Chapter 7: God and Nature Face to Face
1 “I hear . . . that you are comfortably located”: James Richardson Jr., letter to Thoreau, September 7, 1837.
2 Emerson was among those examining Henry: Cameron 1959, p. 15.
3 “I have sometimes thought”: RWE, JMN, June 2, 1832.
4 “Adam called his house, heaven and earth”: Emerson 1836, p. 92.
5 Lucy Jackson Brown, from Plymouth: Sanborn 1917, pp. 128ff.
6 After her husband spent their money: Harmon Smith, p. 5.
7 a plain, white two-story house: Swayne, pp. 70ff.
8 Samuel Hoar gave a speech: Ruth Haskins Emerson (RWE’s mother), letter to her son William, June 27, 1837; Concord Library.
9 “Do you keep a journal?”: Journal, October 22, 1837. I follow scholarly consensus that the speaker was RWE.
10 “friendship is good which begins on sentiment”: RWE, JMN, October 21, 1837.
11 “Shall We Keep Journals?”: Sanborn 1917, p. 735ff., reprints the essay; he discusses its context in Sanborn 1882, p. 150ff.
12 “To be alone”: Journal, October 22, 1837; “We have always a resource”: November 17; “Crossed the river today”: December 23; “a new note in nature”: December (otherwise undated); “jugular vein of Musketaquid”: November 16; “gray twilight of the poets”: October 30; “Just before immer- sion”: October 29; “So when thick vapors”: October 27; “How cheering it is”: December 31; Goethe’s 1790 play: October 25; “I am at home”: November 17; ancient Latin and Greek: e.g., Journal, October 25 and December 18, 1837.“This shall be the test” . . . “I yet lack discernment”: November 12–13.
13 “Poverty was her lot”: See reproduction of newspaper page in Meltzer and Harding, p. 69.
14 “Jam laeto turgent”: Journal, November 20, 1837. He translated Virgil’s lines later for Week.
15 Henry could see the same rituals enacted: Journal, September 2, 1851.
16 music (details in this note from Perry Miller’s volume of 1840 journal): hymnlike opening march: description of music mine, not Thoreau’s; remind him of the Hindu Vedas: August 16, p. 155; crickets . . . frogs . . . “A flitting maiden”: August 8, p. 148, and August 13, p. 153; music in the clang of tools: December 31, p. 201; Working by the pond: December 15, p. 193.
Chapter 8: How Comic Is Simplicity
1 “I delight much in my young friend”: RWE, JMN, October 27, 1837. RWE’s quotation, in the style of the time, was “Henry Thoreau merely remarked that ‘Mr Hosmer had kicked the pail over.’ ” I changed “had” to “has.”
2 In December, Emerson informed Henry: Smith 1999, p. 13. These two para- graphs closely follow points made by Smith.
3 the hall that divided the house down the center: Bartlett 1885, p. 50.
4 one side of the room: See Bartlett 1885, p. 49ff and RWE photographs and the Concord Museum reconstruction of the study with original furnishings.
5 criticism for, and misrepresentation of, his recent essays . . . his favorite exclamation: “Baaaaaa. . . .”: Lidian Jackson Emerson, letter to Lucy Jackson Brown, [February 13, 1838]; in Selected Letters, p. 70ff.
6 “My good Henry Thoreau”: RWE, JMN, February 11, 1838.
7 Seventy percent of the signatures on a petition: Petrulionis 2001, p. 391.
8 Massachusetts had banned slavery in 1783: Petrulionis 2006, p. 10.
9 1814 and the founding of the Concord Female Charitable Society: ibid, p. 389.
10 Wilder’s Trinitarian church had hosted: ibid, p. 388.
11 Sarah and Angelina Grimké: Petrulionis 2006, p. 17ff.
12 “I think I shall not turn away my attention”: Lidian Emerson, in Beck, p. 32.
13 “bigoted, rash, and morose”: Sermon by Albert Folsom, in Annual Report of the Boston Female Anti-Slavery Society (Boston: Isaac Knapp, 1837), pp. 55–56.
14 a mob stormed Lovejoy’s office: See newspaper story from November 1837, online at http://www.altonweb.com/history/lovejoy/ao1.html. For murder of Lovejoy, see Simon, pp. 128–33.
15 “In nature all the growth”: RWE, JMN, June 6, 1838; vol. 7, p. 9.
