| Library of Congress:
Today in History: July 12th - (may not work for older browsers) "Thoreau's
advocacy of simple, principled living remains compelling, while his writings
on the relationship between people and the environment helped define the
nature essay."
I Hear American
Singing - Thomas Hampson - "Concord-born poet, philosopher, naturalist,
essayist and educator, Thoreau represents one of the most authentic and
individualist voices in all American thought."
"Easily
wearing the different hats of scientist, then poet, philosopher and ecologist,
Henry David Thoreau spent his days in the woods proving that life could
be extremely simple, and still completely fulfilling."
Thoreau
kindles awareness - "It’s refreshing to read high-schoolers getting
excited about writing, thinking, even about “being awake” in the philosophical
sense. It’s even better when it’s Thoreau who turns them on – or who wakes
up their minds and souls, rather."
Henry David Thoreau
- in the Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy - "... an American philosopher,
poet, and environmental scientist whose major work, Walden, draws
upon these several identities in meditating on the concrete problems of
living in the world as a human being."
Thoreau's Pencils
- John H. Lienhard - "Was the great transcendentalist, who rose above himself
on the shores of Walden Pond, a successful inventor? Was this the same
man who formulated the idea of civil disobedience? ... who so effectively
armed Gandhi and Martin Luther King?"
Henry David
Thoreau: Libertarian - James Ostrowski - "America treats Henry David
Thoreau like it treats its other libertarian heroes: it ignores their radical
libertarian side."
Thoreau
as Botanist - by Ray Angelo - "During the early 1850s Thoreau's passion
for recording flowering dates and leafing of woody plants dawns. He described
the great lengths he went to at times to ascertain the exact date a particular
flower opened – 'running to different sides of the town and into neighboring
towns, often between twenty and thirty miles in a day.'"
Thoreau's
Vision of Insects & the Origins of American Entomology - first
chapter of a book by David Spooner - "Thoreau would bring to his records
and observations of insects something lacking in all but the very greatest
entomologists – vision."
Famous Surveyors:
Henry David Thoreau - "'He saw surveying as an opportunity to pursue
his real interest: observing the natural world around him. 'Surveying,'
he writes in the Journal, 'seems a noble employment which brings you within
hearing of [the birds]'" - from Heritage Surveys
Also: Henry
David Thoreau Surveys - from the Concord Free Public Library
Archeology
In Concord: Thoreau and the Hunt House - by Bob Graham - "Two decades
before Heinrich Schliemann ... become the "father of modern archeology,"
... Henry David Thoreau ... was making a detailed observational inquiry
into seventeenth century construction techniques"
History of Vegetarianism:
Thoreau - "I do not consider the other animals brutes in the common
sense. I am attracted toward them undoubtedly because I never heard any
nonsense from them."
Henry
David Thoreau and the American Indian - by Brianne Keith - "'Thoreau’s
Indian Notebooks' have elicited a wide range of spirited responses from
scholars. These responses range from highly optimistic to dismissive."
Emerson and Thoreau
as American Prophets of Eco-wisdom - by Ann Woodlief - "His economic
self-sufficiency may not transfer easily to an urbanized people ... but
he had the right idea – to think, before you consume, of the consequences
to your mental and spiritual health which depends so much on an intimate
and moral, even 'humane', connection with nature."
Serene
Outlaw: Henry David Thoreau in His Second Century - Douglas Herman
- "Is it the discovery of so many memorable passages that affect us personally,
or the insightfulness of Thoreau in a near-sighted world that makes such
an indelible impression?"
Henry
Thoreau as Remembered by a Young Friend - by Edward Emerson (1917)
- "In childhood I had a friend, – not a house friend, domestic, stuffy
in association; nor yet herdsman, or horseman, or farmer, or slave of bench,
or shop, or office; nor of letters, nor art, nor society; but a free, friendly,
youthful-seeming man, who wandered in from unknown woods or fields without
knocking."
"... the
famed Transcendentalist thinker studied algebra, and assistant mathematics
professor Steven Miller recently took an interest in his textbook, which
is in the Brown archives. On this page, Thoreau worked through one of the
exercises in the book, which is called Euler’s Algebra ... Miller says
Thoreau’s jottings demonstrate a firm command of the material: “He was
very thorough, pun intended."
Commemorating
Concord - by Robert A. Gross - "Founded in 1635 as the first Puritan
settlement above tidewater, the town appears connected to its past ...
The historic center, which has evolved from the nucleated village planted
by the original English settlers, still anchors the town."
Thoreau's
Life & Writings at the Thoreau Institute - the largest collection
of Thoreau's writings on line, with works that can be hard to find, and
the Thoreau Quotations Pages.
The Thoreau Society - "Established
in 1941, the Thoreau Society ... provides opportunities for all those interested
in Thoreau – dedicated readers and followers, as well as the leading scholars
in the field – to gather and share their knowledge of Thoreau and his times."
"Richard
Smith as Henry David Thoreau puts the 'living' in living history. For
visitors, talking to Richard at The Old Manse is like returning to the
Nineteenth Century." (more...)
The Concord Museum Thoreau collection,
includes some of Thoreau's furniture, and his flute – click on "Thoreau
Collection" on the upper left side of this page.
Sites That Explore Thoreau's Connections to Eastern Religions
East
Meets West - Swami B. G. Narasingha and Satyaraja dasa - "In his Journal,
he wrote: 'One may discover the root of an Indian religion in his own private
history, when, in the silent intervals of the day and night, he does sometimes
inflict on himself like austerities with stern satisfaction.' No wonder
Gandhi loved and revered him and accepted Thoreau as his teacher."
Thoreau
and Taoism - David T.Y. Ch'en - "To The Student of Thoreau who is familiar
with Chinese culture, Walden is similar to a traditional Chinese
government, Confucian in form and Taoist in spirit, for the book is full
of quotations from the Confucian books, while its ideas are essentially
Taoist.
Thoreau The Buddhist
- by Rick Fields - "One might say that Thoreau was pre-Buddhist ... He
forecast an American Buddhism by the nature of his contemplation, in the
same way that a certain quality of transparent predawn forecasts a clear
morning."
Vivekananda
and Thoreau - by H. MacLachan - "The Hindu influence upon Thoreau had
gone deep. ... He felt intuitively that the same inner spirit flowed through
humanity and its environment alike, and in the Hindus he found this expressed
as an article of faith."
Thoreau sites with substantial original content
The Writings
of Henry D. Thoreau is an ongoing project, working since 1966 to provider
"a complete, definitive, annotated, and easily available edition" of Thoreau's
writings, in thirty volumes. Interesting pages include a detailed
biography, an essay
on Walden, and an FAQ
page: Was Thoreau involved in the Underground Railroad? Did Thoreau
really start a major forest fire? What did Thoreau do for a living? Was
Thoreau gay? and more...
The
American Transcendentalist Web shows Henry in the context of an intellectual
and religious movement. Guides to specific works have hypertext links to
annotations and comments; look for the "web study text" links near the
bottom of the page.
The Thoreau Project
at Calliope shows Thoreau in the context of a pivotal time in American
history, and our view of the man expands accordingly. A color-coded
timeline interweaves Henry's life with contemporary American and world
events. Don't miss A
Thoreau Christmas.
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