Walden Pond: A HistoryOxford University Press, 2004 M02 12 - 416 pages Perhaps no other natural setting has as much literary, spiritual, and environmental significance for Americans as Walden Pond. Some 700,000 people visit the pond annually, and countless others journey to Walden in their mind, to contemplate the man who lived there and what the place means to us today. Here is the first history of the Massachusetts pond Thoreau made famous 150 years ago. W. Barksdale Maynard offers a lively and comprehensive account of Walden Pond from the early nineteenth century to the present. From Thoreau's first visit at age 4 in 1821--"That woodland vision for a long time made the drapery of my dreams"--to today's efforts both to conserve the pond and allow public access, Maynard captures Walden Pond's history and the role it has played in social, cultural, literary, and environmental movements in America. Along the way Maynard details the geography of the pond; Thoreau's and Emerson's experiences of Walden over their lifetimes; the development of the cult of Thoreau and the growth of the pond as a site of literary and spiritual pilgrimages; rock star Don Henley's Walden Woods Project and the much publicized battle to protect the pond from developers in the 1980s; and the vitally important ecological symbol Walden Pond has become today. Exhaustively researched, vividly written, and illustrated with historical photographs and the most detailed maps of Thoreau country yet created, Walden Pond: A History reveals how an ordinary pond has come to be such an extraordinarily inspiring symbol. |
Contents
Visited at All Seasons 18211834 | |
Intellectual Grove 18351844 | |
Far Off As I Lived 18451847 | |
Viewed from a Hilltop 18481854 | |
Walden Wood Was My Forest Walk 18551861 | |
All Honest Pilgrims 18621882 | |
Thoreaus Country 18831921 | |
Walden Breezes 19221959 | |
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Common terms and phrases
acres afternoon Alcott April August Baker Farm bathing beach beanfield Blanding boat Boston Boston Globe Brister’s Hill Brook cabin cairn Channing Channing’s CHDT comm Concord Free Public courtesy Concord Free cove Deep Cut Don Henley Edith Ellen Emerson Fair Haven Farm fire fish Fitchburg Railroad Flint’s forest Free Public Library Gleason Goose Pond Henley Henry Thoreau Henry’s hermit Heywood’s Heywood’s Peak Hosmer ibid JABA Jones journal July June Lake Walden landscape later LETE Lincoln literary lived looked LRWE lyceum Meadow nature park path photographs picnic grounds pilgrims railroad recalled Ricketson Road Robbins Sanborn Schofield Sherwood shore Sleepy Hollow spring Sudbury River summer swimming TCCA Thoreau Country Thoreau Institute Thoreau Society Thoreau’s house Thoreauvian TMTMR town Transcendental transcendentalist trees visitors Walden house Walden Pond Walden Woods Project walked to Walden winter woodlot writing wrote Wyman Lot