The Maine Woods was written as three essays. If he had lived
longer, Thoreau might have revised them into a more cohesive whole, but
he never had time to do this. The book describes trips over an eleven year
period, and Thoreau's work on these essays spanned 15 years.
A best smeller...
"One of the most coniferous-pungent books in the English language, a book
which a century later remains one of the the best written on the woods
of Maine." - Mary P. Sherwood
"An effective bosky and moosey picture of the deepest wilderness Thoreau
was ever to explore. If Cape Cod tastes of salt, The Maine Woods
smells of hemlock and balsam." - Walter Harding
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"The Maine Woods is one of the earliest and most detailed accounts
of the process of change in the American hinterland. Thoreau showed us
how to write about nature; how to know more; how to observe, even how to
live. .... In this book he illustrates the powerful lesson of the truthfulness
of dogged observation: that when the truth is told, the text is prophetic."
- Paul Theroux, January, 2004, from an introduction to The Maine Woods
John Muir took a copy of The Maine Woods with him on his 1879
trip to Alaska.
Copyright © 2004-2008 Richard Lenat - Tree image courtesy of
the Forest Ecology Network
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