to add up their profits. But *true* readers are hard to come by. "I aspire to be acquainted with wiser men than this Concord soil has produced.."

Yet, he also has some really great words of wisdom. He questions the wisdom in working so hard during the best part of your life (youth) only to spend the fruits of your labor "during the least valuable part of it." Enjoy life while you are young. Why work so hard when the endgame is death? He comments on things that are still true to this day; fashion and our obsession with appearance. Work to provide for yourself, not to overburden yourself and keep yourself in debt.

Someone reviewing this book on Amazon wrote that it was a failed experiment; that he meant to live in the woods as a hermit of sorts and failed miserably to do so. That was never the extent of his experiment. He never says he's going to lead a solitary life. He states he visited the village every day or two. "As I walked in the woods to see birds and squirrels, so I walked in the village to see men and boys."

I find myself having mixed feelings regarding this book. He is so contradictory, but then, so am I. He can be judgemental and then he can be spot-on. It was a difficult book to get through, Again, had I not had the annotated version, I would have been truly lost. He frustrated me at times. I was not reading literature. I was reading someone's diary that often went off-tangent (like this review). Is it Top 100 book worthy? My opinion: no. It was good at times, painful at others. I took 2 months to trudge through it, all the while reading 5 other books just to keep me going. I am glad I read it. I won't do it again though. Sorry, Mr. Thoroeau

A beautiful guide to life and nature........2007-03-24

Walden is so beautifully written, and the issues are still relevant today. To me it is a guide for how to live in harmony with nature. I think if you are a naturalist or an aspiring naturalist this book is a must have. This book touches more on spiritual aspects than any religeous scripture I have ever read. Even 150 years ago Thoreau looked at the trends and knew what was coming. Today I don't think that anyone with any sense would argue that in an era of 200 different shampoos that all do the same thing,we cannot sustain this pace and will deplete all of the resources and pollute all our lands,if we continue. Live small and ecologically sound was the message and a great one it was.

Discover what is truly important.......2007-03-12

Thoreau moved into the woods at Walden pond in Concord. However the book isnt about living in the woods. Its about stepping outside of "civilization" so that he could look at it objectively. From his perspective you see how much of the worlds misery is just stuff we bring on ourselves. like the following:
" I see young men, my townsmen, whose misfortune it is to have inherited farms, houses, barns, cattle, and farming tools; for these are more easily acquired than got rid of."
He goes on to explain how once we have the items we need to maintain them, improve them, and in the end we end up slaves to the things we own. He looks at how we spend every waking day storing up treasures to mold or rust in a treasure room.
He then goes on to look into what work is actually needed to sustain our lives. Once he has discovered this, he is amazed at the mountains of free time he has left. He uses that time to get to know the wolrd that we live in. Sort of in a "Song of Myself" sort of way.
In the end this book was an inspiration to me personaly, to leave the fast paced chase of the dollar for a more relaxed and less stressfull life style. Now I chase waves and try to help out in my community. I find that I have tons of free time, and I don't even feel guilty if I waste it lying on the beach.
Its not the sort of book that you get in the first read through, you will find yourself at the office or in a meeting and suddenly a passage from the book will pop into your head and suddenly it will make sense.
I know this review is a little touchy feely, but if you read this book, and understand its message. It is a key to a secret club where you realize that "Hand Scraped solid Manchurian Walnut Floors" are in the end just flooring. And the truth is that Artisan Tibetan vase that you bought for such a fortune will one day be sold at a garage sale for a couple of bucks.
Its a book that looks at the silliness that we take so seriously. I highly recommend this book to anybody, but especialy if you are doing well but still not happy. Buy this book.

An essay on life.......2007-01-24

I agree with a previous poster that Thoreau comes across as arrogant throughout the book, but he makes some striking observations on humanity, civilization, the pursuit of wealth, and enjoying nature. This is a book that everyone should read at some point in their life, preferably sooner rather than later. It is thought-provoking and entertaining.

An experiment, some observations , and a powerful message.......2007-01-12

This book has some great quotes about life. In one sense it seems like a postive thinking book. It suggests we reawaken ourselves. It tells us to live deliberately. He points out that life is frittered away by detail. He tells us to be philosophers rather than professors of philosophy. He points out that most men lead lives of quite desperation.

Those are some of the things that I underlined and like to re read. The backdrop to all these great ideas is his time spent in the woods. He did retire from society for a while. He did make a lot of very detailed observations about nature. It felt like being in the woods. The experiences, in some ways, reminded me of my own time in the woods but in many ways they seemed like very different and new experiences.

In the end he says he that he left the woods for as good a reason as for which he went there. I was not conviced of that claim. To assume that he he just went to the woods to record the experience and use the time to to offer his complaints about society is just not enough to explain this book. Somehow both approaches complimented each other.

The book is well worth reading. After reading the book brings you back to find a quote your thinking about and to better understand the quote.

Average customer rating:

Like panning for gold...
Rich and Profound
An Entirely New Level
Tied for second place among the annotated Waldens
INSOMNIA'S CURE

Walden
Henry David Thoreau
Manufacturer: Houghton Mifflin
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

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ASIN: 0395720427

Book Description

On July 4, 1845, Henry David Thoreau moved into the cabin he had built on the shore of Walden Pond. Now, on the 150th anniversary of that event, Houghton Mifflin is proud to publish an exceptional new edition of what is perhaps the most important book in our history as a publisher. Walden: An Annotated Edition features the definitive text of the book with extensive notes on Thoreau's life and times by the distinguished biographer and critic Walter Harding. In the third chapter, Thoreau writes, "How many a man has dated a new era in his life from the reading of a book?" For many readers, Walden is that book. Written a century and a half ago, it grows more meaningful every day, and whether you are reading it for the first time or the hundredth, Walter Harding's insightful comments will open your eyes to the true depths of this masterpiece.

Customer Reviews:

Like panning for gold..........2006-12-31

...you have to sift through a lot.

Thoreau has some really great, original ideas and approaches to life. He has whole sections that seem incredibly tangential but after you reread them, you realize they were perhaps the greatest parts of the book.

That being said, he also has sections that are just incredibly tangential, and when you finish you miss things like narratives, a centered topic, main points, etc. These are just stream of consciousness it seems.

Rich and Profound.......2006-01-05

To a citydweller who enjoys the modern conveniences, the idea of building a primitive shed in the woods and observing Nature for days on end was entirely unappealing. I felt I would have no sympathy with the Thoreauvian worldview.

I was pleasantly surprised. Thoreau has a distinct sense of humor. While a lot of the book is descriptions of Nature, the writing was lovely enough to make up for my disinterest in the subject. In fact, Thoreau's enthusiasm communicated itself to me, and I found myself becoming more interested as I read on.