16 “We must use the language of facts”: RWE, JMN, immediately before October 27, 1838; in vol. 7, p. 121.
17 “Is not the Vast”: RWE, JMN, after September 16, 1838; in vol. 7, p. 75.
18 Yet his eureka revelation: Richardson, p. 143.
19 “Then retire & hide”: RWE, JMN, June 12, 1838; in vol. 7, p. 14.
20 “Men are constantly dinging”: Journal, August 13, 1838.
21 “Nature is the beautiful asylum”: RWE, Journal D, September 24, 1838; in vol. 7, p. 83.
22 forced Helen to abandon her own teaching: Cameron 1957, p. 48.
23 Haskins had had no expectations of Henry: Haskins 1887, p. 109ff.
24 Many other people noticed Henry’s imitation of Emerson: Curtis, in Petrulionis 2012, p. 78ff.
25 his handwriting even came to resemble his mentor’s: Sanborn 1901, p. 4.
26 “I saw Thoreau last night”: James Russell Lowell, letter dated July 12, 1838, in Howard, pp. 18–19.
Chapter 9: We Can Teach You
1 In June 1838, having failed to find a job teaching: Sanborn 1917, p. 201.
2 “I have four scholars”: Thoreau, letter to John Thoreau, July 8, 1838; reprinted in Sanborn 1906, p. 23.
3 “for the reception of a limited number of pupils”: Advertisement repro- duced in Borst, p. 39.
4 first interviewed by John: Interview dialogue from Sanborn 1917, pp. 203–4.
5 Some students reported home: School details and quotations not otherwise cited derive from student reminiscences preserved by E. Emerson and Horace Hosmer.
6 School was in session from half past eight: Edmund Hosmer, letter to his family, in Hoagland, p. 482.
7 “trainer” had become a synonym for “militiaman”: Hoar, p. 70; De Vere, p. 24.
8 Henry read aloud: Edmund Hosmer, letter to his family, quoted in Hoagland, p. 482.
9 He spoke of his own belief: Former student Thomas Hosmer, in E. Emerson, “A Different Drummer.”
10 “Not having been privy”: RWE, JMN, undated, November 1838.
11 held it up to the nearest student, Henry Warren: Warren’s account appears in Sanborn 1917, pp. 206–7.
12 Young Thomas Hosmer: In E. Emerson, “A Different Drummer.”
13 a likely spot to have once held an Indian fishing village: Sanborn 1917, pp. 205–7.
14 For Caroline, it was a homecoming: Koopman, p. 61.
15 Edmund was writing in one often: Details about Edmund’s education not otherwise cited derive from Hoagland, pp. 474ff.
16 “I have within the last few days”: Journal, June 22, 1839.
17 imitation of the classical elegiac mode: Hodder, pp. 36–39; Lebeaux 1977.
18 “Lately alas I knew a gentle boy”: Journal, June 24, 1839; printed in The Dial in 1840.
19 “Last night . . . came to me”: RWE, JMN, August 1, 1839.
Chapter 10: No Remedy for Love
1 Ellen Sewall: Sewall, diary entry for July 5, 1832, in Stewart, p. 6; letter from Samuel Sewall to Edmund Quincy Sewall, August 23, 1839, in Stewart; Raysor, p. 458; Koopman, p. 62.
2 He took Ellen and Aunt Prudence on the river: Harding 1965, p. 101.
3 “All outdoors is a church”: Koopman, p. 67. Koopman could not recall whether her mother said that Henry said “All outdoors is a church” or “All outdoors should be a church.” I picked one.
4 “this famous animal”: Ellen Sewall, letter to her father, in Raysor, p. 458.
5 “Oh, I can not tell you half”: Letter from Ellen Sewall to her father, July 31, 1839; in Stewart.
6 classmate Robert Barnwell: RWE, JMN, in an undated entry between February 22 and 25, 1839.
7 Ellen must be either an absolute genius or some kind of idiot: Koopman, p. 67.
8 “Our rays united” . . . “There is no remedy”: Journal, July 24 and 25, 1839.
9 John Keyes: Most of the information on Keyes’s response to Ellen Sewall comes from complete letters in Harding 1965.
10 Josiah Bartlett asked Henry: RWE, JMN, September 14, 1839; see Plumstead and Hayford, vol. 7, p. 238.
11 On Thursday the twenty-ninth of August: Details of melon party from Keyes, Diary; and Elizabeth Hoar, undated letter to Bowles family in TSB, Winter 1977, p. 5.
