Thoreau

[Doc]

Henry David Thoreau was a famous American writer of the 19th Century - widely revered and taught in schools in America, but much less well known this side of the pond.

He built a wooden house in the woods at Walden Pond, and lived in it for two years.

I wouldn't begin to summarise his thoughts in a few lines but main themes of his work include:

nature observation - he was meticulous in observing nature, and was often to be found just looking at wild creatures for an hour or more.

Individualism - he strongly believed that people should ignore convention and move to the beat of their own drum

simplicity - he once picked up an attractive rock to use as a paperweight on his desk. When he later realised it needed dusting, and would thus uselessly occupy his time, he threw it out the window. He only worked as much as was necessary to supply his simple needs and spent the rest of the time doing more important stuff, like looking at trees.

I sometimes think about this while mowing my lawn (a job I hate) when I could be out in the woods. Can't remember the exact Thoreau quote, but he mentioned men who think they own their house, whereas really the house owns them.

Needless to say, he wasn't married

Should be read critically, but deserves to be read. You can get the budget Dover edition of his classic work Walden for about £3 on amazon, but texts of much of his work is available on the internet.

Last week I was reading Thoreau by candlight in my tent at midnight. The simple pleasures are the best.

 

[Pappa]

I've got an old paperback copy with "Civil Disobedience" included too. It's been a while since I read it, but it's a good read.

Pappa

 

[tomtom]

Doc.. sounds interesting would you advise any particular title?

 

[CatFisH]

Thoreau's writings will supply anyone interested in bushcraft with both philosophical and spiritual reasons to follow a life outdoors...He was an accomplished minimalist and had a real distaste for modern convienences, considering them hinderances to the development of mankind...an ardent individualist who refused to pay his poll tax and spent a night in jail in defiance of what he considered unjust taxation..Thoreau influenced Martin Luther King and Mahatma Gandi with his treatise "Civil Disobedience". Both of these leaders followed his view of nonviolent change with great results....He, along with Ralph Waldo Emerson, were keystone writers of the Transcendentalist movement in the golden age of American Literature...they followed the Age of Reason thought which dealt with scientific facts as a basis for guidance and brought back spiritual and philisophical views as the favored approach to living...

the best writings by Thoreau are his two year stay by Walden Pond...his time spent on the Concord and Merrimac Rivers and his trips to the Maine woods...all of these accounts are excellent outdoor writings sure to interest anyone that enjoys outdoor hobbies...one of his best essays is one entitled "Walking"...he stoutly supported a simple lifestyle and expressed his views in an eloquent manner...few of us can live this type of life but neither can we ignore what he says....

Henry David Thoreau, more than anyone else, is the reason I chose a life outside...my apologies for not mentioning him but I thought everyone had read his works...he was the original bushcrafter

favorite quotes...

"The greater part of what my neighbors call good I believe in my soul to be bad, and if I repent of anything, it is likely to be my good behavior. What demon possessed me to behave so well?"

"I rejoice that there are owls. Let them do their idiotic and maniacal hooting for men. It is a sound admirably suited to swamps and twilight woods which no day illustrates, suggesting a vast and undeveloped nature which men have not recognised. They represent the stark twilight and unsatisfied thoughts that we all have."

 

[Hoodoo]

Good summary CatFish. Thoreau was required reading in school when I was a youngster. That was pretty much true everywhere in the States as far as I know. He's a cultural icon here. If you like Thoreau, you might also like the works of John Muir if you are not familiar with him.

"In the streets and in society I am almost invariably cheap and dissipated, my life is unspeakably mean. ... But alone in the distant woods or fields, in unpretending sprout-lands or pastures tracked by rabbits, even in a bleak and, to most, cheerless day, like this, when a villager would be thinking of his inn, I come to myself, I once more feel myself grandly related, and that cold and solitude are friends of mine. I suppose that this value, in my case, is equivalent to what others get by churchgoing and prayer. I come home to my solitary woodland walk as the homesick go home. I thus dispose of the superfluous and see things as they are, grand and beautiful. I have told many that I walk every day about half the daylight, but I think they do not believe it. I wish to get the Concord, the Massachusetts, the America, out of my head and be sane a part of every day."

- Thoreau's Journal, January 7, 1857

 

[CatFisH]

HooDoo...that quote is another of my favorites...He was required reading in school and that is where I picked up on him...he certainy speaks in universal truths...that is why his writings have become classics...true today as when they were written...he also had a great sense of humor..

"I believe that men are generally still a little afraid of the dark, though the witches have all been hung, and Christianity and candles have been introduced."


yes...John Muir...another along the lines of Thoreau...He really started the movement to set aside areas in the US that were unique...thanks to him many special places like Yosemite are part of the National Park Service...it was his views about the natural world that paved a path for much of modern thought of preservation of these areas...and he was a great writer describing what he saw in a manner that move the reader to follow his path...all of his works are worth the effort for any woodsmen to read...

and then there is Aldo Leopold (A Sand County Almanac), the father of wildlife ecology...William Bartram,botanist, (The Travels of William Bartram)...endless list of great writers

 

[philaw]

I'm also a fan. I find it relaxing after a frustrating day, as it's really difficult to stay angry at your boss or stressed about work when you're reminded what the true necessities in life are. Often now it's enough for me just to step outside for a minute and make a point of looking at the trees and hills, or up at the sky.