Thoreau has a reputation for being unworldly, but interestingly the longest chapter in the book, "Economy," lays out in great detail the cost-effectiveness of his experiment in simple living. Although living in an isolated shed, he is no misanthrope but displays much affection and compassion for his fellow man. He is a keen observer of human nature and his descriptions of his friends and visitors were some of the best parts of the book. He is a man of sensibility, sincerely concerned about the direction he sees society taking.

The annotations were useful, as was the map of Concord.

An Entirely New Level.......2005-03-22

Henry David Thoreau did something truly magical in Walden. He brought boredom to an entirely new level I never knew existed. The amount of pointless and extraneous details that overflowed the pages of the book never ceased to amaze me.
I was forced to read the book for an english class. My life has never been the same since. Thoreau's brilliant writing technique has allowed me to realize the full potential of other "books." I often find myself engrossed in the phone book or the dictionary, which have become suspenseful thrillers in comparison to Walden.

Tied for second place among the annotated Waldens.......2004-08-10

WALDEN has rarely been out-of-print since its first publication in 1854. Copies come in all sizes, shapes and price ranges. Today's Thoreauvians have three ANNOTATED versions of WALDEN to choose from. Each one provides same-page explanatory notes that help the reader interpret the sometimes esoteric references in Henry David Thoreau's original text. The three books are "The Annotated Walden" (edited by Philip Van Doren Stern, 1970), "Walden: An Annotated Edition" (edited by Walter Harding, 1995), and "Walden: A Fully Annotated Edition" (edited by Jeffrey S. Cramer, 2004). Each one has at least one map of Concord and/or Walden Pond. Each one has its strengths and weaknesses. Each one has appeal for a devoted audience.

"Walden: An Annotated Edition" by Walter Harding was released in 1995, a year before the editor's death. Harding was a founding member of the Thoreau Society and devoted his entire life to the man and his writings. He is still regarded as *the* HDT expert of the 20th century. In addition to the text of WALDEN, this volume includes a few "extras": a four-page forward that contains a biographical summary; a bibliography; journal entries and original HDT sketches scattered throughout the book's margins (a favorite Harding technique); and a special appendix regarding the story about "a hound, a bay horse, and a turtle-dove." The explanatory notes -- the essence of an annotated edition -- define a number of references both in word and phrase. Harding didn't copy anything from Van Doren Stern's previous work, and he also didn't include as many stylistic comments as his predecessor. He offered more frequent explanations and backed them up with a variety of source materials. He also throws in his own opinion every once in a while. The occasional ink doodlings from the journals serve well to break up the text. But lack of an index is a major failing. This is a handsome volume that improves upon Van Doren Stern's previous WALDEN analysis.

Lining up the three versions side by side is an interesting experiment, best conducted on a rainy summer day when no other work has appeal. Let's use two well-known and oft-debated passages for an initial sample interpretive comparison.

"I long ago lost a hound, a bay horse, and a turtle-dove, and am still on their trail." ("Economy") Do those three animals stand for actual individuals in Thoreau's life? Or does this passage simply refer to Life's losses? Philip Van Doren Stern devotes a page-length note to this paragraph. He mentions a few of the major interpretations and refers readers to the bibliography for more. His conclusion is: "Since there is no clear explanation, each reader will have to supply his own." Walter Harding offers three pages in a special appendix that covers all the major theories. At the end, he too suggests that "each reader is free to interpret them as he wishes." Jeffrey Cramer's paragraph cites two similiar excerpts found in other Thoreau pieces, and his explanation states that "no analysis has been generally accepted as valid." So the three men agree: we have to decide for ourselves what we think of the story.

"There was an artist in the city of Kouroo who was disposed to strive after perfection." ("Conclusion") Is the parable that follows that opening sentence based on some of the Eastern texts that Thoreau was fond of reading at the time? Or is it a thinly-disguised depiction of his own struggle to perfect the final WALDEN manuscript? Philip Van Doren Stern simply says that "no one has been able to find a source for the legend" and agrees with Arthur Christy that it is an allegory about Thoreau's own life. Walter Harding offers several possible origins of the legend but eventually cites and agrees with Christy's allegory statement. Jeffrey Cramer devotes just a two-sentence annotation, concluding with "It is generally agreed that the following fable is by Thoreau." In this instance, Cramer has the benefit of time over his colleagues. Most Thoreauvians have come to the same realization during the past decade after much gnashing of teeth.

Explanatory differences are more pronounced at other various junctures in the text. Each man obviously was intrigued by certain references more than others. I can say that overall, I found Jeffrey Cramer's annotations to be the most helpful of the three. Maybe someday someone will have the courage to tell all the makers of posters, bumper stickers, and t-shirts that "Time is but the stream I go a-fishing in" is NOT about fishing at
all.

Every school and public library should own at least one of these annotated editions. Academic libraries will want at least two of the three versions. If you want a book that has a lot more HDT than just WALDEN, find a used copy of the Philip Van Doren Stern book. If you want to hear from expert Walter Harding, choose his. Individuals who want the most comprehensive interpretation should go with the newest volume by Jeffrey
Cramer. It's a worthy addition to the Thoreau legacy.

INSOMNIA'S CURE.......2004-05-13

I first read Solitude in high school(over 10 years ago), not as part of the regular curriculum but for US Academic Decathlon. To think about it even now still bores me. Reading Solitude may have been the most boring part of USAD, & that ain't a little bit of boredom. Thoreau, Emerson, those other guys I can barely differentiate, especially the 'fire & brimstone' types were some of the reasons I took British lit instead of American lit in college. I also took British lit rather than American because it is 800+ years vs. 200+. (Thanks Mr. M, my h.s. English lit teacher). But back to Walden.

Think of it. You decide to live in solitude for a couple of years, in the 19th century! The very idea is boring. Let's not get into no t.v., et.c. But not even the daily news? Didn't they have newspapers back then? Before some make the mistake of thinking I don't understand, I (yawn) say I can appreciate one's desire to engage himself by the near total exclusion of others. I just don't believe its something you need to read about some guy doing over 150 years ago. On the other hand, if you wanted to avoid those very interesting times, you'd do what Thoreau did if you could so afford. If not you'd read about it, to quiet the debate going on outside one person's journey of self-discovery. Specifically, if I wanted to learn more about those times I'd check up on abolitionist writings, women's suffrage, and other things from the period that were more topical.

Nevertheless, I could use a copy though, for those troublesome nights when I can't get to sleep.

Book Description

This collection of fifty-three early pieces by Thoreau represents the full range of his youthful imagination. Collected, arranged, and carefully edited for the first time here, the writings date from 1828 to 1852 and cover a broad range of subjects: learning, morals, literature, history, politics, and love. Included is a major essay on Sir Walter Raleigh that was not published during the author's lifetime and a fragmentary college piece here published for the first time. Titles of essays published in the volume are given below.

