Chapter 18: Staten Island
1 “No incidents worthy of note”: Richard Fuller 1972, pp. 1–4.
2 “He is a good writer”: Hawthorne, September 1, 1842.
3 Richard Fuller had sent him a music box: Thoreau, letter to Richard Fuller, January 16, 1843, and Harding and Bode’s note following.
4 shortly after he met the Hawthornes: Thoreau, letter to Lucy Brown, January 24, 1843.
5 “My heart really warmed with sympathy”: Lidian Emerson, letter to RWE, January 15, 1843.
6 family pressure for gainful employment: E.g., Lebeaux 1977, p. 209.
7 “I have to say that Henry listens”: RWE, letter to William Emerson, March 13, 1843; in Letters, vol. 3, p. 157ff.
8 “a diseased bundle of nerves”: Thoreau, January 1, 1843; in Bridgman, p. 284.
9 Later he gave Henry seven dollars: RWE, letter to William Emerson, May 6, 1843; in Letters, vol. 3, p. 172; “procure for himself literary labor”: p. 157ff.
10 “We have become better acquainted”: Letter from Elizabeth Hoar to Thoreau, May 2, 1843.
11 “I love Henry, but I do not like him”: RWE, JMN, March 1843.
12 “I am sure no truer & no purer person”: RWE, letter to William Emerson, May 6, 1843.
13 “Mr. Thoreau was discussed”: Hawthorne, April 8, 1842.
14 “the first time that I ever came home”: Hawthorne, October 10, 1842.
15 “Man’s accidents are God’s purposes”: The scratched inscriptions on the window, dated April 3, 1843, can still be seen at the Old Manse in Concord.
16 Hawthorne . . . was receiving no payment: McFarland, p. 88ff.
17 “Want a cab, sir?”: Thoreau, letter to Cynthia Thoreau, May 11, 1843. Details about arrival and William Emerson’s house not otherwise cited derive from this letter.
18 the house was halfway up a hill . . . “From 9 to 2 or thereabouts”. . . “I do not feel myself especially serviceable”: : Thoreau, letter to his parents, June 8, 1843.
19 “There are two things I hear” . . . He claimed to be unimpressed by New York: Thoreau, letter to RWE, May 23, 1843. Details in beach description derive from this letter and from next source below.
20 “The crowd is something new”: Thoreau, letter to RWE, June 8, 1843.
21 wide and sunlit Broadway: Dickens, chapter 6.
22 on the wooden blocks: Thoreau, letter to Cynthia Thoreau, May 11, 1843; see also “Manhattan’s First Experiments with Wooden Streets,” at http:// www.manhattanpast.com/2012/manhattans-first-experiments-with- wooden-streets/.
23 flocks of fashionable women: Description of women’s clothes here comes from Dickens, chapter 6, as do details about vehicles below and description of pigs beyond Thoreau’s.
24 could not walk past them in the kitchen: RWE, 1843 (otherwise undated); in JMN, vol. 6, p. 371.
25 “It must have a very bad influence”: Thoreau, letter to Cynthia Thoreau, October 1, 1843.
26 hundreds of new immigrants: Thoreau, letter to Helen Thoreau, July 21, 1843.
27 “In place of something fresher”: Thoreau, letter to Helen Thoreau, May 23, 1843. See also Thomas, pp. 101–3.
28 “You seem to speak”: Thoreau, letter to Lidian Emerson, June 20, 1843.
29 locusts crawled out of the earth: Thoreau, letter to his mother, July 7, 1843. He was actually observing seventeen-year periodical cicadas, Magicicada genus.
30 Phar-r-r-a oh—Pha-r-r-aoh: Thoreau’s phonetic representation.
31 Emerson complained about the profanation of his Eden: RWE, letter to Thoreau, September, 8, 1843.
32 “But no matter let them hack away”: Thoreau, letter to RWE, October 17, 1843.
