THE WALDEN EXPERIMENTS

A good argument that Thoreau was America’s first environmentalist.

Thorson, professor of earth sciences at the University of Connecticut, emphasizes that Thoreau (1817-1862) was a Harvard graduate, philosopher, writer, and transcendentalist in good standing who had trouble earning a living and was often supported by friends—especially the prosperous Ralph Waldo Emerson. Successful after its 1854 publication, Walden is admired as a foundational work of the environmental movement but also criticized as the original “cabin porn,” a fantasy about escaping urban life to live in the woods. Thorson points out that Walden Pond (a property owned by Emerson) was within easy walking distance of Thoreau’s hometown of Concord, Massachusetts, which he visited regularly. Never a hermit, he entertained a steady stream of visitors and continued writing and dealing with the issues of the time. The house that he built was never intended to be spartan; instead, it was a demonstration that “civilized” man could live a meaningful life without the oppressive trappings of civilization. Although only 10-by-15 feet in size, the cabin was, as Thoreau wrote, a “tight-shingled and plastered house” that included a fireplace and a basement. A Thoreau scholar but a geologist by profession, Thorson concentrates on his subject’s two years of detailed examination of the natural world, with detours into its contrast with urban life, as well as attention to the economics of his daily routine. Thoreau tended a two-acre bean field that led him to conclude, perhaps optimistically, that he was making a profit. Light on the vogue for emphasizing his character flaws, and with little attention to life outside the Walden years, this is less a biography than a demonstration that Thoreau was an intensely scientific observer of the natural world.

Deep insights into America’s founding naturalist.