Early Essays <ul>

The Seasons </li>

Anxieties and Delights of a Discoverer </li>

Men Whose Pursuit Is Money </li>

Of Keeping a Private Journal </li>

"We Are Apt to Become What Others . . . Think Us to Be" </li>

Forms, Ceremonies, and Restraints of Polite Society </li>

A Man of Business, a Man of Pleasure, a Man of the World </li>

Musings </li>

Kinds of Energetic Character </li>

Privileges and Pleasures of a Literary Man </li>

Severe and Mild Punishments </li>

Popular Feeling </li>

Style May . . . Offend against Simplicity </li>

The Book of the Seasons </li>

Sir Henry Vane </li>

Literary Digressions </li>

Foreign Influence on American Literature </li>

Life and Works of Sir W. Scott </li>

The Love of Stories </li>

Cultivation of the Imagination </li>

The Greek Classic Poets </li>

The Meaning of "Fate" </li>

Whether the Government Ought to Educate </li>

Travellers & Inhabitants </li>

History . . . of the Roman Republic </li>

A Writer's Nationality and Individual Genius </li>

L'Allegro & Il Penseroso </li>

All Men Are Mad </li>

The Speeches of Moloch & the Rest </li>

People of Different Sections </li>

Gaining or Exercising Public Influence </li>

Titles of Books </li>

Sublimity </li>

The General Obligation to Tell the Truth </li>

"Being Content with Common Reasons" </li>

The Duty, Inconvenience and Dangers of Conformity </li>

Moral Excellence </li>

Barbarities of Civilized States </li>

T. Pomponius Atticus </li>

Class Book Autobiography </li>

"The Commercial Spirit of Modern Times" </li></ul>

Miscellanies <ul>

</li>

DIED . . . Miss Anna Jones </li>

Aulus Persius Flaccus </li>

The Laws of Menu </li>

Sayings of Confucius </li>

Dark Ages </li>

Chinese Four Books </li>

Homer. Ossian. Chaucer. </li>

Hermes Trismegistus . . . From the Gulistan of Saadi </li>

Sir Walter Raleigh </li>

Thomas Carlyle and His Works </li>

Love </li>

Chastity & Sensuality </li></ul>

Customer Reviews:

A day by day look at Thoreau.......1997-07-19

"Oct. 22nd, 1837. 'What are you doing now?' he asked, 'Do you keep a journal?'-- So I make my first entry today." Thus begins Thoreau's Journal, made up of more then two million words and covering about twenty-five years of his life. No other work of Thoreau's better exhibits his discipline as a writer and his devotion to the natural world. In the Journal can be found the fragmented foundations of masterpieces such as Walden, A Week on the Concord and Merrimack Rivers, The Maine Woods, and Cape Cod. But what is perhaps more interesting to a reader of Thoreau's Journal are his thoughts and insights on topics such as friendship, love, religion, nature, bravery, heroism, war, slavery, the art of writing, and, most important to Thoreau, the art of living. Anyone with any interest in Thoreau will find his Journal to be an invaluable aid in understanding and following the life of one of America's most profound prose writers

Henry David Thoreau : Collected Essays and Poems (Library of America)

Average customer rating:

A treasure.
...could be worth it
An American Original

Henry David Thoreau : Collected Essays and Poems (Library of America)
Henry David Thoreau
Manufacturer: Library of America
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

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ASIN: 1883011957
Release Date: 2001-04-19

Book Description

America's greatest nature writer and a political thinker of worldwide impact, Henry David Thoreau's remarkable essays reflect his speculative and probing cast of mind. In his poems, he gave voice to his private sentiments and spiritual aspirations in the plain style of New England speech. Now, The Library of America brings together these indispensable works in one authoritative volume.

Spanning his entire career, the 27 essays gathered here vary in style from the ambling rhythm of "Natural History of Massachusetts" and "A Winter Walk"to the concentrated moral outrage of "Slavery in Massachusetts" and "A Plea for Captain John Brown." Included are "Civil Disobedience," Thoreau's great exploration of the conflict between individual conscience and state power that continues to influence political thinkers and activists; "Walking," a meditation on wildness and civilization; and "Life Without Principle,"a passionate critique of American materialism and conformity. Also here are literary essays, including pieces on Homer, Chaucer, and Carlyle; the travel essay "A Yankee in Canada"; the three speeches in defense of John Brown; and essays such as "Autumnal Tints," "Wild Fruits," and "Huckleberries" that explore natural phenomena around Concord.

Seven poems are published here for the first time, and others are presented in new, previously unpublished versions based on Thoreau's manuscripts.

Customer Reviews:

A treasure........2002-12-02

Henry David Thoreau, born in Concord, Massachusetts, on July 12, 1817, was one of the co-founders and most influential representatives of the philosophical school known as "Transcendentalism." (Others include fellow Concord residents Ralph Waldo Emerson and Bronson Alcott, reformist teacher and father of Louisa May Alcott.) Thoreau's life centered around his home town; yet, as his writings reflect, he was very familiar with all major philosophical schools of his time, not only those developing in America but also the writings of Kant, Goethe, Schiller and Hegel - indeed, the very term "transcendentalist" derives, as Emerson explained, from Kant, who had first recognized intuitive thought as a kind of thought in its own right, holding "that there was a very important class of ideas ... which did not come by experience, but through which experience was acquired ... [and which] were intuitions of the mind itself." These were the ideas which Kant had called "transcendental forms." (Or, as Thoreau himself once put it in his Journal: "I should have told them at once that I was a transcendentalist. That would have been the shortest way of telling them that they would not understand my explanations.")

To this day, transcendentalist philosophy, and Thoreau's work in particular, has proven enormously influential - on the program of the British Labour Party as much as on people as diverse as spiritual leaders Mahatma Gandhi and Martin Luther King Jr. on the one hand and rock star Don Henley on the other hand. Henley in the 1990s even went so far as to found the Walden Woods Project, teaming up with the Thoreau Society to preserve as much as possible of Walden Woods and the land around Concord, and foster education about Thoreau. Yet, during his life time only few of his many works, now considered so influential, were published, and even those did not find wide distribution. "I have now a library of nearly nine hundred volumes, over seven hundred of which I wrote myself," he commented on the poor sales of his "Week on the Concord and Merrimack Rivers."