33 Hawthorne . . . came upon a makeshift village: Hawthorne, October 6, 1843.
34 “I think of you all very often”: Thoreau, letter to Cynthia Thoreau, August 6, 1843.
35 Thanksgiving . . . in Concord: Hoar, pp. 57–58.
36 “Henry T. thanks you for the purse”: RWE, December 17, 1843.
37 his father’s pencil factory occupied: Sanborn 1917, p. 327.
Chapter 19: Fire
1 They forgot to take matches: Details of fire not otherwise cited derive from Journal, undated June 1850 entry, vol. II, p. 21ff.
2 Edward Hoar: Sanborn 1917, p. 371, 416ff.
3 “Where will this end?”: Journal, undated entry, 1850 (vol. II, p. 21ff., MSL I, 149); stacked cords of firewood: Sanborn 1917, p. 419.
4 “Who are these men”: Thoreau says that these were his thoughts at the time.
5 frustration with property owners’ restrictions: RWE, JMN, undated, November 1838.
6 “The fire, we understand”: Concord Freeman, May 3, 1844; for extent of damage, Sanborn 1917, p. 419.
7 the only reason that Edward and Henry evaded prosecution: Sanborn 1917, p. 422.
8 “Cyrus Hubbard and others”: Harding 1982, p. 161.
9 “Don’t talk to me of Henry Thoreau!”: Mary Hosmer Brown, p. 109.
10 he felt an inconsolable grief: Thoreau, “House-Warming,” in Walden.
11 “damned rascal”: Thoreau’s quotation; see also Cramer 2007, p. 55, n. 38.
Chapter 20: A Poor Man’s House
1 “Some were marked S for Soft”: Petroski 1989, pp. 118–19.
2 An advertisement in 1844 declared: Petroski, p. 120.
| 3 | refuge in part to escape censure or even reprisal: A speculation raised by various commentators, especially Lebeaux 1984, p. 118ff. |
4 “I only ask a clean seat”: Journal, April 5, 1841.
5 “The rich man’s house”: Journal, August (no date), 1840.
6 “I have thought,” he sighed to his journal: Journal, January 19, 1842.
7 broken-down old Hollowell farm: Walden, “Where I Lived, and What I Lived For”; Van Doren Stern, p. 214, n. 5, 7.
8 “Come, now, can’t you lend me”: Sanborn 1873, p. 26.
9 The empire’s trade in slaves: See Petrulionis 2006 for background on aboli tion of slavery in the British Empire. Text of Slavery Abolition Act available at http://www.pdavis.nl/Legis_07.htm.
10 William Lloyd Garrison, the founder of both: Petrulionis 2006, p. 9.
11 “the editor or publisher of a certain paper” . . . Arthur Tappan. . . nine- foot-high double gallows . . . burned in effigy: Garrison, vol. 1, pp. 247, 485, 492, 519.
12 “a collation in the woods”: Concord Freeman, July 12 and 26, 1844..
13 paid a quarter apiece to attend: Herald of Freedom, August 16, 1844, p. 86.
14 his mother and both sisters had journeyed to Boston: Petrulionis 2001, pp. 397–98.
15 Henry himself ran to the steeple: Sanborn 1903, p. 88; Cabot, vol. 2, p. 430, n. 1.
16 One observer, twenty-year-old George William Curtis: Curtis, p. 193.
17 despite Transcendentalism’s insistence upon an individual’s ability: Beck, pp. 32–33, makes this point about RWE’s philosophical inconsistency.
18 “I think it cannot be maintained”: RWE, December 2, 1836, in JMN, vol. 12, p. 152.
19 “Madmen, madwomen, men with beards”: RWE, “Chardon Street and Bible Conventions,” in Miscellaneous Pieces (vol. 4 of Works), p. 155.
20 a number of those took refuge near Walden Pond: Unless otherwise cited, details of inhabitants near Walden derive from Walden, “Former Inhabitants; & Winter Visitors.”
21 Cynthia selected an otherwise appealing spot: Sanborn 1909, vol. 2, pp. 400–401.
22 signed a mortgage on the property: TSB, No. 19 (Spring 1990), pp. 5–6;.
