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<p class="ph1">American Men of Letters</p>
<h1>HENRY D. THOREAU</h1>
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<p class="ph2">
American Men of Letters.</p>
<p class="ph1">HENRY D. THOREAU.</p>
<p class="ph4">BY</p>
<p class="ph2">F. B. SANBORN.</p>
<p class="ph3"><em>REVISED EDITION.</em></p>
<p class="ph4">BOSTON AND NEW YORK</p>
<p class="ph3">HOUGHTON MIFFLIN COMPANY</p>
<p class="ph4">The Riverside Press, Cambridge</p>
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<p class="copyrt">
Copyright, 1882,<br/>
<span class="smcap">By F. B. SANBORN</span>.<br/>
<br/>
<em>All rights reserved.</em><br/></p>
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<p><span class="pagenum"><SPAN name="Page_v" id="Page_v">[Pg v]</SPAN></span></p>
<div class="poetry-container"><div class="poem"><div class="stanza">
<span class="i0">Much do they wrong our Henry wise and kind,<br/></span>
<span class="i0">Morose who name thee, cynical to men,<br/></span>
<span class="i0">Forsaking manners civil and refined<br/></span>
<span class="i0">To build thyself in Walden woods a den,—<br/></span>
<span class="i0">Then flout society, flatter the rude hind.<br/></span>
<span class="i0">We better knew thee, loyal citizen!<br/></span>
<span class="i0">Thou, friendship's all-adventuring pioneer,<br/></span>
<span class="i0">Civility itself wouldst civilize:<br/></span>
<span class="i0">Whilst braggart boors, wavering 'twixt rage and fear,<br/></span>
<span class="i0">Slave hearths lay waste, and Indian huts surprise,<br/></span>
<span class="i0">And swift the Martyr's gibbet would uprear:<br/></span>
<span class="i0">Thou hail'dst him great whose valorous emprise<br/></span>
<span class="i0">Orion's blazing belt dimmed in the sky,—<br/></span>
<span class="i0">Then bowed thy unrepining head to die.<br/></span></div>
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<p class="author">
A. BRONSON ALCOTT</p>
<p><span class="smcap">Concord</span>, <em>January, 1882</em>.<br/></p>
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<p><span class="pagenum"><SPAN name="Page_vii" id="Page_vii">[Pg vii]</SPAN></span></p>
<h2><SPAN name="PREFACE" id="PREFACE">PREFACE</SPAN></h2>
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<p>When, in 1879, I was asked by my friend
Charles Dudley Warner to write the biography
of Thoreau which follows, I was by
no means unprepared. I had known this
man of genius for the last seven years of his
too short life; had lived in his family, and
in the house of his neighbor across the way,
Ellery Channing, his most intimate friend
outside of that family; and had assisted
Channing in the preparation and publication
of his "Thoreau, the Poet-Naturalist,"—the
first full biography which appeared. Not
very long after Thoreau's death Channing
had written me these sentences, with that insight
of the future which he often displayed:</p>
<div class="blockquot">
<p>"That justice can be done to our deceased
brother by me, of course I do not think. But to
you and to me is intrusted the care of his immediate
fame. I feel that my part is not yet done,
and cannot be without your aid. My little sketch
must only serve as a note and advertisement that<span class="pagenum"><SPAN name="Page_viii" id="Page_viii">[Pg viii]</SPAN></span>
such a man lived,—that he did brave work,
which must yet be given to the world. In the
midst of all the cold and selfish men who knew
this brave and devoted scholar and genius, why
should not you be called on to make some sacrifices,
even if it be to publish my sketch?"</p>
</div>
<p>This I was ready to do in 1864; and it
was through my means that the volume, then
much enlarged by Channing, was published
in 1873, and again, with additions and corrections,
in 1902.</p>
<p>I had also the great advantage of hearing
from the mother and sister of Henry the affectionate
side of his domestic life,—which
indeed I had witnessed, both in his health
and in his long mortal illness. From Emerson,
who had a clear view of Thoreau's intellect
and his moral nature, I derived many
useful suggestions, though not wholly agreeing
with him in some of his opinions. In
March, 1878, after hearing Emerson read a
few unpublished notes on Thoreau, made
years before, I called on him one evening,
and thus entered the event in my journal:—</p>
<div class="blockquot">
<p>"I was shown several of Thoreau's early papers;
one a commentary on Emerson's 'Sphinx,'
and another from his own translation of 'The<span class="pagenum"><SPAN name="Page_ix" id="Page_ix">[Pg ix]</SPAN></span>
Seven Against Thebes,' written at William Emerson's
house on Staten Island in 1843. Of this
episode in Thoreau's life (his tutorship for six
months of William Emerson's three sons), Emerson
told me that his brother and Henry were not
men that could get along together: 'each would
think whatever the other did was out of place.'