This collection, one of two Library of America volumes dedicated to Thoreau's works and edited by renowned Thoreau scholar Elizabeth Hall Witherell, presents the majority of his essays and poems, from well-known works such as "Civil Disobedience," "Life Without Principle" and "Walking" to a large body of lesser known (but just as quotable!) writings and loving observations of nature ("Autumnal Tints," "Wild Apples," "Huckleberries"). A companion volume, edited by Robert F. Sayre, contains Thoreau's four longest publications ("A Week on the Concord and Merrimack Rivers," "The Maine Woods," "Cape Cod" and, of course, "Walden") - thus omitting from the Library of America series only his extensive journals and the posthumously published "Faith in a Seed," a collection of four manuscripts left partially unfinished at Thoreau's death in 1862 and published for the first time in the late 1990s, to much fanfare among Thoreauvians the world over.

Introspective to a fault, the man who once built a cabin on Walden Pond and for over two years lived the life of a hermit, was also a keen observer; of nature as much as of the world surrounding him. The shallowness and greed he saw in so-called "civil" society filled him with skepticism ("intellectual and moral suicide," he scoffed in "Life Without Principle") - and with the tireless need to encourage free thinking and personal independence. "I wish to speak a word for Nature," he thus opened his essay on "Walking," and explained that he sought to make a point in favor of "absolute freedom and wildness, as contrasted with a freedom and culture merely civil, - to regard man as an inhabitant, or a part and parcel of Nature, rather than a member of society." And he went on to mourn the fact that few people were truly able to walk and travel freely, to leave behind the social bounds that tied them down, and to open up to nature's beauty. This, of course, echoed his famous statements in "Walden" that "the mass of men lead lives of quiet desperation;" that however, as he had learned by his "experiment" on Walden Pond, "if one advances confidently in the direction of his dreams, and endeavors to live the life which he has imagined, he will meet with a success unexpected in common hours." And this was the same spirit who, staunchly opposed to both slavery and to the Mexican War, would rather spend a night in jail than pay his taxes, and who summed up his posture in "Civil Disobedience" by saying that "I think that we should be men first, and subjects afterward. It is not desirable to cultivate a respect for the law, so much as for the right" - a statement echoed roughly a hundred years later when Mahatma Gandhi told an English court that he believed that "non-cooperation with evil is a duty and British rule of India is evil," and also resonating through the publications of many an American civil rights leader, first and foremost Martin Luther King Jr.

While I had read much of Thoreau's work already before I discovered the Library of America collections, I am extremely pleased to see the majority of his body of work reunited in two volumes in this dignified series. For one thing, while there are innumerable compilations containing "Walden" and some of his other better-known works, it is still difficult to get a hold of Thoreau's lesser known essays and poems. Moreover, though, and more importantly, reading his works in the context provided by this collection makes for much greater insight into the man's personality, and his philosophy as a whole. While a biography certainly adds perspective, nothing surpasses the experience of reading Thoreau's works in context - and in the context of the works of other Transcendentalists, first and foremost Emerson. This is a true literary treasure: to behold, cherish and read again and again.

...could be worth it.......2002-03-08

This is a very fine collection of Essays and Poems but a bit pricey. I have to think that Thoreau would not have approved. Go to the library and paw through some of the essays
to see if you want the ones that you cannot get through another
collection. Frequently "Walking" or "Civil Disobedience" or
"Life Without Principle" are added to small volumes of Walden.
I, of course, shelled out the cash and bought it, but I
sometimes have second thoughts. The paper is quite thin and
I have doubts about it's durablity. If you intend to read this
work several times while underlining and making notes, I would look aroung before buying this specific volume. If you merely want a presentable copy to sit on the shelves and only occasionally consulted, but otherwise dormant-than this is for you.
As a side note, Thoreau demonstrates that some mediums are
better for others. Although a master prose essay writer( I see
"Walden" a a collection of discrete, connected essays) his
poetry isn't so great. This is not uncommon, although a great
prose-poet, Nietzsche's straight poetry is very weak.
Essentially, the material inside this volume is worth your
money. This volume itself may not satisfy your needs though.
Go to a university library, read through the essays, and decide
how important ownership is for you. Thoreau would have approved
of such an investigation.

An American Original.......2001-06-04

....When beginning to read this anthology, I was already familiar with most of his essays but had had only limited exposure to his poems which comprise about a third of this volume’s contents. Thoreau was a man of great intellectual courage while possessing at the same time an uncommon sensitivity to the natural world in which he seemed to be most comfortable. Within the context of American society during the mid-19th century, it is interesting to observe his development of concepts such as civil disobedience which later had such a profound influence on the thinking of public leaders such as Mohandas Gandhi and Martin Luther King, Jr. I have always admired the rigor of Thoreau’s intellect which is evident in abundance throughout his published works. While proceeding through this single volume in which most of his essays and his poems are arranged in sequence, I developed a much greater appreciation of (for lack of a better term) his “humanity.” Those who desire a wider and deeper context for consideration of these works are urged to read Walter Harding's The Days of Henry Thoreau as well as Robert D. Richardson’s two biographies, Henry Thoreau: A Life of the Mind and Emerson: The Mind on Fire.

Walden and Civil Disobedience (150th Anniversary) (Signet Classics)

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He heard a different drummer- The sun is but a morning star
Isolate, Nonconformist
Ho hum
The book that started it all?
Manifesto of U.S. Radicalism

Walden and Civil Disobedience (150th Anniversary) (Signet Classics)
Henry David Thoreau
Manufacturer: Signet Classics
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Mass Market Paperback

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ASIN: 0451529456
Release Date: 2004-08-03

Book Description

Henry David Thoreau's masterwork, Walden, is a collection of his reflections on life and society. His simple but profound musings-as well as "Civil Disobedience," his protest against the government's interference with civil liberty-have inspired many to embrace his philosophy of individualism and love of nature.

Customer Reviews:

He heard a different drummer- The sun is but a morning star.......2006-01-15

Thoreau is more than simply a writer who produced a great American classic. He exemplified the idea which perhaps as much as any other has come to be at the heart of the American creed. "If a man does not keep pace to his companion, perhaps it is because he hears a different drummer.Let him step to the music which he hears, however measured or far away."

Throreau when he went into the woods of Walden Pond on July 4, 1845 , a journey in solitude which would last just two years and two months, was the archetypal American individualist. He was the man 'doing his own thing' living in accordance with what only he could know was right for himself. This idea of 'radical individualism' has become part of the American common faith. Its abuses are legion and may be disastrous, but it also has brought about not simply 'better mousetraps' but a whole vast world of innovations and innovators, the like of which Mankind has never known before.

Thoreau as he writes in his introduction went to the woods to explore not simply the natural world, the outdoors he so much loved. He went to the woods to truly go more deeply into and know himself. As he says in his introduction:

" I should not talk so much about myself if there were anybody else whom I knew as well. Unfortunately, I am confined to this theme by the narrowness of my experience. Moreover, I, on my side, require of every writer, first or last, a simple and sincere account of his own life, and not merely what he has heard of other men's lives; some such account as he would send to his kindred from a distant land; for if he has lived sincerely, it must have been in a distant land to me."