23 “landlord & waterlord of 14 acres”: RWE, letter to William Emerson, October 4, 1845.
24 “I see nothing for you in this earth”: Letter to Thoreau from Channing, March 5, 1845; in Correspondence, p. 161.
25 began construction by borrowing an ax: Thoreau, Walden, “Economy.” Thoreau never specified who lent the ax. Alcott claimed that he did, Channing that he did, and both Townsend Scudder and George Willis Cooke credited Emerson. But Alcott had referred to it earlier and indeed quotes Thoreau’s precise words when he came to him. Cramer 2004, p. 39, n. 213; Harding, Annotated Walden, p. 38, n. 1, for precise citations. Thoreau mentions a larger ax and then later his smaller felling ax. Cramer points out virtues of a broad ax over a felling ax. Logging and woodworking sites online provided information on the ax’s use and the rationale of its design. An example: http://www.orionn49.com/choosing_an_axe.html.
26 Henry’s father had bought a couple: Cramer 2004, p. 42, n. 224.
27 “Good boards overhead”: Thoreau, Walden, “Economy.” Details not other- wise cited derive from Thoreau’s account.
28 machined at this time instead of handmade: Cramer 2004, p. 43, n. 228.
29 At dawn one morning in early May: Mary Hosmer Brown.
30 Hosmer was one of Henry’s closest friends: Sanborn 1882, p. 117.
31 George William Curtis: Petrulionis 2012, p. 78.
32 “The best part of an animal”: Mary Hosmer Brown, p. 205.
33 Bronson Alcott, brothers George and Burrill Curtis: Sanborn 1882, pp. 116–17.
Chapter 21: Favored by the Gods
1 a man of the largest rents: Julian Hawthorne, p. 280; from letter by Sophia Peabody to her mother, April 4, 1844.
2 “It is as simple as a name can be” . . . “As for myself, who have been a trifler”: Hawthorne, letter to George Stillman Hillard, March 24, 1844; in Complete Writings, vol. 17, p. 423.
3 “What would you say to go out as a consul to China?”: Letter from John L. O’Sullivan to Hawthorne, March 21, 1845; in Julian Hawthorne, p. 284.
4 “for the avowed object of thwarting”: O’Sullivan.
5 Henry optimistically planted crops: Thoreau, Walden, “Bean Field”; Journal, spring and summer 1845.
6 The field had been sown with rye: Joseph Hosmer, p. 1.
7 “If those beans were mine”: Journal, vol. 1, p. 367.
8 metaphor of self-cultivation: Richardson explores this point, p. 57ff.
9 “There is one chance in a thousand”: Hawthorne, letter to Evert Duyckinck, July 1, 1845.
10 Henry hid some of the crevices: Joseph Hosmer.
11 There were no curtains: Channing 1902, p. 7.
12 “fit to entertain a traveling god”: Journal, July 5, 1845.
Chapter 22: Death on the River
1 “A gump”: Hawthorne, letter to Sophia Hawthorne, June 2, 1844, in Letters,
2 Martha Emmeline Hunt: Quotations from Hunt’s diary, and many details of her last days, derive from August 1, 1845, obituary in Concord Freeman. Hawthorne’s observations derive from his journal entry on July 9, 1845. He fictionalized this incident in his 1852 novel The Blithedale Romance (the novel based in part upon his experience at Brook Farm). Details not otherwise cited derive from Curtis 1853, p. 308ff.
3 Her parents, Daniel and Clarissa Hunt . . . ten brothers and sisters . . . descended from early settlers: Leslie Perrin Wilson, unpaginated.
4 Buttrick, who had inherited the family farm: Simpson, p. 621, n. 262.13.
5 found the smell of burning gunpowder exciting: Journal, July 22, 1851.
Chapter 23: Living Fireworks
1 its big black eyes wary: Behavior described derives from Walden except for mouse responding to music, from Joseph Hosmer.