12 departed on the last day of August 1839: Description of voyage not other- wise cited derives from Journal, beginning August 31, 1839, and Week.
13 “We are shut up in schools”: RWE, JMN, September 14, 1839.
Chapter 11: Give Her a Kiss for Me
1 “The house seems deserted”: Ellen Sewall, letter to Prudence Ward, December 26, 1839.
2 “Flee to the mountains”: Richardson, p. 303.
3 “If sister has read it through”: Harding 1965, p. 104.
4 “By another spring I may be a mail-carrier in Peru”: Journal, March 21, 1840.
5 “The other day,” Henry wrote: Journal, June 19, 1840.
6 John and Ellen strolled on the beach: Koopman, p. 63.
7 “These two days that I have not written”: Journal, July 19, 1840.
8 “Tonight I feel doleful”: John Thoreau journal, July 22, 1840; reprinted in Blanding, p. 5. I have inserted a couple of periods to make the entry more intelligible.
9 she received a romantic letter from Henry: Koopman, p. 64.
10 Ellen consulted her father: Letter from Ellen Sewall to Prudence Ward, November 18, 1840, in Stewart, p. 9.
11 “When we are amiable”: Journal, January 19, 1841.
12 “That is the first piece Henry gave me”: Ellen Sewall, journal entry for July 25, 1841; reprinted in Harding 1982, p. 103. Quotation marks appear in Sewall’s original.
Chapter 12: My Friend’s Little Brother
1 “A very pleasant schoolmaster”: Edmund Sewall, letter to his aunt, April 5, 1839; in Sanborn, Life, p. 202.
2 writing book his aunt gave him: Edmund Sewall, letter to his parents, March 28, 1840; in Hoagland, p. 478ff.
3 Henry saw a slate-colored sparrow: Edmund Sewall, letter to his parents, March 28, 1840; reprinted in Hoagland, p. 478ff. Thoreau described its song in journal entries such as March 23, 1852.
4 descendant of Concord’s first regular paper: See Concord Free Library page http://www.concordlibrary.org/scollect/concord-pre-civil-war-news- papers/index.html.
5 “How shall I help myself?”: Journal, April 8, 1840.
6 “I was not at all interested”: Edmund Sewall, journal, April 8, 1840; in Hoagland, p. 477.
7 Henry and John’s childhoold friends: Unless otherwise cited, details about Horace Hosmer’s early life and involvement with the Thoreau school, as well as dialogue involving him, derive from Hosmer, pp. 10–12, 72–74, 85–94, 115, and from various places throughout his interviews quoted in E. Emerson.
Chapter 13: Log Cabins and Cider
1 youngest and smallest pupil: For national issues in 1840 campaign, see Formisano, especially p. 680ff., and Gunderson throughout. For neologisms, many of which became standard in U.S. political discourse, see Dillard, especially p. 176ff.
2 a silk lapel ribbon . . . Newspaper cartoons: Gunderson, illustrations opposite p. 116.
3 On the fourth of July: Journal, July 4, 1840. For details on Concord events, see Hosmer, p. 19 n. 8, and p. 31 n. 3, and pp. 26, 72; Jarvis, p. 166ff; Yeoman’s Gazette, Saturday July 11, 1840, quoted in RWE, JMN, vol. 7, p. 379 n (n.d., between entries dated June 29 and July 10); RWE, JMN, vol. 7, p. 379, n. 302; Keyes, unpaginated diary, Concord Public Library, and Keyes, Autobiography, pp. 81–83, pp. 69–70.
4 “You’re not the man”: Hosmer, p. 72.
5 “The simplest things are always better than curiosities”: RWE, JMN, vol. 7, p. 378 (n.d., between entries dated June 29 and July 10).
6 “A man’s life should be a stately march”: Journal, June 30, 1840.
7 “The line of beauty is a curve”: Journal, July 4, 1840.
8 “When this old hat was new”: Silber, p. 44. I have slightly changed the punctuation.
9 “Oh, no, he never lost a fight”: http://www.mudcat.org/thread.cfm?threadid =83400.
10 court dress of white satin waistcoat: Fuess, vol. 2, p. 75; Gunderson, p. 173, contrasts Webster’s clothing in these settings to great effect, and I couldn’t resist consulting his sources for my own examples. Also see Gunderson, pp. 174ff., for evolution of oratorical styles, especially Webster’s.