Thoreau in that enigmatic, epigrammatic aphoristic style, he shared with his great mentor and fellow pioneering poet- philosopher, Emerson connects the world within with the world without , connects the Concord woods with the Cosmos . He creates a work in 'Walden' of singular beauty and of its own special economy and principles in thought.

Thoreau was too an abolitionist, an opponent of the Mexican war, a civil disobedient who refused to pay the poll tax-, a pioneer
whose followers would include Gandhi and Martin Luther King Jr.

But in his close looking at the world of nature and the world of himself he was first a great explorer of life and reality going out alone in his own way- however geographically close he may have been to home.

His words and his wisdom waken us even today to the hope of new and better worlds i.e. he also embodied the spirit of a great American optimism.

The great individual teaches us even in dark hours to find new worlds in ourselves outside our own darknesses. " There are new worlds yet to be born" he writes, " The sun is but a morning star"

Isolate, Nonconformist.......2003-10-14

Thoreau lived for two years and two months at Walden Pond. He said the mass of men live lives of quiet desperation. Henry Thoreau asked hard questions.

He related that when the Masschusetts Bay Colony was founded, earthen houses were built. They were convenient and suitable and they had the advantage of putting everyone in a position of equality and not making the poorer inhabitants feel discouraged. It distressed Thoreau that a good deal of the money spent for shelter and dress was for show, uneconomical.

He farmed organically because he was only a squatter. He found that by working for about six weeks he could meet all of the annual expenses of living. He claimed that memorable events transpired in the morning.

Thoreau went to the woods because he wished to live deliberately. The sounds of the railroad penetrated the woods. Visitors were frequent during three seasons. In the wintertime basically he had only himself for company and some of the animals.

In any season, the woods were surprisingly dark at night. Because he had no helpers or animals to assist him in cultivating the fields he felt that he ws more intimate with the beans in his beanfield. Songs have suggested that husbandry is a sacred art.

The scenery of Walden was on a humble scale. The first ice was especially interesting. He reported seeing fox, jays, chickadees, and red squirrels in the the winter.

In CIVIL DISOBEDIENCE he asserts that in a government that imprisons unjustly, the place of a just man is in prison. Thoreau underwent an overnight jail stay when he failed to pay a poll tax.

Ho hum.......2003-07-21

Isn't it a little bit incongruous to desire to detach yourself from society, seeking self-reliance, and then write a book about it? Just an observation...

While Thoreau is a curious individual - sort of a poor-man's G.K. Chesterton - he always seems to come up short. The Virtue of Civil Disobedience reads more like self-satire than a serious attempt at political philosophy. And while Walden is rich and fulfilling, it is ultimately just a vehicle for Thoreau to make baseless claims predicated upon his treasury of tidbits and odd knowledge.

Had Thoreau been blessed with living in the modern world, he could have just written "Living by a Pond on Your Own For Dummies" and saved himself (and us) a lot of trouble.

Instead of "Civil Disobedience," I recommend anything by Lysander Spooner (particularly "No Treason")

Instead of "Walden" I recommend "Two Years Before the Mast." It's both more relevant than Walden, and a heck of a lot Closer To Nature.

The book that started it all?.......2001-11-18

Compared to books such as "Voluntary Simplicity" by Duane Elgin and similar books, one realises that many of these ideas are nothing new when one reads Walden by Thoreau. In fact, what strikes me is that we as a Western society have not overcome many of the issues pointed out by Thoreau 150 years ago. Thoreau left Concord MA "disdainful of America's growing commercialism and industrialism", the slavish materialism of that society then. One wonders what he'll say if he would see the extend today - in the post Coca-Cola society. But then Thoreau was a man who clearly stepped to his own drum. Becuase of slavery, he refused to support the state on moral grounds. How would his views have been tolerated today?

I am not luddite, but my favourite quote from the book is this: "We are in great haste to construct a magnetic telegraph from Maine to Texas; but Maine and Texas, it may be, have nothing to communicate". Does this say something about the Internet, newsmedia and our contemporary information overload, or what?

I liked the introduction and footnotes of Meyer. Just enough to provide context and explanation, but never intrusive. This book is as relevant today as it was during Thoreau's lifetime. Highly recommended.

Manifesto of U.S. Radicalism.......2001-06-01

H.D. Thoreau is the first and most important figure in U.S. Radicalism. This collection provides the essential background for the latent radicalism inherent in American politics, especially as it was vocalized in the Civil Rights and Anti-War movements of the 1960's.

Disobedience is the shorter of the texts, but probably more important. It is an attempt to justify moral anarchism and a call to act on individual judgements about justice.

Walden can be interpreted as an important treatise against consumerism and the dangers of specialization, as well as an appreciation of the natural environment. Those interested in anti-globalization/anti-free trade movements would do well to read Walden to gain an understanding of where anti-consumerism came from and an examination of its ethical implications. However, it also pays to remember that Walden is a failed experiment and, in the end, Thoreau returns to Cambridge.

Thoreau, as political philosophy, has certain problems. Moral anarchy and denial of the social contract is difficult to replace in civil society--Thoreau makes no more than the most vague references as to what could replace it, seeming to rely on the fact that his personal sense of justice is universal.

Nevertheless, Thoreau's conscience has resonance and is as relevant today as ever. His rejection of consumerism as the basis for society and its stratification also teaches important lessons.

Book Description

With their call for "simplicity, simplicity, simplicity!”, for self-honesty, and for harmony with nature, the writings of Henry David Thoreau are perhaps the most influential philosophical works in all American literature.

The selections in this volume represent Thoreau at his best. Included in their entirety are Walden, his indisputable masterpiece, and his two great arguments for nonconformity, Civil Disobedience and Life Without Principle. A lifetime of brilliant observation of nature--and of himself--is recorded in selections from A Week On The Concord And Merrimack Rivers, Cape Cod, The Maine Woods and The Journal.

Download Description

In 1845 Henry David Thoreau left his pencil-manufacturing business and began building a cabin on the shore of Walden Pond near Concord, Massachusetts. This lyrical yet practical-minded book is at once a record of the 26 months Thoreau spent in withdrawal from society -- an account of the daily minutiae of building, planting, hunting, cooking, and, always, observing nature -- and a declaration of independence from the oppressive mores of the world he left behind. Elegant, witty, and quietly searching, Walden remains the most persuasive American argument for simplicity of life clarity of conscience.