2 putchee nashoba . . . wuskówhàn, “wanderers”: Roger Williams, p. 91; Schorger 1938, p. 471ff.
3 “How thick the pigeons are!”: Journal, vol. 1, p. 367. Thoreau’s description of the pigeons’ appearance and behavior derive from numerous journal entries, including August 6, 1845, the source of most of his pigeon comments in Walden, in which see also “Spring,” “Sounds,” and “Brute Neighbors.” See Graig, Schorger 1955, and Wilson.
4 “I have seene them fly”: Wood, pp. 31–32.
5 like a farmer winnowing: Thoreau, Week, “Tuesday.” Contrast Audubon’s description, p. 324, of a giant flock at a distance sounding like “a hard gale at sea, passing through the rigging of a close-reefed vessel.”
6 He loved insects: Channing, p. 265; also for lichen and Thoreau kicking through leaves.
7 Emerson thought that Henry had mastered the art: RWE, JMN 1853; Petrulionis 2012, p. 19.
8 “An abode without birds”: Quoted in Thoreau, Walden, “Where I Lived and What I Lived For.” This is Thoreau’s own translation from Simon Alexandre Langlois’ French translation, Harivansa, ou Histoire de la Famille de Hari. See Cramer 2004, p. 83, n. 30.
9 the magic of fireflies: Thoreau writes fondly of fireflies throughout his journal.
10 akin to reading Virgil and Homer: Thoreau, Week, “Tuesday.”
Chapter 24: Luncheon at the Cabin
1 “Henry T. has built him a house”: Prudence Ward, letter to Ellen Sewall, January 1846.
2 baked goods and other treats: Marble, p. 129.
3 dined frequently at the Emerson’s house: Curtis, chapter 5.
4 George Keyes . . . came to visit him at Walden: E. Emerson 1917, p. 24.
5 During winter holidays he trekked: Hoar, p. 72.
6 “Why, sixty old women like Nabby Kettle”: Quoted in Hoar, p. 72.
7 Hosmer . . . to the pond to visit Henry: Most details from Mary Hosmer Brown, p. 94ff.
8 expeditions to find the most delicious chestnuts: Hoar, pp. 70–72.
9 Bill Wheeler hobbling into town: Journal, January 16, 1852.
10 he bathed every day until cool weather set in: Journal, September 26, 1854.
11 Henry started cleaning early in the morning: Thoreau, Walden.
12 his childhood friend Joseph Hosmer Jr.: Thoreau, Walden, “Economy” and “Housewarming”; Channing, p. 7; Journal, July 10, 1852; Week, “Saturday.”
13 Indians . . . carried nocake: Wood, p. 76.
14 he came upon a worrisome scene: Ricketson, pp. 252–53.
15 “They were a disgrace to their sex”: Journal, January 17, 1852.
16 “Sir . . . I like your notions”: Journal, July 14, 1845.
17 Alek Therien: Walden, “Reading” and “Visitors”; Harding 1995, p. 141, n. 1; Journal, July 14, 1845; Cramer, p. 143 n. 27.
18 heading, Henry figured, for the slaughterhouses in Brighton: Walden, “Solitude”; Harding 1995, p. 130, n. 2.
19 Hawthorne did not share Emerson’s high opinion: Hawthorne, letter to Sophia Hawthorne, June 2, 1844, in Letters.
20 George Curtis, amused by the gathering of oracles: Curtis 1898, p. 95ff.
Chapter 25: My Muse, My Brother
1 “I wish to meet the facts of life”: Journal, July 6, 1845.
2 Early in 1846: Wineapple, p. 193.
3 To reach Walden’s depths: Most details derive from Walden, “The Pond in Winter.”
4 Usually they didn’t analyze an adventure: See Hovde for analysis of how Thoreau transmuted journal entries into material for Week.
5 “We have authentic intelligence”: Sophia Peabody Hawthorne to her mother, March 23, 1846, in Letters.