11 Webster was still best known in the Thoreau family: Louisa Dunbar, quoted in Sanborn, Life, p. 46.
12 more pro-Whig than its former incarnations: Concord Free Library, “Concord, Massachusetts Newspapers up to the Civil War,” at http://www. concordlibrary.org/scollect/concord-pre-civil-war-newspapers/index.html.
13 “The Great Harrison Barbecue”: Yeoman’s Gazette, Saturday July 11, 1840, quoted in RWE, JMN, vol. 7, p. 379 n. (n.d., between entries dated June 29 and July 10).
14 Alcott . . . moved to Concord in early April: Details about Bronson Alcott’s Temple School and the Alcotts’ arrival in Concord not otherwise cited derive from Matteson, primarily pp. 55–85.
15 modest annual rent of fifty-two dollars . . . Smug in a near-messianic sense: Sanborn 1908, p. 9, 14.
16 “our bold bible for The Young America”: RWE, letter to Margaret Fuller, [editors uncertain] April 21? and 23?, 1840.
17 “I believe we all feel much alike”: RWE, letter to Margaret Fuller, December 12, 1839.
18 “a very accomplished and very intelligent person”: RWE, JMN, August 12, 1836.
19 “One grave thing I have to say”: RWE, letter to Margaret Fuller, May 8, 1840.
20 “When he talks he is great”: Reisen, p. 61.
Chapter 14: Melodies and Inventions
1 “The present seems never to get its due,” February 3, 1841; bronchitis, February 14; “as any out doors,” February 10.
2 “If wisely executed”: George Ripley, letter to RWE, November 9, 1840. Frothingham reprints Ripley’s proposal on pp. 307ff. For Brook Farm background, see Myerson 1987 and Delano.
3 “What a brave thing Mr. Ripley has done!”: RWE, letter to Margaret Fuller, May 27 and 29, 1840; in RWE, Complete Works, vol. 10, p. 581.
4 “As for these communities . . . To be associated with others,” Journal, March 21, 1841.
5 “Dec. 8, 1840—Owe Father”: Sanborn 1901, p. 28.
6 tap the tea kettle: Journal, April 4, 1841.
7 shoveling manure, Journal, April 20, 1841.
8 “He is to have his board”: RWE, letter to William Emerson, June 1, 1841.
9 “a noble manly youth”: RWE, letter to William Emerson, May 30, 1841.
10 “I am living with Mr. Emerson”: Thoreau, letter to Isaiah T. Williams, September 8, 1841.
11 no pressure in his family to marry: Harding 1982 makes this point, p. 112; see also discussion in Lebeaux 1977.
12 “I do not want to feel”: Journal, December 25, 1941; “sturdy English wit,” December 30.
13 “I am about five feet”: Borst, p. 74.
Chapter 15: Near to the World of Spirits
1 he read Walter Raleigh: Journal, January 5, 1842.
2 “a more rapid blossoming”: Journal, January 3, 1842, notes that he popped corn for the Emerson children at this time, but some details derive from RWE’s daughter Edith Emerson Forbes’s later accounts; and from E. Emerson and RWE, JMN, January 30, 1842.
3 to name her Lucy Cotton: Lidian Jackson Emerson, letter to Lucy Jackson Brown, December 3, 1841; in Selected Letters, pp. 96–97.
4 “My music makes the thunder dance!”: RWE, JMN, January 30, 1842
5 “The practical faith of men . . . no infidelity so great”: Journal, January 1, 1842.
6 On Saturday, the eighth of January, Henry was at home: Lidian Emerson, letter to Lucy Brown, in Petrulionis 2012, p. 2. She said he reported some details to her, others to RWE.
7 devastating effects of drink: Jarvis, pp. 167–75; Sanborn 1882, pp. 42–43.
8 John . . . temperance pledge: Myerson 1994, p. 372–73.
9 reported John’s horrifying new symptoms . . . “Now sit down and talk to me”; Lidian Emerson, letter to Lucy Brown, in Myerson, p. 6, 106
10 glimmers of John’s calm former self: Thoreau, letter to Isaiah T. Williams, March 14, 1842.
11 “None at all” . . . “composed by the deceased”: Lidian Emerson, letter to Lucy Jackson Brown, January 16, 1842; in Selected Letters, p. 100.