This was said to imply that Thoreau's poem 'The
Departure' could not have been written on his
leaving Castleton in Staten Island. I had shown
Emerson these verses (first printed by me, at
Sophia Thoreau's wish, in the Boston 'Commonwealth'
of 1863), whereupon he said:—</p>
<p>"I think Thoreau had always looked forward
to authorship as his work in life, and finding that
he could write prose well, he soon gave up writing
verse, in which he was not willing to be patient
enough to make the lines smooth and flowing.
These verses are smoother than he usually wrote;
but I have now no recollection of seeing them before,
nor of any circumstances in which they may
have been written.' Alluding to Judge Hoar's
marked dislike of Thoreau, Emerson said, 'There
was no <em>bow</em> in Henry; he never sought to please
his hearers or his friends.' Thomas Cholmondeley,
the nephew of Scott's friend Richard Heber,
meeting Henry at dinner at Emerson's, to whom
Cholmondeley had letters in 1854, and expressing
to his host the wish to see more of him, Emerson<span class="pagenum"><SPAN name="Page_x" id="Page_x">[Pg x]</SPAN></span>
said he told the Englishman, 'If you wish to see
Thoreau, go and board at his mother's house; she
will be glad to take you in, and there you can meet
him every day. He did so,' added Emerson,
'and you know the result.' ... This led to further
mention of Mrs. Thoreau, who, Emerson said,
'was a person of sharp and malicious wit,' of
whose sayings he read me some instances from
his Journals. Among these was her remark to
Mrs. Emerson, 'Henry is very <em>tolerant</em>'; adding
'Mr. Emerson has been talking so much with
Henry that he has learnt Henry's way of thinking
and talking.' Emerson went on to me:—</p>
<p>"'I had known Henry slightly when in college;
the scholarship from which he drew an income
while there (a farm at Pullen Point in Chelsea)
was the one that I and my brothers, William and
Edward, had enjoyed while we were at college.
But my first intimate acquaintance with Henry
began after his graduation in 1837. Mrs. Brown,
my wife's sister, who then boarded with the Thoreau
family in the Parkman house, where the Library
now stands, used to bring me his verses
(the "Sic Vita" and others), and tell me of his
entries in his Journal. Here is the Index to my
Journals, in which Thoreau's name appears perhaps
fifty times, perhaps more.'"</p>
</div>
<p>Thus far my Journal of 1878.</p>
<p><span class="pagenum"><SPAN name="Page_xi" id="Page_xi">[Pg xi]</SPAN></span></p>
<p>I was myself introduced to Thoreau by
Emerson, March 28, 1855, in the Concord
Town Hall, one evening, just before a lecture
there by Emerson. From that time until
Henry's death, May 6, 1862, I saw him
every few days, unless he or I was away from
Concord, and for more than two years I dined
with him daily at his mother's table, in the
house opposite to Ellery Channing's. I thus
came to know all the surviving members of
his kindred,—his eccentric uncle, Charles
Dunbar, his two aunts on each side, Jane
and Maria Thoreau, and Louisa and Sophia
Dunbar (both older than Mrs. Thoreau), and
the descendants in Maine of his aunt Mrs.