6 “baptized in the deep waters of Tragedy”: Delano, p. 85.
7 “no more brains than a cabbage”: Mellow, pp. 233–34; “original at all points”: p. 193.
8 “I admire you rather as a writer of Tales”: Hawthorne, letter to Edgar Allan Poe, June 17, 1846. in Quinn, p. 511.
9 “Here, in some unknown age”: Hawthorne, “The Old Manse,” preface to Mosses from an Old Manse.
10 he and Emerson sat down together . . . s: RWE, letter to Charles King Newcomb, July 16, 1846; in Letters of RWE, vol. 3, pp. 337–38.
11 Benjamin Hosmer . . . walked the seven miles from Bedford: Horace Hosmer, p. 14.
Chapter 26: A Night in Jail
1 One warm evening late in July 1846: S. A. Jones, in Petrulionis 2012, p. 157ff.; Sanborn 1882, p. 207; Journal, June 12, 1846.
2 Staples, the constable: Broderick, p. 621–626; Journal, December 31, 1857; E. Emerson, p. 65ff., and p. 136, n. 1; S. A. Jones, from 1890 interview with Staples, in Petrulionis 2012, p. 157ff; Sanborn 1917, p. 328; Harding 1975; “Middlesex Hotel Story” among the Building Histories on the website of the Concord Free Public Library, http://www.concordlibrary.org/ scollect/buildinghistories/MiddlesexHotel/index.html.
3 “I’ll pay your tax, Henry”: E. Emerson, p. 65.
4 Hoar . . . paid Alcott’s tax: Harding 1975.
5 Alcott had been deliberately rejecting the government’s right: Matteson, p. 189.
6 he had threatened Alcott: Broderick, p. 621, n. 35.
7 Staples had a higher, more affectionate opinion of Henry: Cooke, p. 1672.
8 Henry if you don’t pay: Anonymous, “An Evening with Thoreau,” in the Concord High School Voice of November 15, 1895; in Harding 1989, p. 78.
9 past the local poor farm and poor house: Sanborn 1882, p. 207; Roman, map.
10 the jail tavern . . . Supreme Court in March: Jarvis, p. 159, p. 6.
11 “The Comparative Moral Policy”: Sanborn 1917, pp. 78–82.
12 jail: For jail description, see Sanborn 1917, p. 167; Van Doren Stern, p. 468, n. 37; Keyes, Brief History, chapter 45; Thoreau, “Civil Disobedience”; E. Emerson, p. 65.
13 “Sir, I do not wish to be considered”: In “Civil Disobedience,” Thoreau exaggerates the text of this note to the clerk: “Know all men by these presents, that I, Henry Thoreau, do not wish to be regarded as a member of any incorporated society which I have not joined.” But the Concord library has the original note in Thoreau’s handwriting.
14 During the same six years, Henry had also refrained: Details not otherwise cited derive from “Civil Disobedience.”
15 In 1780, immediately after the war . . . “Ministers of the Gospel” . . . Fiscal policy: Broderick, p. 613ff.
16 When Mrs. Thoreau learned of Henry’s arrest: Letter by Jane Hosmer in Harding 1989, p. 167.
17 probably Maria: Oehlschlaeger, pp. 197–202; Todd, p. 11.
18 running an errand in the village: Petrulionis 2012, p. 158; E. Emerson, p. 65.
19 “find sufficient goods”: quoted in Broderick, p. 615.
20 “What is life?”: Dialogue from this interaction, E. Emerson, p. 65.
21 “This act of non-resistance”: Cain, p. 155.
22 after paying it since reaching adulthood: Broderick, p. 625.
23 The next morning, Samuel Staples explained: Anonymous, “An Evening with Thoreau,” in Concord High School Voice, November 15, 1895.
