Among the many occupations that Henry Thoreau plied throughout his life—school teacher, essayist, lecturer, pencil maker, and occasional helping hand in a myriad of day jobs in Concord—his career as a land surveyor, perhaps, is one of the most curious. As Patrick Chura has pointedly observed, in colonial North America, “the multiple purposes of establishing individual ownership, taxable value and legal jurisdiction were embodied in the person of the land surveyor.”1 While Thoreau “enjoyed surveying, for no other job gave him the same freedom to set his own hours and places of business,”...
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"I have great faith in a seed," H.D. Thoreau.
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On February 27, 2019, Laura Dassow Walls, the William P. and Hazel B. White Professor of English at the University of Notre Dame, will deliver the 6th annual Silas Peirce lecture, "Henry David Thoreau’s Legacy of Resistance and Hope," at Boston University. To register and get directions, visit Boston University's announcement page. (Registration is appreciated but not required.)
It might seem that Henry David Thoreau, who celebrated his 200th birthday in 2017, could have little to say to us today—yet nothing could...
by Ernesto Estrella
In the year of his 200th anniversary, Thoreau was celebrated in all possible ways we could expect and desire. Books, articles, symposia, and even a game based on Walden appeared, trying to make his work visible (and audible) in the noisy context of a tumultuous 2017.
Particularly encouraging, given our pressing current challenges, is...
Lessons On Environmentalism and Civil Disobedience
September 27, 2017 | 6:30 pm - 8:00 pm | Old South Church
Join us for this inaugural event for the 2017 Lecture series: Boston is Thoreau Country!
200 years after Thoreau's birth a distinguished panel will discuss the relevance of Thoreau's teachings in today's world.
How have his writings and ideas formed environmental policies, civil disobedience, and contemporary writings on our relationship with the natural world? Join the conversation!
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Thoreau Society Annual Gathering 2017
Terry Tempest Williams, Keynote Address, 2017
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From the Morgan Library & Museum:
Thoreau’s Journal: A Life of Listening
Listen to Thoreau’s personal reflections on nature, friendship, slavery, and society.
For a quarter century, American author Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862) filled notebook after notebook with his observations and reflections, strong in the belief that a closely examined life would yield infinite...
Evening Talk by Douglas Brinkley
First Parish Church, Wed, July 12, 7:30pm
At this year's Annual Gathering and Celebration of Thoreau's Bicentennial, Douglas Brinkley, professor of history at Rice University and the author of Rightful Heritage: Franklin D. Roosevelt and the Land of...
Join us for the Thoreau Bicentennial Annual Gathering! We have an exciting lineup of activities planned this year, including walks, conversations, music, dramatic performances and more. All are welcome to help celebrate Henry David Thoreau's 200th Birthday! For more information, visit Thoreau Bicentennial.org
In this particularly unsavory presidential campaign season, Thoreau’s descriptive references to “election cake” fungi leapt off his journal pages and caught our attention. On July 29, 1853, Thoreau wrote that he had observed “shining & glossy yellow fungi--like an election cake atop.” Over the course of the next six years he made at least nine other references in his journal to election cake fungi.1
Election cake was a sweet yeast bread traditionally served on Election Day in 18th- and 19th-century New England. It was a descendent of the English “great cakes” and part of a...
Henry David Thoreau’s early essay “A Winter Walk” is often grouped with “A Walk to Wachusett” and the posthumously published “Walking,” inviting readings that focus primarily on the act of walking. Yet for all of Thoreau’s kinetic imagery and sauntering persona, the peripatetic philosophy of “A Winter Walk” has as much to say about the act of listening. Just as one moves through the physical world, the physical world moves through us as sound. Thoreau appreciates this. His winter soundscape exists in an array of textures and apparent physical properties. These audible qualities are crucial...