I’d like to introduce the Thoreau you don’t know, or don’t necessarily know, or know but perhaps never hear people talking about, when people talk about Thoreau. People talk a lot about Thoreau in America – they reference him in these days of ecological awareness, in these green times, in times when, as people all along the political spectrum agree, we can care about the earth, the wilderness, what’s wild.
What is wild and where is wild is exactly where this trail head begins. Where the trail head of wild leads is to something Sullivan reports as an "agree" culture.
The Thoreau You Don’t Know: What the Prophet of Environmentalism Really Meant is published by Collins and is now available for sale. There are currently no restrictions on buying two or three copies for your nature loving friends, just in case they get stoned and forget where they put it.
Article comments
1 - Greg Perry
I'm not quite sure what this review is really pointing to. Maybe that Thoreau is a bit of a Zelig character, who takes on the role of what we want him to take on? Possibly. But if his life was common, his mind was far from it. Maybe it was so full that it's easy for us commoners to pick and choose from it and appear to have taken the full measure. But of course, we've only taken the limits of our own.
Furthermore, it's not like he has hidden himself. It's out there in his 2 million word Journal. Better to read that to understand the man than any book length essay that's assured of being more about the author than Thoreau. I'd suggest an edited version (like the one I blog at the The Blog of Henry David Thoreau [or the book I compiled thereof]), but then you only read the Thoreau the editor has come to know. It's a start. But if you're at all intrigued with Henry, then go for it. Give up Twitter for a spell, and read some worthy messages from a cast of characters. All geniuses, and all named Henry David Thoreau.