Customer Reviews:

The Best.......2007-01-26

This is the best book that the United States of America has produced. America has failed to the extent that it has fallen beneath the level of these practical ideals. But it is never too late to put them into practice.

A questioning of life.......2000-09-01

Thoreau masterfully analyzes his in its purest form, he does away his all superfluous details. He forces the read to question his own existence. He forces the reader to imagine life without technology, commotion and anything unnecessary. Besides his analysis in Walden, he takes a stand for the maverick, for the individual, for the non-conformist. Lastly his social commentary especially about slavery shows how wrong our coutry had been.

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In defense of wilderness
It Takes You To Another Place
It helped to open my eyes to the world around me!

Walking (Little Books of Wisdom)
Henry David Thoreau
Manufacturer: HarperSanFrancisco
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

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ASIN: 0062511130

Book Description

A meandering ode to the simple act and accomplished art of taking a walk. Profound and humorous, companionable and curmudeonly, Walking, by America's first nature writer, is your personal and portable guide to the activity that, like no other, awakens the senses and the soul to the "absolute freedom and wildness" of nature.

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Nowadays almost all man's improvements, so called, as the building of houses and the cutting down of the forest and of all large trees, simply deform the landscape, and make it more and more tame and cheap. A people who would begin by burning the fences and let the forest stand!

Customer Reviews:

In defense of wilderness.......2005-01-10

More than any book, this argues for experiencing nature and preserving wilderness. Thoreau himself saw that fewer passenger pigeons were visiting and even then was aware of threats. Though first spoken in lectures on 1851, and 1856-1857, and published in June 1862 Atlantic Monthly, a month after his death, it still speak to us in the 21st century. For example ".. what would become of us, if we walked only in a garden or a mall?", . "In wilderness is the preservation of the world." , "To preserve wild animals implies generally the creation of a forest for them to dwell in or resort to. So it is with man". So lace up your shoes, grab your binoculars, and go for a walk and join the tribe of squirrels!

It Takes You To Another Place.......2000-09-23

I bought this book after reading about Henry David Thoreau in my high school literature book. He writes about his love of nature and tries to show others how to enjoy it. This book brings out the beauty of all the surroundings that many people pass by every day. It also encouraged me to get out and live up my ocasional stroll around the neighborhood. I took this book to school and it even helped relieve me a little stress. I recommend this book to all nature lovers.

It helped to open my eyes to the world around me!.......1999-03-14

It is a perfect little book to carry with you for inspiration. It makes me want to take a walk... and the beautiful thing about this book is that it allows me to take a walk in my mind without ever leaving my office or room. I have and will continue to read it over and over.

Henry David Thoreau : A Week on the Concord and Merrimack Rivers / Walden; Or, Life in the Woods / The Maine Woods / Cape Cod (Library of America)

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Influential writings whose beauty you will see differently at different stages in life
The Library of America's Thoreau
A Fine Collection of Great Works
I respect no one more than I do Henry David Thoreau
I would like to publicly thank Henry David Thoreau

Henry David Thoreau : A Week on the Concord and Merrimack Rivers / Walden; Or, Life in the Woods / The Maine Woods / Cape Cod (Library of America)
Henry David Thoreau
Manufacturer: Library of America
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

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ASIN: 0940450275

Book Description

Henry David Thoreau wrote four full-length works, collected here for the first time in a single volume. Subtly interweaving natural observation, personal experience, and historical lore, they reveal his brilliance not only as a writer, but as a naturalist, scholar, historian, poet, and philosopher. "A Week on the Concord and Merrimack Rivers" is based on a boat trip taken with his brother from Concord, Massachusetts to Concord, New Hampshire. "Walden," one of America's great books, is at once a personal declaration of independence, social experiment, voyage of spiritual discovery, manual of self-reliance, and masterpiece of style. "The Maine Woods" and "Cape Cod" portray landscapes changing irreversibly even as he wrote. The first combines close observation of the unexplored Maine wilderness with a far-sighted plea for conservation; the second is a brilliant and unsentimental account of survival on a barren peninsula in the face of hostile elements, historical change, and natural decay.

Customer Reviews:

Influential writings whose beauty you will see differently at different stages in life.......2006-10-26

While every artist is tied to their time and place, this is especially true of Henry David Thoreau. To me, Thoreau has always seemed like a beautiful and tender plant that could only exist in a specific time and place. His world was rich enough to allow him to enjoy nature rather than see it as something to tame. Yet it was also rural enough to leave him natural space to enjoy as if it were wild.

It also seems to me that Thoreau's writing is more beautiful and observant than penetrating and intelligent. It is more about the senses than analysis. I think this is why it appeals so much to young people of so many generations and why he became such a symbol for the Back-to-Nature portion of the Boomer generation.

This volume contains his most influential works (the essays and poems are collected in a companion volume also from the wonderful Library of America): A Week on the Concord and Merrimack Rivers, Walden; or, Life in the Woods, The Main Woods, and Cape Cod. So much has been written about these works that I can't think of anything specific to add except to encourage their being read. However, I would encourage adults who remember reading them in their youth with such enthusiasm to read them again from the vantage point of mid-life. I think they will find somewhat less to be enamored of in the content, but they will appreciate his sheer power of writing more.

The total collection is more than a 1,000 pages and includes a chronology of Thoreau's life, notes on the text, relevant maps of the areas covered in the book, more notes, and an index.

The Library of America's Thoreau.......2006-08-09

While reading the four books of Henry David Thoreau (1817 -- 1862) included in this volume, I was reminded of the piano sonata no. 2, the "Concord" sonata by the American composer Charles Ives (1874 -- 1954) and decided to listen to it again to complement my reading. The Concord is a monumental work in which Ives tried to capture the "spirit of transcendentalism" associated with Concord, Massachusetts. Its four large movements bear the names of Emerson, Hawthorne, Bronson Alcott, and Thoreau. The "Thoreau" movement of the Concord captured in music for me what I had been reading in Thoreau's texts, with its reflective arpeggios, long hymnlike introspective passages, distant sounds of bells, and quiet close. Ives wrote the movement, he said, to reveal the "vibration of the universal lyre" to which Thoreau had alluded in the chapter of Walden titled "Sounds". Those who love Thoreau or the American Transcendentalists should explore Ives's great musical tribute to them and their thought.

This volume is the first of two in the Library of America devoted to Thoreau, with the second book consisting of essays and poems. It includes the two books published during his lifetime, "A Week on the Concord and Merrimack Rivers" and "Walden" together with two books published shortly after his death, "The Maine Woods" and "Cape Cod". The former two books are philosophical and introspective in tone, even though they include much of the descriptive writing about nature for which Thoreau is famous. They are the writings of Thoreau the Transcendentalist, the Thoreau of Ives's Concord Sonata. The second two books are describes Thoreau's travels. They originated the American practice of writing about nature.