Billings, long since dead. His sister Helen
and his brother John I never knew, but
learned much about them from their mother
and sister; for neither Henry nor his father
often spoke of them. Sophia also placed in
my hands after Henry's death several of his
poems, which I printed in the "Commonwealth,"
and Emerson gave me other manuscripts
of Thoreau which had lodged with
him while he was editing the "Dial." He
had urged Sophia to leave all the MSS. with
me, but her pique against Channing at the<span class="pagenum"><SPAN name="Page_xii" id="Page_xii">[Pg xii]</SPAN></span>
time prevented this,—she knowing him to
be intimate with me.</p>
<p>With all this preparation, I received from
Mr. Blake, to whom Sophia had bequeathed
them in 1876, the correspondence of Thoreau
and his college essays, with some other papers
of Henry's and his own, but without the
replies from the family to Henry's affectionate
letters. Even his own to his mother and
sisters had been withheld from publication
by Emerson in 1865, when a small collection
of Thoreau's Letters and Poems was edited
by Emerson. This omission Sophia regretted,
as she told me; and finding them now in
my hands, though I made use of their contents
in writing the biography, I withheld
them from full publication, foreseeing that I
should probably have occasion to edit the
letters in full at some later time; and I made
but sparing use of the early essays.</p>
<p>On the other hand, I perceived that the
character and genius of Thoreau could not be
well understood unless some knowledge was
had of the Concord farmers, scholars, and citizens,
among whom he had spent his days, and
who have furnished a background for that
scene of authorship which the small town of<span class="pagenum"><SPAN name="Page_xiii" id="Page_xiii">[Pg xiii]</SPAN></span>
Concord has presented for now more than seventy
years. Therefore, having access to the records
and biographies of the Concord "Social
Circle," then in preparation for the public,
and to many other records of the past in New
England, I sketched therefrom the character
of our interesting community, which gave
color and tone to the outlines of this thoughtful
scholar's career. But I held back for the
"Familiar Letters" the more intimate details
of Thoreau's self-devoted life, and did not
draw heavily on the thirty-odd volumes of
the Journals, to which, at Worcester, Mr.
Blake gave me free access. It was then his
purpose to bring out these Journals much
earlier and more fully than was done, until
Messrs. Houghton, Mifflin & Co. published
their admirable edition in fourteen volumes,
a few years ago, after Mr. Blake's death.</p>
<p>The success of my biography, written under
these limitations, has more than justified
reasonable expectations. It was popular
from the first, and is still widely read, and
called for by a generation of readers quite
distinct from those for whom it was originally
written. Since the spring of 1882, when it
was published, many details of Thoreau's life<span class="pagenum"><SPAN name="Page_xiv" id="Page_xiv">[Pg xiv]</SPAN></span>
and that of his ancestors have become known
by an examination of his copious manuscripts,
of the papers of his Loyalist ancestors, and
his father's relatives in the island of Jersey;
and by the publication of some twenty-five
volumes from Thoreau's own hand. He
never employed an amanuensis, and he seems
to have carefully preserved the large mass of
his manuscripts which accumulated during
his literary life of some twenty-five years.
The exceptions to this remark were the copies
of his earlier verses, which he told me, in
his last illness, he had destroyed, because
they did not meet Emerson's approval, and
those pages of his Journals which he had
issued in printed books or magazine articles.
Fragments of his youthful verses were kept,
however, by some of his family, and still
exist. From all these sources many things
have come to light concerning his ancestry
and the minor events of his life, which I hope
eventually to give the world in a final biography
that will serve as a sequel to this one.
