Walden's shore : Henry David Thoreau and nineteenth-century science

440 Pages·2014·2.178 MB·English

by  Thorson, Robert M., Thoreau, Henry David

WA L D E N ’ S
S H O R E

WA L D E N ’ S
S H O R E
Henry David Thoreau and
Nineteenth-C entury Science
Robert M. Thorson
Harvard University Press
Cambridge, Massachusetts
London, En gland
2014
Copyright © 2014 by Robert M. Thorson
All rights reserved
Printed in the United States of America
Library of Congress Cataloging- in- Publication Data
Thorson, Robert M., 1951–
Walden’s shore : Henry David Thoreau and nineteenth- century
science / Robert M. Thorson.
pages cm
Includes bibliographical references and index.
ISBN: 978- 0-6 74- 72478- 5
1. Thoreau, Henry David, 1817–1 862. Walden. 2. Literature
and science— United States— History—19th century.
3. Nature in literature. 4. Walden Woods (Mass.) I. Title.
PS3048.T55 2013 2013013531
818'.303—dc23
To those who share Thoreau’s vision
that Nature is a sacred place
Erratic boulders at Nonesuch Pond by Herbert Gleason. From undated, hand-tinted
lantern slide originally titled “Learning Rock.” Thoreau described and sketched this
scene in Natick, Massachusetts, in his Journal on November 7, 1851.
Courtesy Concord Free Public Library.
If you have built castles in the air, your work need not be lost;
that is where they should be. Now put the foundations under them.
—Henry David Thoreau, 1854

CONTENTS
Preface xiii
Introduction 1
I
The Place of the Book
1 Rock Reality 21
2 Landscape of Loss 52
3 Thoreau’s Arctic Vision 82
4 After the Deluge 112
5 Meltdown to Beauty 142
Interlude
6 The Walden System 171
II
The Book of the Place
7 Sensing Walden 201
8 Writing Walden 230
9 Interpreting Walden 259