A Week on the Concord and Merrimack Rivers; Walder, or Life in the Woods; The Maine Woods; Cape Cod

Collected for the first time in one volume, these are the four full-length works in which Thoreau combined his poetic sensibility, classical learning, philosophical austerity, and Yankee love of practical detail into a lifelong literary experiment in the exploration of nature. [From the inside cover.] This Library of America edition collects for the first time in one volume the four full-length works in which Henry David Thoreau combined his poetic sensibility, classical learning, philosophical austerity, and Yankee love of practical detail into literary masterpieces on humanitys communion with nature. A Week on the Concord and Merrimack Rivers is based on a boat trip Thoreau took with his brother in 1839 from Concord, Massachusetts, to Concord, New Hampshire. Ten years in the writing (it was the book he retired to Walden to work on) and incorporating essays, passages from his journal, and some of his best poems, it is a superbly crafted achievement, its texture enriched by the idealism of the Transcendentalists, the delighted wordplay of an imaginative linguist, the individualism of a young America, and the earthiness of a lover of nature. Walden is a personal declaration of independence, a social experiment, and a voyage of spiritual discovery, set within the seasonal cycle of a years Life in the Woods. Simplify, simplify is the beat of its more distant drummerto abandon waste and illusion, to get to the bottom of lifes essential needs, and to practice a new economy for humane living. Its witty and pointed rhetoric brings together language and nature, the human and nonhuman in unusual conjunctions that resonate with symbolic meanings. A manual of self-reliance as well as a masterpiece of style, it is one of the most fervently loved classics of American literature. The Maine Woods is an account of three trips taken by boat and canoe in 1846, 1853, and 1857 through an unexplored interior bypassed by westward expansion. It describes the virgin rivers and forests of Maine, the customs of woodsmen and Indian guides, the hunting of moose, and the effects of the timber industry and encroaching settlement. An early and eloquent plea for conservation by a far-sighted naturalist, its close observation of the American wild becomes an examination of the motives which carry men into the wilderness. Cape Cod is the bleakest of Thoreaus works, resembling Melvilles prose in its vision of the titanic indifference of nature. Cape Cod appears as both ocean and desert, a vast expanse of shipwrecks and barren soil, peopled by hardy, weathered inhabitants who seem survivors from the age of the first Pilgrims. Based upon his own visits and upon accounts from the earliest times, it is an unsentimental study of human endurance in the face of hostile elements, historical change, and natural decay. Henry David Thoreau Wrote Four Full-length Works, Collected Here In A Single Volume. Interweaving Natural Observation, Personal Experience, And Historical Lore, They Reveal His Brilliance Not Only As A Writer, But As A Naturalist, Scholar, Historian, Poet, And Philosopher. A Week On The Concord And Merrimack Rivers Is Based On A Boat Trip Taken With His Brother From Concord, Massachusetts To Concord, New Hampshire. Walden Is At Once A Personal Declaration Of Independence, Social Experiment, Voyage Of Spiritual Discovery, Manual Of Self-reliance, And Masterpiece Of Style. The Maine Woods And Cape Cod Portray Landscapes Changing Irreversibly Even As He Wrote. The First Combines Close Observation Of The Unexplored Maine Wilderness With A Far-sighted Plea For Conservation; The Second Is A Brilliant And Unsentimental Account Of Survival On A Barren Peninsula In The Face Of Hostile Elements, Historical Change, And Natural Decay. A Week On The Concord And Merrimack Rivers ---- Walden; Or, Life In The Woods ---- The Maine Woods ---- Cape Cod. Henry David Thoreau. Bibliography: P. 1071-1094. "Henry David Thoreau wrote four full-length works, collected here in a single volume. Interweaving natural observation, personal experience, and historical lore, they reveal his brilliance not only as a writer, but as a naturalist, scholar, historian, poet, and philosopher. "A Week on the Concord and Merrimack Rivers" is based on a boat trip taken with his brother from Concord, Massachusetts to Concord, New Hampshire. "Walden" is at once a personal declaration of independence, social experiment, voyage of spiritual discovery, manual of self-reliance, and masterpiece of style. "The Maine Woods" and "Cape Cod" portray landscapes changing irreversibly even as he wrote. The first combines close observation of the unexplored Maine wilderness with a far-sighted plea for conservation; the second is a brilliant and unsentimental account of survival on a barren peninsula in the face of hostile elements, historical change, and natural decay."-- (Source of summary not specified) A Week on the Concord and Merrimack Rivers 1 Walden; or, Life in the Woods 321 The Maine Woods 589 Cape Cod 847 Chronology 1041 Note on the Texts 1052 Maps 1063 Notes 1071 Index 1095