The greatly enhanced reputation which Thoreau
now enjoys, as compared with his fame
in 1882, seems to warrant a detail which was
not then needful, and which even the "Familiar<span class="pagenum"><SPAN name="Page_xv" id="Page_xv">[Pg xv]</SPAN></span>
Letters" does not furnish. Much misconception
of his character and the facts of
his life still prevails; and singular statements
have been made in text-books, as to his origin
and training. One authority described Thoreau
as descended from "farmer folk" in
Connecticut, who were recent immigrants
from France. So far as I know, not a single
ancestor of his ever dwelt in Connecticut;
they were all merchants; and though his
Thoreau ancestors spoke French, or a patois
of it, in Jersey, there is no evidence that any
of them had lived in France for more than
five centuries.</p>
<p>This initial authentic biography, with its
few errors corrected, now comes forth in a
new edition, which will long be found useful,
in the manner indicated, and I hope, may be
received as the earlier edition has been, with
all the favor which its modest aim deserves.</p>
<p class="author">
F. B. S.</p>
<p>Concord, Mass., October 8, 1909.<br/></p>
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<p><span class="pagenum"><SPAN name="Page_xvii" id="Page_xvii">[Pg xvii]</SPAN></span></p>
<h2><SPAN name="CONTENTS" id="CONTENTS">CONTENTS.</SPAN></h2>
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<table border="0" cellpadding="4" cellspacing="0" summary="toc">
<tr><td align="center" colspan="2">CHAPTER I.</td><td align="right">Page</td></tr>
<tr><td align="left" colspan="2"><span class="smcap">Birth and Family</span></td><td align="right"><SPAN href="#Page_1">1</SPAN></td></tr>
<tr><td align="center" colspan="2">CHAPTER II.</td></tr>
<tr><td align="left" colspan="2"><span class="smcap">Childhood and Youth</span></td><td align="right"><SPAN href="#Page_32">32</SPAN></td></tr>
<tr><td align="center" colspan="2">CHAPTER III.</td></tr>
<tr><td align="left" colspan="2"><span class="smcap">Concord and its Famous People</span></td><td align="right"><SPAN href="#Page_63">63</SPAN></td></tr>
<tr><td align="center" colspan="2">CHAPTER IV.</td></tr>
<tr><td align="left" colspan="2"><span class="smcap">The Embattled Farmers</span></td><td align="right"><SPAN href="#Page_97">97</SPAN></td></tr>
<tr><td align="center" colspan="2">CHAPTER V.</td></tr>
<tr><td align="left" colspan="2"><span class="smcap">The Transcendental Period</span></td><td align="right"><SPAN href="#Page_124">124</SPAN></td></tr>
<tr><td align="center" colspan="2">CHAPTER VI.</td></tr>
<tr><td align="left" colspan="2"><span class="smcap">Early Essays in Authorship</span></td><td align="right"><SPAN href="#Page_148">148</SPAN></td></tr>
<tr><td align="center" colspan="2">CHAPTER VII.</td></tr>
<tr><td align="left" colspan="2"><span class="smcap">Friends and Companions</span></td><td align="right"><SPAN href="#Page_174">174</SPAN></td></tr>
<tr><td align="center" colspan="2">CHAPTER VIII.</td></tr>
<tr><td align="left" colspan="2"><span class="smcap">The Walden Hermitage</span></td><td align="right"><SPAN href="#Page_201">201</SPAN><span class="pagenum"><SPAN name="Page_xviii" id="Page_xviii">[Pg xviii]</SPAN></span></td></tr>
<tr><td align="center" colspan="2">CHAPTER IX.</td></tr>
<tr><td align="left" colspan="2"><span class="smcap">Horace in the Role of Mæcenas</span></td><td align="right"><SPAN href="#Page_216">216</SPAN></td></tr>
<tr><td align="center" colspan="2">CHAPTER X.</td></tr>
<tr><td align="left" colspan="2"><span class="smcap">In Wood and Field</span></td><td align="right"><SPAN href="#Page_242">242</SPAN></td></tr>
<tr><td align="center" colspan="2">CHAPTER XI.</td></tr>
<tr><td align="left" colspan="2"><span class="smcap">Personal Traits and Social Life</span></td><td align="right"><SPAN href="#Page_261">261</SPAN></td></tr>
<tr><td align="center" colspan="2">CHAPTER XII.</td></tr>
<tr><td align="left" colspan="2"><span class="smcap">Poet, Moralist, and Philosopher</span></td><td align="right"><SPAN href="#Page_284">284</SPAN></td></tr>
<tr><td align="center" colspan="2">CHAPTER XIII.</td></tr>
<tr><td align="left" colspan="2"><span class="smcap">Life, Death, and Immortality</span></td><td align="right"><SPAN href="#Page_297">297</SPAN></td></tr>
</table></div>
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<p><span class="pagenum"><SPAN name="Page_1" id="Page_1">[Pg 1]</SPAN></span></p>
<p class="ph1">HENRY D. THOREAU.</p>
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