Thoreau's most famous book, "Walden" describes the two years he spent living at Walden Pond, near Concord, from 1845 -- 1847 on a tract owned by Emerson. Walden is deservedly an American classic, as Thoreau reflects upon and attempts to simplify his life, to appreciate it for itself and for the everyday, without the strains of commerce or the pursuit of wealth. It is an eloquent study of learning to be alone with and content with oneself.

Thoreau wrote the first draft of "Walden" while he resided there and also wrote "A Week on the Concord and Merrimack Rivers" which in 1849 became his first published book, enjoying little success at the time. This book describes a trip Thoreau took with his brother and there are many detailed observations of people, places, and plants and animals. But the book is full of detailed digressions on literature, philosophy, the Greek Classics, friendship, and Thoreau's religious beliefs. This book shows the large influence of Eastern thought on Thoreau. It is filled with allusions and quotations from poetry on virtually every page. It is a joy to read.

There is little overt philosophising in Thoreau's latter two books. But both these books made me want to leave, at least for a short time, my life in the city and to run and visit the wild places Thoreau described. In "The Maine Woods" Thoreau describes three trips he took to Nortwest Maine -- its forests, rivers, lakes, and mountains, in 1843, 1853, and 1857. It includes detailed descriptions of rugged camping, in the rain and sun, on water and on land. The higlight for me was Thoreau's discussion in the first essay of the book of his climb on Mount Ktaadn, with Thoreau's description replete with both actual description and ancient Greek and American Indian symbolism.

Thoreau's final book, "Cape Cod" describes three visits in 1849, 1850, and 1853 (A fourth, later visit to the Cape is not included in the book.) This is Thoreau's only book which features the ocean and the seashore. It describes a rugged place, but the tone is leisurely and humorous in many places as Thoreau takes his reader on a thirty-mile "ramble" over the Cape. Thoreau introduces a memorable character in his chapter "The Wellsfleet Oysterman" and draws a picture of a lighthouse, no longer standing, on the Cape, "The Highland Light." Reading this book made me want to walk the sands and dunes that Thoreau walked and described over 150 years ago.

As with all volumes in the LOA series, this volume is lightly annotated but includes a valuable chronology of Thoreau's life which helps in approaching the texts. Transcendentalism and naturalism both have played critical roles in the development of American thought and you will find them both here. And if you enjoy Thoreau, I encourage you again to approach Ives's masterpiece, the "Concord Sonata" and meet Thoreau realized in sound.

Robin Friedman

A Fine Collection of Great Works.......2006-04-19

Henry David Thoreau is one of America's greatest literary treasures, and this Library of America compilation of his four complete, full-length books is an excellent purchase for any Thoreau fan. It includes possibly Thoreau's most famous work, Walden, as well as lesser-known (but still immensely inspired and entertaining)works. I would highly recommend this purchase to any interested Thoreau reader, as I am yet to find a comparable compilation for nearly as good a deal as this.

I respect no one more than I do Henry David Thoreau.......2004-10-15

It was Thoreau who made me understand that writing had everything to do with one's sum total and worth as a human being, and everything to do with one's passion and sense of purpose in life. It was while reading from an anthology of his work that I first made contact with a superior being. I recognized a mind that I could be intimate with, a mind and soul of someone with whom I could spend endless hours and never cease to learn from.

Thoreau's style is cumbersome. He can be terribly dry, and his paragraphs run way too long. But who cares when passages ignite the page with brilliance, flame from the black and white of paper into the depths of one's being. 'Walden' has more profound and relevant quotes than any other book I've read. They're the purest gems to be found in the rough of a larger work. A work that I wouldn't dare to diminish, but forewarn the reader so that they have the patience and perseverance to continue.

I would like to mention a superb biography written on the life and mind of Thoreau, a biography that exceeds and exceeds in going deeper into the life and mind of this great and humane and very misunderstood man, it is called: 'Henry Thoreau -- A Life Of The Mind,' by Robert D. Richardson Jr. Mr. Richardson not only wrote a biography, he was on a mission, for he knew and believed in what his subject was about. As comprehensive, insightful and exhilerating as any biography can or should be.

The price and quality of this anthology can't be beat. Beautiful to read and beautiful to see on my book shelf. Buy it! Get to know this man of yesterday, today and tomorrow.

I would like to publicly thank Henry David Thoreau.......2004-03-31

I would like to publicly thank Henry David Thoreau for teaching me this:

"If one advances confidently in the direction of his dreams, and endeavours to live the life he has imagined, he will meet with a success unexpected in common hours." -Henry David Thoreau

Customer Reviews:

Just a taste.......2006-10-25

This book is a collection of essays, poems, and chapters of books written by Thoreau. It includes:

Essays:
--Natural History of Massachusetts
--A Winter Walk
--Civil Disobedience
--Walking
--Life Without Principle
--The Last Days of John Brown

Book excerpts:
--The Wilds of Penobscot (from The Maine Woods)
--Life in the Wilderness (from The Main Woods)
--Concord to Montreal (A Yankee in Canada, Excursions)
--Selections from 1858 (Journal)
--The Wellfleet Oysterman (Cape Cod)

A sampling of 18 poems is also included, as well as the full text of Walden. Supplementing this material by Thoreau are an introduction and epilogue by the editor, a short chronology of the main events of Thoreau's life, and a short bibliography. There is no index.

For a book that tries to capture the essence and variety of Thoreau's work in one volume, the choice of essays is quite decent. "Civil Disobedience" and "The Last Days of John Brown" represent some of the best and most well known of Thoreau's political works. "Life Without Principle" is perhaps the most well-known essay describing Thoreau's economic philosophy. The remaining essays are classics of his naturalist writing. If there were more space, it would have been great to include "Autumnal Tints," "Wild Apples," or "The Succession of Forest Trees," as well. The book excerpts also present a decent selection of highlights. Certainly, Walden is Thoreau's most well-known book, and it contains material on many of his characteristic topics, so it makes sense to print the entire text. Due to space constraints, material from the other books can only be excerpted, so only the most outstanding or popular sections of the other books appear in this volume.

