About the Author
Robert D. Richardson, Jr. (1934-2020) was the author of Emerson: The Mind on Fire (California, 1995) among other books. Barry Moser is one of the foremost wood engravers and book illustrators in America.
Henry Thoreau
A Life of the Mind
Price: $31.95 / £27.00
Publication Date: Jan 1988
Edition: 1st Edition
Title Details:
Rights: World
Pages: 464
ISBN: 9780520063464
Trim Size: 6 x 9
From Our Blog
In Memoriam: Robert D. Richardson Jr.
We are deeply saddened to hear of the passing of Robert D. Richardson Jr. at age 86. Obituaries and announcements have appeared in the New York Times, the Washington Post and the Boston Globe.UC Press is honored to have published his highly acclaimed and widely cited biographies, Henry Thoreau:
Table of Contents
Preface
I
1. Fall 1837: Commencement. 2. Harvard under Quincy.
3. Thoreau at Harvard. 4. Concord. 5. Emerson.
6. The Classics. 7. Germany. 8. "Society."
9. Concord Schoolmaster. 10. Poetry.
II 1838-1840 The Ethical Imperatives of Transcendentalism
11. Summer and Fall 1838. 12. The Eye of Henry Thoreau.
13. Self-Culture. 14. Ellen. 15. The Rivers.
16. Aeschylus, Bravery. 17. Transcendentalism.
18. Summer 1840. 19. Fall 1840. 20. December 1840.
III 1841-1843 American Reformation
21. Writing. 22. Thoreau and Emerson.
23. Brook Farm. 24. Self-Reformation. 25. The Orient.
26. Fall 1841. 27. Tragedy. 28. Excursions.
29. January and February 184 3. 30. Staten Island.
IV 1843-1845 The Road to Walden Pond
31. The New York Literary Scene. 32. "a Winter Walk."
33. The Railroad Comes to Concord. 34.Inside the
Civilized Man. 35.Spring and Summer l844. 36.Fall
1844. 37. Spring 1845. 38. I Went to the Woods to Live
Deliberately. 39. The Epic of the Leaf 40. The New
Typology of the Leaf
V 1846-1849 The Profession of Letters
41. Winter 1846: Carlyle. 42. The New Adam (Smith).
43. Spring 1846: Walden. 44. The Great Awakening.
45. Summer 1846: Resistance to Civil Government.
46. North Twin Lake and"Ktaadn." 47. Second Year at
Walden. 48. The Letters to Blake. 49. A Perfect Piece of
Stoicism. 50. The Apollonian Vision. 51. Spring and
Summer 1849: "I Have Chosen Letters."
VI 1849-1851 The Language of the Leopard:
Wildness and Society
52. Shipwreck and Salvation on Cape Cod.
53. Fall 1849, Spring 1850: Hindu Idealism.
54. Spring 1850. 55. ]uly 1850: The Wreck of the
Elizabeth. 56. August and September 1850: The Material
of a Million Concords. 57. Fall 1850: Trip to Canada.
58. The Red Face of Man I. 59. The Red Face of Man II.
60. November 1850 to April 1851: Gramatica Parda.
61. Technological Comervative. 62. Myth and Wildness.
VII 1851-1852 New Books, New Worlds
63. Spring 1851: The Naming of Apples. 64. June 1851:
The Four Worlds of Henry Thoreau. 65. Thoreau, Darwin,
and The Voyage of the Beagle. 66. Summer 1851:
Practical Transcendentalism. 67. Fa/11851: This is my
Home, my Native Soil. 68. December 1851 to February
1852: The Short Days of Winter. 69. Lapidae Crescunt.
70. A Sufficient List of Failures. 71. April 1852: William
Gilpin and the articulation of landscape. 7 2. The
Articulation of Landscape. 73. The Flowering of Man.
74. My Year of Observation. 75. August and September
1852: Country Life.
