Nature and Walking (The Concord Library)

Together in one volume, Emerson's Nature and Thoreau's Walking, is writing that defines our distinctly American relationship to nature. "'Nature' was Emerson's first book, and one of his earliest formulations of the vision we call Transcendentalism, with its celebration of spiritual meaning throughout the physical universe... 'Walking,' by contrast, was one of Thoreau's last published works. It was printed posthumously in The Atlantic of Autumn 1862. Nonetheless, as a lecture which Thoreau presented many times before Lyceum audiences during the preceding eleven years, 'Walking' had long been one of his best-known compositions... But throughout the subsequent tradition of American nature writing, there are the concerns and images, even the specific vocabulary, of a nature writer's voice that Emerson invented and Thoreau developed"--from Introduction (pages vii-ix) Two landmark essays establish the themes and style of American nature writing. Reissue.