12 Frost was ordained as a colleague of Dr. Ripley: Most details about Frost derive from Myerson’s 1994 article, including the only lines extant from John’s poem.
13 “Did John love her too?”: Koopman, p. 66.
14 a lock of his brother’s hair: Borst, p. 605.
15 “You may judge we were all alarmed”: RWE, letter to William Emerson, January 24, 1842.
16 “I wish you would tell Cousin Willie” . . . sighed his last small breath: RWE, JMN, January 30, 1842.
17 “Shall I ever dare to love”: RWE, letter to Margaret Fuller, January 28, 1842.
18 “I do not wish”: Thoreau, letter to Mrs. Lucy Brown, March 2, 1842.
19 “Where is my heart gone”: Journal, March 26.
Chapter 16: Hawthorne’s New Boat
1 “Great, grim, earnest men”: RWE, JMN, September 21, 1841; vol. 6, pp. 52–53.
2 parsonage’s high paneling and heavy beams: Hawthorne, August 8, 1842, and “The Old Manse,” preface to Mosses; McFarland, p. 10; Bartlett 1885, pp. 53–54.
3 Emerson rented it to them : Megan Marshall, p. 428.
4 “He seems pleased with the colony”: Quoted in Wineapple, p. 160.
5 “Upon the whole we look upon him”: Poe, vol. 10, p. 104. Originally published in Graham’s Magazine, April 1842.
6 Panic of 1837 . . . Hawthorne also swore to himself: Wineapple, pp. 93–97.
7 Emerson had hired John Garrison: Petrulionis 2006.
8 “Henry Thorow”: Tharp, p. 151.
9 “You never saw anything so splendid”: Julian Hawthorne, vol. 1, p. 178.
10 “There is something that kindles the imagination”: Hawthorne, June 1, 1842.
11 “We are as happy as people can be”: Hawthorne, letter to Louisa Hawthorne, July 10, 1842.
12 “Would that my wife would permit”: Hawthorne, August 5, 1842.
13 Sophia was a talented artist: Tharp, p. 54; Julian Hawthorne, p. 279; Hoar, p. 69.
14 sounds they heard around the house . . . his fictions seemed light: Hawthorne, August 8, 1842.
15 “Mr. Thorow dined with us yesterday”: Hawthorne, September 1, 1842; “A perfect pond-lily”: August 13.
16 “the Indian name of which I have forgotten”: Hawthorne, September 18, 1842.
17 “reflection is indeed the reality”: Hawthorne, undated entry in 1841–52 notebooks; in Simpson, p. 251.
Chapter 17: A Skating Party
1 The homely local boy taught the handsome author: Hawthorne, “The Old Manse,” introduction to Mosses.
2 “There is a gentleman in this town”: Hawthorne, letter to Epes Sargent, October 21, 1842; in Selected Letters, pp. 106–7.
3 wrote to a friend about John’s death: Thoreau, letter to Isaiah Williams, October 10, 1842.
4 “Last night,” Emerson wrote: RWE, JMN, undated entry, vol. 6, p. 304.
5 “A letter, written a century or more ago”: Hawthorne, December 6, 1837; stray leaf from the book of Fate: June 1, 1842; “What moral could be drawn”: December 6, 1837; “It might be made emblematical”: October 16, 1837.
6 “dithyrambic dances” . . . “Mr. Hawthorne is such an Ajax”: Sophia Hawthorne, letter to Mary Foote, December 18, 1842; in Rose Hawthorne Lathrop, p. 50ff.
7 Every year Henry was thrilled anew: A few details in this section derive from later journal entries—e.g., December 19, 1854; January 14 and February 1, 1855—but Thoreau spoke years earlier about his love of skating.
8 “Plainly the fox belongs”: Journal, vol. 1, p. 470.
9 to understand the snow itself: Channing, p. 264.
10 Swedenborg . . . had studied crystallization: Eric G. Wilson, p. 100ff.
11 “For it consists, as it were”: Swedenborg, vol. 2, p. 542.
12 “In one place you might see”: also mist etc., Journal, December 16, 19, 23.
13 Separate volumes by various authors: Rusk, Letters of RWE, vol. 3, p. 47, n. 175; Hyde’s notes, pp. 315–19, as well as his book’s introduction.
14 “By what chance or lucid interval”: RWE, letter to Margaret Fuller, April 10, 1842.