One thing that keeps Thoreau relevent today is that he advised simplicity, not escapism. His little house on Walden pond was only a couple of miles from the nearest town, and he frequently had visitors. ie, you don't need to go to India to find peace and simplicity, you can get it anywhere you choose to. I guess that in modern Britain he might suggest that people get a trade like he did (he was a surveyor) that allows them flexibility in working, share houses with their friends instead of buying their own, use public transport so they don't need to pay for a car, don't get a tv or waste their money on booze, and then maybe they'll be able to find more time and money for themselves and need to work less.

 

[OldJimbo]

I belive that Tom Elpel has come closest to explaining Thoreau's viewpoint in this piece of writing:
The Art of Nothing

For me at least...

 

[sandbender]

“I went to the woods because I wished to live deliberately, to front only the essential facts of life, and see if I could not learn what it had to teach, and not, when I came to die, to discover that I had not lived. I did not wish to live what was not life, living is so dear; nor did I wish to practice resignation, unless it was quite necessary. I wanted to live deep and suck out all the marrow of life, to live so sturdily and Spartan-like as to put to rout all that was not life, to cut a broad swath and shave close, to drive life into a corner, and reduce it to its lowest terms, and, if it proved to be mean, why then to get the whole and genuine meanness of it, and publish its meanness to the world; or if it were sublime, to know it by experience, and to be able to give a true account of it in my next excursion.”

Henry David Thoreau

 

[jamesdevine]

Off to buy Walden this lunch time. Have been debating it for a while but you have convinced me.

James

 

[Doc]

A wise move. I wonder if my life would have turned out rather differently had I read it when I was younger. I used to work with a guy who, in retrospect, was perhaps trying to pursue a Thoreauvian lifestyle - he spent almost nothing and his intention was to work hard for one year so he could spend the next five or six mountaineering.

Some of Walden is hard going - Thoreau had a classical education and alludes to Greek mythology quite a bit.

His essay 'Life Without Principle' and 'Walking' are perhaps more readable. Full texts of these and Walden are available online. I've not yet read Cape Cod/Maine Woods/Journal but look forward to doing so.

John Muir was of course a fellow Scot and for many years revered in America and unknown in Scotland. That is no longer the case - his birthplace is a tourist attraction, the John Muir Country Park preserves a nice bit of coast and the John Muir Trust look after some of Scotland's wild country.

I have yet to read Muir but for me the finest wilderness philosopher of them all is Sigurd Olson. Rarely do you read something that gives you the 'he understands me and I understand him' feeling.

 

[tomtom]

what a great thread.. thanks for giving us your thoughts everybody.

i sure wish books like this had been required reading when i was at school.. i might have paid more attention.

and if we are quoting passages from books this is the one, from Sigurd F Olsons 'Reflections from the North Country' which i felt compeld to remember.

''In wilderness, harmony is the natural way of life as it has always been, but we must not destroy it by overcrowding or by any exploitative use that might change it. The most important function of the wilderness for modern man is the opportunity of glimpsing for a moment what harmony really means. Having sensed it, he can bring vison back to our urban complexes, and the wisdom that enables us to understand what we have lost.''

 

[Marts]

For anyone who wants to read on-line

Walking

Life without principle

Civil disobedience

Walden

The Maine woods

A Week on the Concord and Merrimak Rivers

 

[morch]

I agree, a great thread. Thanks for the links Marts.

 

[raskusdrotti]

I have just ordered a copy of "Thoreau's vision, the major essays" from the library!

I will tell you what i think of this soon, hopefully

Neil

 

[Lostdog]

What a coincidence...

Walden is the book I am currently reading. (Second time around in a month).

As soon as I finished it for the first time I gave the copy to my best mate (another societal dissident) and bought myself a new one and immediately started reading again.

What a precious book. What a precious man.

I have since bought a book of selected essays by Ralph Waldo Emerson who I believe was a good friend of Thoreau's and helped him establish himself by the shores of Walden Pond. I'm looking forward to reading that next.

I also have "Walking" and "Civil Disobedience" by Thoreau that I have still to read.

So much to do, so little time....

Here's my favorite quote from Walden, "But, wherever a man goes, men will pursue and paw him with their dirty institutions, and, if they can, constrain him to belong to their desperate odd-fellow society."

I'll stop now....

 

[FeralSheryl]

I love Thoreau!

Timeless, wonderfull writing and an example to us all.
Walden and Walking - my favourites.

Really, really happy to see him get a warm response here.
Makes me want to hug all you guys

 

[Hoodoo]

I guess this might be a good thread to put a plug in for John J. Rowlands and his book Cache Lake Country for those who haven't read it. I love Thoreau and Muir and every other great naturalist from John Wesley Powell to Rachel Carson, but if I were to choose one book out of them all, it would be Cache Lake Country. Rowland was a man of great humility. He never preached, he just told his story with great humor and warmth. Tons of bushcraft in it as well. I never tire of reading it.

 

[Doc]

Agree with that Hoodoo. It is an intriguing book and full of a lot of insights.

 

[FeralSheryl]

I'll see if I can get a copy.