Henry Thoreau: A Life of the Mind

This not a biography od Henry Throreau, but his intellectual journey (David S Reynold has just published a similar bok on Abraham Lincoln). It starts with Thoreau at Harvard and carries through a life of study and reading. What did the famous Walden author read, what did he like more, where he did base his books and essays. This book replies to these questions, and superbly so. A must for any Thoreau fan; important to any XIX cultural scholar. A great book.

This book by Robert Richardson is a top-class biography of one of the most important philosophers. It describes Thoreau's life starting from 1837 (the year he graduated) up until his last day. Almost every year of his life is covered in great detail. Below are few interesting and important facts mentioned in the book and I will keep updating it with time: - Thoreau's first public lecture is Society, which he delivered when he is 20. One of the quotes in it is: "If we do not listen to our conscience, the principal avenue to reform would be closed". This has been his and other transcendentalists core message. What is incredible is it comes from a 20 year old and it is what defines his entire life - Thoreau's most productive years has been during his two year stay at Walden pond - Wrote only two books during his lifetime. "Week" was completed during his stay at Walden. First draft of Walden was also read during the same time - He read extensively on German, Greek, and Hindu philosophy among many others - Like most of us, he had several setbacks. Many of his essays were not accepted and that greatly affected his confidence - He was a chain reader. - He also read widely about botany, zoology, and geology - Kept working until the very end of his life - By the end of his life, he was a well-known writer. I was under the impression that he was unknown at the time of his death - It was fitting that his sister was reading him his first book "A week" when he breathed his last I can heartily recommend this awesome book.

Richardson was still an apprentice when he wrote this bio. I read this after the Emerson and James bios and was slightly disappointing. If I had read this first I would probably have been blown away. But Richardson raised the standard himself. Thoreau always paled in comparison to Emerson for me and you see why. Thoreau is more focused on nuance and intricacies, Emerson the entire universe. Probably another reason I did not enjoy this as much as the Emerson bio, which is the greatest biography ever written in the history of human kind. Beats Plutarch or Boswell any day.

Great book for someone interested in Thoreau. It starts with his college years, so unfortunately nothing of his childhood is included. It is pretty long, took me a few months to get through it all. It does have the benefit of short chapters. However, if you aren't fully committed to the time needed to devour this one, I would recommend "Henry Thoreau As Remembered By A Young Friend" By Edward Waldo Emerson. Much shorter (maybe 50 pages total?), it gives a little bit of an overview of Thoreau's life and the significance it had/has. Ralph Waldo Emerson also wrote a 12 page essay about Thoreau that could be valuable. There is a lot in this book about what he read and what he was interested in throughout the book. It's good because Thoreau was a big time reader. After reading this book I really want to follow up and read Goethe's "Italian Journey", The Laws of Manu, Thomas Carlyle's "On Heroes and Hero Worship", Edwin Arnold's "The Light of Asia", Melville's "Typee" and find out what about Kant influenced the transcendentalist movement. Thoreau was certainly an intentional individual if there was one, another biographer gave the subtitle to his biography "the man who did what he wanted" and this was the case. He spent a good part of his life walking 4 hours a day, turned down a successful pencil making business, read in multiple languages. Of course he also lived almost self-sufficiently in the woods for two years. Because of his intentionality and disdain for the common society of his day he became quite the interesting self-developed individual. I think this book redefined the idea of wildness for me. I have always wondered what about the ocean, or fire compels us to look at it. I think Thoreau would say it is the wildness of it. I think I have also seen this in my own travels, the further out, more natural a place is, the more I feel the mystery of it, the more I am compelled by it. I think it is that those places have stayed wild. It is not tamed. Thoreau and most of the other transcendentalists also lived his life a bit in response to the Puritanical Calvinism of his day. Reading that and comparing it with my own experience gave me a lot of thoughts about the common trends throughout history. There was an openness to truth and to human nature that was pretty different from the people of his time. They were primarily interested in production, and choosing "repose" over "truth" as Emerson said. Thoreau wanted truth. He wanted to confront the essential facts of life so that when it came time for him to die he would not discover that he had not lived. Me too. Thank you Robert Richardson for a well-written (and Barry Moser for the design!!) book. Thank you Thoreau for a life well-lived.

As a young man my Holy Trinity was: Emerson, Thoreau and Whitman. Emerson's essays are pure poetry; Thoreau's "Walden" and "Civil Disobedience" became a blueprint on how to live and why to write; and Whitman's life and "Leaves Of Grass" taught me about myself. "A Life Of The Mind" filled each page with the authenticity and richness of a life well lived. Thoreau, the humanness, the naturalist, the friend and son; the poet of the unraveling, entangled soul beating within the humdrum of everyday and ordinary life, leaps from every page. I have read other biographies on Thoreau which never captured the mind and writer of "Walden". Here the man and life equalled and qualified the literature. Richardson is more than a biographer of Thoreau; he's made from the same stock. He didn't simply tell of a man and his life, he savored, and shared in the same poetics and struggles as the man he researched. The theme of Thoreau's life was an opportunity to express his own convictions and struggles. It was while reading an anthology of Thoreau's work that I first understood why some poets and writers must write. I came to understand how every sentence could be layered with meaning and timelessness. After reading this biography I must reread my annotated "Walden". I must sit in my backyard amongst the leaves and flowers and shapes and densities I've not paid attention to in some time.