VIII 1852-1854 Walden, or the Triumph of the Organic
76. Ante-Columbian History. 77. The Jesuit Relations.
78. Pantheism. 79. America. 80. Spring 1853: The
Golden Gates. 81. Summer 1853: Walden Five. 82. Fall
1853: Friends. 83. Chesuncook. 84. ]anuary 1854:
Walden Six. 85. February and March 1854: Triumph of
the Organic. 86. Spring and Summer 1854: Anthony
Bums. 87.July and August 1854: Walden.
IX 1854-1862 The Economy of Nature
88. Night and Moonlight. 89. New Friends. 90. Life
Without Principle. 91. Recovery. 92. The Dispersion of
Seeds and the Succession of Forest Trees. 9 3. Walt Whitman
and the Ethics of lntemity. 94. The lndian. 95. Autumnal
Tints, John Ruskin, and the Innocent Eye. 96. Louis Agassiz
and the Theory of Special Creation. 97. A Plea for Captain
Brown. 98. Darwin and the Developmental Theory.
99. Beyond Transcendentalism: The Natural History
Projects. 100. One World at a Time.
Chronology
Principal Sources
Notes
Index
I
1. Fall 1837: Commencement. 2. Harvard under Quincy.
3. Thoreau at Harvard. 4. Concord. 5. Emerson.
6. The Classics. 7. Germany. 8. "Society."
9. Concord Schoolmaster. 10. Poetry.
II 1838-1840 The Ethical Imperatives of Transcendentalism
11. Summer and Fall 1838. 12. The Eye of Henry Thoreau.
13. Self-Culture. 14. Ellen. 15. The Rivers.
16. Aeschylus, Bravery. 17. Transcendentalism.
18. Summer 1840. 19. Fall 1840. 20. December 1840.
III 1841-1843 American Reformation
21. Writing. 22. Thoreau and Emerson.
23. Brook Farm. 24. Self-Reformation. 25. The Orient.
26. Fall 1841. 27. Tragedy. 28. Excursions.
29. January and February 184 3. 30. Staten Island.
IV 1843-1845 The Road to Walden Pond
31. The New York Literary Scene. 32. "a Winter Walk."
33. The Railroad Comes to Concord. 34.Inside the
Civilized Man. 35.Spring and Summer l844. 36.Fall
1844. 37. Spring 1845. 38. I Went to the Woods to Live
Deliberately. 39. The Epic of the Leaf 40. The New
Typology of the Leaf
V 1846-1849 The Profession of Letters
41. Winter 1846: Carlyle. 42. The New Adam (Smith).
43. Spring 1846: Walden. 44. The Great Awakening.
45. Summer 1846: Resistance to Civil Government.
46. North Twin Lake and"Ktaadn." 47. Second Year at
Walden. 48. The Letters to Blake. 49. A Perfect Piece of
Stoicism. 50. The Apollonian Vision. 51. Spring and
Summer 1849: "I Have Chosen Letters."
VI 1849-1851 The Language of the Leopard:
Wildness and Society
52. Shipwreck and Salvation on Cape Cod.
53. Fall 1849, Spring 1850: Hindu Idealism.
54. Spring 1850. 55. ]uly 1850: The Wreck of the
Elizabeth. 56. August and September 1850: The Material
of a Million Concords. 57. Fall 1850: Trip to Canada.
58. The Red Face of Man I. 59. The Red Face of Man II.
60. November 1850 to April 1851: Gramatica Parda.
61. Technological Comervative. 62. Myth and Wildness.
VII 1851-1852 New Books, New Worlds
63. Spring 1851: The Naming of Apples. 64. June 1851:
The Four Worlds of Henry Thoreau. 65. Thoreau, Darwin,
and The Voyage of the Beagle. 66. Summer 1851:
Practical Transcendentalism. 67. Fa/11851: This is my
Home, my Native Soil. 68. December 1851 to February
1852: The Short Days of Winter. 69. Lapidae Crescunt.
70. A Sufficient List of Failures. 71. April 1852: William
Gilpin and the articulation of landscape. 7 2. The
Articulation of Landscape. 73. The Flowering of Man.
74. My Year of Observation. 75. August and September
1852: Country Life.
