The Writings of Henry David Thoreau, Volume 8: Journal, Volume 8: 1854.

(Hardback)

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From 1837 to 1861, Throeau kept a journal that began as a conventional record of ideas, grew into a writer's notebook, and eventually became the principal imaginative work of his career. This edition reproduces the journal in its original complete form, in a reading text free of editorial interpolations but keyed to a scholarly apparatus. "Journal 8 - 1854" is edited from the 467 page notebook that Thoreau kept from February 13 - September 3, 1854. It reveals him as an increasingly confident taxonomist creating lists that distil his observations about plant leafing and seasonal birds. Two particulary significant events took place in his life in the summer of 1854. On July 4th, at an anti-slavery rally at Framingham, Massachusetts, Thoreau appeared for the first time in the company of prominent aboliutionists, delivering as heated an argument against slavery as he had yet made. On August 9th, Ticknor and Fields published "Waldon", the book that Thoreau had been working on since 1846. In his journal, Thoreau indicates that these public accomplishments, though satisfying, took a toll on his creative life and did not fully compensate him for the hours spent away from the woods.

Author Bio

Sandra Harbert Petrulionis is Assistant Professor of English at Pennsylvania State University, Altoona. Elizabeth Hall Witherell is Editor in Chief of the Thoreau Edition.