24 Staples was dumbfounded . . . Henry was furious: Staples, p. 23; “mad as the devil” was his phrase.
25 Lewis Hayden . . . .Caleb Stetson: Concord Freeman, August 7, 1846.
26 A man of principle, Henry had come to believe: Thoreau, “Life without Principle” and Journal, summer 1846.
Chapter 27: Chaos and Ancient Night
1 Mattanawacook Island: Cramer 2009, p. 6, n. 43.
2 on the last day of August: Thoreau’s thoughts and observations in Maine not otherwise cited derive from “Ktaadn,” published in Sartain’s Union Magazine of Literature and Art, July–November 1848.
3 George Thatcher: Cramer 2009, p. 1, n. 2.
4 Charles Turner and his party in 1804: Cramer 2009, p. 2, n. 7.
5 Henry had met Jackson in 1843: Hyde, p. 325, n. 64.
6 hoped to find the primeval world of his dreams: This is the critical consen- sus regarding Thoreau’s ideas about Maine and wilderness prior to this journey. See Nash, especially pp. 90ff.; Lebeaux 1984, p. 137ff; Harding 1965.
7 “Louis declared that Pomola”: Hyde, p. 325, n. 69. I use Thoreau’s spelling, “Pomola,” although sources list many others. Mount Katahdin now has a Pamola Peak.
8 “The two Indians, whom we hired” . . . a corked bottle of rum: Cramer 2009, p. 8.
9 batteau: Thoreau; and see also history on the New York State Museum site, http://www.nysm.nysed.gov/research_collections/research/history/ three/bat3.html, and http://www.bairnet.org/organizations/leonardsmills/ bateau.htm.
10 The store’s founder, George W. Simmons: Allaback, pp. 546–47.
11 Henry climbed on alone: For more on Thoreau’s response to the wilderness, see Nash, especially pp. 90–95.
12 “Why came ye here before your time?”: Thoreau wrote these words (itali- cized within my text) later, in “Ktaadn,” but he presents them as his thoughts at the time.
13 Probably Henry had reached the saddle: Hyde, p. 329, n. 107; see also discus- sion in Cramer 2009.
14 One evening shortly after his return to Walden: Journal, 1845; no date given, but immediately precedes August 6; see Thoreau 1906, vol. I, p. 375.
Coda: After the Cabin
1 “But why I changed?”: Journal, January 22, 1852.
2 Emerson . . . bought the cabin: Sanborn 1917, quoting Channing, pp. 329–30. Most details of cabin’s fate derive from Channing, but see also Harding 1982.
3 “Thoreau was a great writer”: Mohandas Gandhi, p. 279; see also Rajmohan Gandhi, pp. 113–14, 142.
4 “first contact with the theory of nonviolent resistance”: King, p. 13.
5 McCarthy succeeded in having the book removed: Harding 1967, p. 24.
6 Then he wound his music box: Harding 1982, p. 258.
7 “a library of some nine hundred volumes”: Journal, October 28, 1853.
8 Horace Hosmer, worked as their agent: Raymond Adams, Thoreau Newsletter, April 1937.
9 “Economy—Illustrated by the Life of a Student” . . . “White Beans and Walden Pond”: Concord Lyceum records, Borst, p. 140ff.
10 ninth of August 1854 . . . 2319 copies: Tryon, p. 289.
11 “To Boston. Walden published”: Journal, August 9, 1854.
12 “It is a curious and amusing book”: Borst, p. 303.
13 “It has classical elegance”: TSB, Fall 1971 (No. 117).
14 “The Republican party does not perceive”: Thoreau, “A Plea for Captain John Brown,” in Hyde, p. 259ff.
15 scientists are using his detailed journal records: Miller-Rushing and Primack.
16 “When we have experienced many disappointments”: Journal, February 5, 1859.
17 “I have not been engaged in any particular work”: Thoreau, letter to Myron Benton (dictated to Sophia Thoreau), March 21, 1862.
18 Elizabeth Hoar worked to help; Ticknor . . . came to visit Henry: Concord Saunterer, vol. 14, no. 3 (Fall 1979), p. 1.
19 Staples . . . found Henry happy and serene: RWE, JMN, March 24, 1862.