Whether editor Petrulionis's new book will correct any misperceptions of Thoreau's life, his ideas and his works is anybody's guess. It didn't change my good opinion of Thoreau but it filled several gaps in my small store of knowledge about him and his circumstances. The only flaw I could find in the book (if it is a flaw) is that I feel it should have included Ralph Waldo Emerson's eulogy to Thoreau — maybe in an appendix — as a point of reference for readers. But that's a lack that's easily satisfied because Emerson's eulogy of Thoreau is available in several places on the Internet.
Solomon sez: Thoreau in His Own Time: A Biographical Chronicle of His Life, Drawn From Recollections, Interviews, and Memoirs by Family, Friends, and Associates (Iowa City, Iowa: University of Iowa Press; 239 pp., $27.50) is a warm, easy, informative read that I'll gladly recommend to anybody. Get it from the University of Iowa Press, from your local bookstore, or from the usual suspects online. Four of five stars for a good job and a good read, and thank you, Ms. Petrulionis.
Article comments
1 - Dr. Joseph S. Maresca
Here are some popular musings on life by Henry David Thoreau on Brainyquote:
A broad margin of leisure is as beautiful in a man's life as in a book. Haste makes waste, no less in life than in housekeeping. Keep the time, observe the hours of the universe, not of the cars.
A man is rich in proportion to the number of things he can afford to let alone.
A man's interest in a single bluebird is worth more than a complete but dry list of the fauna and flora of a town.
A truly good book teaches me better than to read it. I must soon lay it down, and commence living on its hint. What I began by reading, I must finish by acting.
After the first blush of sin comes its indifference.
Aim above morality. Be not simply good, be good for something.
Alas! how little does the memory of these human inhabitants enhance the beauty of the landscape!
All endeavor calls for the ability to tramp the last mile, shape the last plan, endure the last hours toil. The fight to the finish spirit is the one... characteristic we must possess if we are to face the future as finishers.
All men are children, and of one family. The same tale sends them all to bed, and wakes them in the morning.
All this worldly wisdom was once the unamiable heresy of some wise man.
An early-morning walk is a blessing for the whole day.
An unclean person is universally a slothful one.
Any fool can make a rule, and any fool will mind it.
As a single footstep will not make a path on the earth, so a single thought will not make a pathway in the mind. To make a deep physical path, we walk again and again. To make a deep mental path, we must think over and over the kind of thoughts we wish to dominate our lives.
As for doing good; that is one of the professions which is full. Moreover I have tried it fairly and, strange as it may seem, am satisfied that it does not agree with my constitution.
As if you could kill time without injuring eternity.
As in geology, so in social institutions, we may discover the causes of all past changes in the present invariable order of society.
As you simplify your life, the laws of the universe will be simpler; solitude will not be solitude, poverty will not be poverty, nor weakness weakness.
Be not simply good - be good for something.
Be true to your work, your word, and your friend.
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2 - Deke Solomon
Dr. Maresca: Thanks for your contribution to the essay. I hope you also read "Thoreau in His Own Time!"
3 - Dr. Joseph S. Maresca
You are very welcome. I may.