Carl Bode, the editor, includes a short biographical sketch of Thoreau in the introduction, and provides brief notes that describe the context for each of the items included in the book. In the biographical sketch, Bode follows the biographer Canby for the most part, and doesn't seem very impressed by Thoreau's writing on nature, terming him "merely an amateur botanizer." In the epilogue, Bode summarizes a 1957 unpublished doctoral dissertation by Raymond Gozzi, in which Gozzi does an extended Freudian psycho-analysis of Thoreau, based on his writings and known biographical details. Gozzi's findings, at least as reported by Bode, are bizarre, as for instance, when it is claimed Thoreau's affinity for swamps as being sexual in nature, or when it is proposed that Thoreau had an Oedipus complex and his relationship with John Brown was colored by his identification with Brown as a father-figure. In sum, this book provides a decent taste of many of Thoreau's more famous works. The biographical sketch can also be useful for students of Thoreau, but the epilogue is more useful as an example of the oddities of Freudian analysis than a serious account of Thoreau and his work.

great value.......2005-10-12

Very nice collection of Thoreau's work. Perfect for anyone wanting to get better acquainted with Thoreau.

'My life has been the poem I would have writ'.......2005-01-16

This anthology contains Thoreau's major writings. First and above all 'Walden'. And then far far back the travelogue reflective work ' A Week on the Concord and Merrimack Rivers', the famous essay on ' Civil Disobedience' which would be important for Gandhi and Martin Luther King, a scattering of his poems , 'The Maine Woods', ' A Winter Walk' ' A Yankee in Connecticut' and ' The Last Days of John Brown'
As Carl Bode makes clear in his excellent introduction surveying the work and life of Thoreau , Thoreau was always one who heard the sound of a different drummer. His aim was to be a poet , a poet who was true to the facts of life and to its deepest transcendal reflection. Bode tells the story of Thoreau seeking a way to make a living, and able to find only a vocation. And that vocation found in the two years and two months at Walden Pond gave the world a literary masterpiece and Thoreau his time of realization. Bode makes it clear that all that came before and all would come after in Thoreau's life would be anti- climax. Bode also tells the story of Thoreau's complicated relation with Emerson, and of Thoreau's learning the heart of his own doctrine from Emerson' 'Nature'. The emphasis on Nature, and on the transcendent world of the Spirit , and on a kind of life apart from the ordinary commercial business of mankind would become essential parts of Thoreau's message. And this Thoreau always closer to the facts of life than Emerson. Thoreau's two disappointed attempts at love are also seen as critical steps in re- enforcing his natural tendency to walk and dream alone. Thoreau towards the end of his life subdued a bit his radical individuality in his effort to serve the anti- slavery cause. But he is the quintessential American individualist, the man who goes his own way to see something no one else has seen before. Bode concludes his introduction with Thoreau's short poem , a summary judgment on his life' My life has been the poem I would have writ/ But I could not both live and utter it./
It is clear despite this negative judgment that in another sense the life he did come to confront and live most deeply was the one he shaped with his words. And the testament he left behind has been for many an enhancement not only of their sense of literature and poetry but of their feeling of the possibilities of life.

Must Read.......2004-04-20

This volume represents a collected works of Thoreau's writings, which a previous reviewer has done well to catalog. Every couple of years I find myself returning to this book to walk with Thoreau and attempt to rediscover my core values and love for pure writing and critical thinking. Thoreau invites his readers to shed the encumbrances of their lives, willingly brought upon themselves in the form of mortgages and jobs they cannot afford to abandon. In short, we become tools to our tools-that is, slaves to materialism.

In "Nature," Thoreau states: "The mass of men lead lives of quiet desperation." Referring, in my opinion, to the eternal quest for material items at the cost of intellectual enlightenment. According to Thoreau, a man will spend his entire life working to obtain a nicer house and to surround himself with the trappings of wealth, all the while forgetting that nature, and the pursuit of simplicity and knowledge are true wealth.

This book should be a part of your home library.

'We must look a long time before we can see'.......2002-10-28

I'll be honest: I picked this up because I wanted a copy of _Walden_, and getting a selection of Thoreau's other writings was icing on the cake, so if all you want is to confirm that this contains the uncut text of _Walden_, I assure you that it does. For completeness, though, I'll mention everything else in the book as well, with a few quotes to let Thoreau speak for himself.

"Natural History of Massachusetts", 1842 - This isn't what the title might suggest, still less the official subject (given the usual dryness of scientific papers). Like G K Chesterton's Father Brown, Thoreau takes the view that science is a grand thing when you can get it, but that the true scientist should be able to know nature better, and to have more experience of it by noticing fine detail without losing the big picture. "I would keep some book of natural history always by me as a sort of elixir, the reading of which should restore the tone of the system."

"A Winter Walk", 1843 - Exactly that, seen through Thoreau's eyes. "There is a slumbering subterranean fire in nature which never goes out, and which no cold can chill."

"The Maine Woods", 1848 - A year after retiring to Walden Pond, Thoreau took a trip to Maine, recorded herein. Some of the word-pictures drawn include those of the pines before logging - and afterward, when rendered down to matches. But once away from the areas near Bangor, much of the country was still wilderness. "And the whole of that solid and interminable forest is doomed to be gradually devoured thus by fire, like shavings, and no man be warmed by it."

"Civil Disobedience", 1849 - Very influential on Gandhi and Martin Luther King, and quite capable of making a reader squirm even today - if one isn't prepared to back up one's principles with action.

"A Week on the Concord and Merrimack Rivers", 1849 - Not just a travelogue; this is Thoreau, after all, so extra layers of historical discussion and a little poetry are here too. This is a revised and somewhat trimmed version from the original - Thoreau's own later text.

"A Yankee in Canada", 1853 - The beginning of Thoreau's tale of his first journey to Quebec, with a bit of culture shock at his first exposure to a Roman Catholic society.

"Walden", 1854 This would be worth reading if only for 'I went to the woods because I wished to live deliberately...', re-popularized in these latter days because of its prominence in the film _Dead Poets' Society_, I expect.

"Journal", 1858 - Not Thoreau's entire journal for 1858, but a selection. The complete journal was his collecting-point of raw material - everything from first drafts of letters, essays, and lectures, to a review of every natural detail the trained surveyor had seen that day.

"The Last Days of John Brown", 1860 - Thoreau didn't attend John Brown's memorial service, but wrote this essay, which was read for him. "Now he has not laid aside the sword of the spirit, for he is pure spirit himself, and his sword is pure spirit also."

"Walking", 1862 - "I have met with but one or two persons in the course of my life who understood the art of Walking, that is, of taking walks..."

"Life without Principle", 1863 - "We may well be ashamed to tell what things we have read or heard in our day. I do not know why my news should be so trivial - considering what one's dreams and expectations are, why the developments should be so paltry."

"Cape Cod", 1864 - "The Wellfleet Oysterman" - Thoreau's chat with the elderly oysterman (being asked in after a walk) proves his observation works for human beings as well as the rest of nature - and that he has sense enough to ask somebody who ought to know about nature in the area. "I was fourteen year old at the time of Concord Fight- and where were you then?"

Customer Reviews:

Very well done........2007-01-06

I purchased these CDs for a long car trip, and thought they were very well done.

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