Henry David Thoreau: A Life
Laura Dassow Walls's Henry David Thoreau: A Life reinterprets Thoreau's life and thought through the contexts of naturalism and the history of science. It broadens the familiar image of Thoreau and presents him as a writer, thinker, and observer of nature.
Work Information
A biography that rereads Thoreau through naturalism and intellectual history.
Published by the University of Chicago Press, this substantial biography portrays Thoreau not simply as a recluse but as a complex figure moving between observation of nature and the making of ideas. Rooted in sources, it clarifies his place in American intellectual history.
Book Information
- Publisher
- Univ of Chicago Pr
- Published
- 2017-07-07
- Pages
- 615 pages
- Language
- 英語
- Size
- 23.11 x 15.24 x 4.57 cm
- ISBN-13
- 9780226344690
- ISBN-10
- 022634469X
- Price
- 4500 JPY
- Category
- 洋書/Nonfiction/Philosophy
“Walden. Yesterday I came here to live.” That entry from the journal of Henry David Thoreau, and the intellectual journey it began, would by themselves be enough to place Thoreau in the American pantheon. His attempt to “live deliberately” in a small woods at the edge of his hometown of Concord has been a touchstone for individualists and seekers since the publication of Walden in 1854. But there was much more to Thoreau than his brief experiment in living at Walden Pond. A member of the vibrant intellectual circle centered on his neighbor Ralph Waldo Emerson, he was also an ardent naturalist, a manual laborer and inventor, a radical political activist, and more. Many books have taken up various aspects of Thoreau’s character and achievements, but, as Laura Dassow Walls writes, “Thoreau has never been captured between covers; he was too quixotic, mischievous, many-sided.” Two hundred years after his birth, and two generations after the last full-scale biography, Walls restores Henry David Thoreau to us in all his profound, inspiring complexity. Walls traces the full arc of Thoreau’s life, from his early days in the intellectual hothouse of Concord, when the American experiment still felt fresh and precarious, and “America was a family affair, earned by one generation and about to pass to the next.” By the time he died in 1862, at only forty-four years of age, Thoreau had witnessed the transformation of his world from a community of farmers and artisans into a bustling, interconnected commercial nation. What did that portend for the contemplative individual and abundant, wild nature that Thoreau celebrated? Drawing on Thoreau’s copious writings, published and unpublished, Walls presents a Thoreau vigorously alive in all his quirks and contradictions: the young man shattered by the sudden death of his brother; the ambitious Harvard College student; the ecstatic visionary who closed Walden with an account of the regenerative power of the Cosmos. We meet the man whose belief in human freedom and the value of labor made him an uncompromising abolitionist; the solitary walker who found society in nature, but also found his own nature in the society of which he was a deeply interwoven part. And, running through it all, Thoreau the passionate naturalist, who, long before the age of environmentalism, saw tragedy for future generations in the human heedlessness around him. “The Thoreau I sought was not in any book, so I wrote this one,” says Walls. The result is a Thoreau unlike any seen since he walked the streets of Concord, a Thoreau for our time and all time.
Laura Dassow Walls is the William P. and Hazel B. White Professor of English at the University of Notre Dame. She lives in Granger, IN.
Reviews
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Uma das melhores biografias que já li, e certamente a melhor biografia de Thoreau. Além da autora conhecer muito, e apresentar Thoreau e sua época de forma incrivelmente viva, a escrita é magistral. Um diferencial desta biografia é que uma biografia especialmente do Thoreau escritor, ou seja, como surgiu e foi se transformando o seu caminho como escritor.
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I knew very little about Thoreau (1817-62) before reading this outstanding biography; now I know a great deal more. So this review is written from the standpoint of someone lacking a strong background regarding Thoreau and his writings who decides to tackle this book. It is my impression that there much disagreement about what Thoreau was up to and what his goals were. I think this is because people try to put him into various boxes: ecologist; poet; historian; naturalist; anti-slavery activist; linguist; surveyor; civil disobedient; scientist; or simply the author of "Walden." The problem is that Thoreau's range of interests and intellectual activities was so broad, that he is all these things simultaneously and more. By dying at 45, his life is snuffed out long before its eventual maturation and growth are completed--adding to his personal mystery. Fortunately, the author, a professor of English, does not turn the bio into a discourse on Thoreau's many writings. Instead, chronologically each of his major writings is discussed, usually in a fairly compact fashion. Even the discussion of "Walden" is limited to five or six pages. But so skillfully has the author established the context for each writing that her discussion slips smoothly into the narrative to give the reader a good grasp of what Thoreau has written and why. I found it very useful to have a copy of the Library of America Thoreau volume on Collected Essays and Poems handy since almost every writing the author discusses is contained therein in a convenient format, including an extensive chronology of Thoreau's life. The challenge of recounting Thoreau's manifold activities without overwhelming the reader is well handled by the author. She takes her time as the book runs some 630 pages, including extensive endnotes, bibliography, and index. I found particularly interesting the sections on Thoreau's anti-slavery advocacy, his side career as a lecturer, and especially his involvement with spreading Darwin's evolutionary theory (which in effect denied the basis for slavery) throughout Concord, Mass., where he spent most of his life. Randall Fuller's "The Book that Changed America" focuses on how Darwin impacted Concord. For a small town, Concord and its lyceum emerge as an hotbox of intellectual activity, especially as regards literature and abolitionist politics. The author devotes much space--perhaps too much--to Thoreau's passion for taking long expeditions through the wilderness and climbing mountains. But the reader comes to understand why these jaunts were so important to Thoreau and to understanding him. I stand amazed at all the diverse activities and areas of study that Thoreau engaged in during his brief 45 years. It is equally amazing that the author has managed to organize and discuss all these aspects so skillfully in this biography. Part of the reason is that the author has written extensively on related topics which has enriched her perspectives on Thoreau. So if you are a Thoreau novice or even an expert, this is the biography you want to read. It is not only informative but pleasant to read as one encounters the author's numerous perceptive insights. It is simply what a biography should be.
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One of the best biographies I've ever read. The author has a very engaging style. Thoreau was quite well-known in New England during his time and his words and thoughts have spread across the world after his untimely death. Laura Dassow Walls uses quotes from Thoreau's books and journals and lectures quite seamlessly in this memorable biography. You become friends with Thoreau by the end of this book. A must read if you love nature, transcendentalists ideas or want to know what was the history of Walden.
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This biography brilliantly evokes the life and times Henry Thoreau, dispelling a number of myths in the process, for example,that he was misanthropic and reclusive. Although 500 pages long, I found this well-written book always engaging and absorbing. A must read to help understand a complex figure who has much to tell us still about how to live.
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One of the best of the best critical biographies of the life and art of one of America's most significant writers. Highly recommended.