VIII 1852-1854 Walden, or the Triumph of the Organic
76. Ante-Columbian History. 77. The Jesuit Relations.
78. Pantheism. 79. America. 80. Spring 1853: The
Golden Gates. 81. Summer 1853: Walden Five. 82. Fall
1853: Friends. 83. Chesuncook. 84. ]anuary 1854:
Walden Six. 85. February and March 1854: Triumph of
the Organic. 86. Spring and Summer 1854: Anthony
Bums. 87.July and August 1854: Walden.
IX 1854-1862 The Economy of Nature
88. Night and Moonlight. 89. New Friends. 90. Life
Without Principle. 91. Recovery. 92. The Dispersion of
Seeds and the Succession of Forest Trees. 9 3. Walt Whitman
and the Ethics of lntemity. 94. The lndian. 95. Autumnal
Tints, John Ruskin, and the Innocent Eye. 96. Louis Agassiz
and the Theory of Special Creation. 97. A Plea for Captain
Brown. 98. Darwin and the Developmental Theory.
99. Beyond Transcendentalism: The Natural History
Projects. 100. One World at a Time.
Chronology
Principal Sources
Notes
Index
Reviews
— Boston Globe"A splendidly written book. . . . Richardson's critical discussions of the journals, Walden, Cape Cod, and the other works are invariably illuminating and cast a new light on Thoreau's sometimes cross-grained but fascinating personality. . . . The arc of Thoreau's progress is more absorbing than any thriller .... This is a splendidly written book, handsomely designed and illustrated by Barry Moser and worthy of a place on the bookshelf near Walden."
— Publishers Weekly""Absorbing and sparklingly fresh biography."
— Booklist"A prose style graceful and lucid enough to survive side by side comparison with Thoreau's own epigrammatic brilliance."
— New England Quarterly"One of the most significant contributions of Henry Thoreau: A Life of the Mind is its rich, erudite exploration of how Thoreau's reading -considered in, and interwoven with, the vividly portrayed contexts of his times, life, and writing-influenced and informed his intellectual and creative development."
— Journal of American History"The Thoreau represented here both feels and thinks, complains and exalts, loves and loses—in short, we have an engrossing picture of both the inner and the outer man. . . . Written for the general reader as well as the student and scholar, this book will have no trouble assuming its place among the most noteworthy, useful, and read- able studies yet provided on Thoreau."
— Journal of Forest History"Richardson's exhaustively researched biography of Thoreau presents a comprehensive, thorough, deeply human, and philosophically insightful investigation of this increasingly significant author in light of the social, political, economic, scientific, intellectual, and spiritual climate of America and Europe of that day."
— Wilson Quarterly"Richardson's book is the best introduction and guide to Thoreau's thought that we are likely to obtain. It leads us to re-read Thoreau [and] to recognize that we are hearing a unique, and perhaps essential, American voice."
— Environmental Review"While this is not an environmental history, Richardson places his subject appropriately within the context of the landscape of Concord as it was in the 1840s and 1850s. Even more perceptively, he reveals Thoreau's environmental ideas as evolving within the ecosystem of his other intellectual interests."
— Library Journal"Richardson, like Thoreau, writes on the level of most significant detail; his account of Thoreau's development from his return to Concord from Harvard in 1837 to his death in 1862 is neither diffusively tedious nor glibly generalizing. He is particularly original in delineating the major foreign influences on Thoreau, especially the German (Goethe), the classical (Cato), and the British (Gilpin, Darwin, and Ruskin). The style is graceful and clear, and the author's admiration for his subject does not lapse into adulation or preachiness. Both a fine introduction and a major scholarly contribution."
— New York Review of Books"One of the great achievements in contemporary American literary studies. . . . Aside from his learning, which is prodigious, Richardson writes a wonderfully fluent, agile prose; he has a poet's sense of nuance and a novelist's grasp of dramatic rhythm; he also displays a positive genius for apt quotation."
Awards
- 1986 Melcher Book Award 1987, United Universalist Association