"What are you doing now?" he asked. "Do you keep a journal?"

Thus at his friend Emerson's urging the twenty-year-old Henry Thoreau embarked on what would become the best-known daily record by an American. This sumptuous, scrupulously edited and annotated selection demonstrates how certain key passages from Walden and other titles began as working versions-- mini-essays, really-- within daily journal entries, and reveals as well a surprising streak of humor most often suppressed in the formal works. Not to be missed are Thoreau on the "ultra-reformers"; on the habits of cats; on the Great Pig Chase; on the death of his father; on the savage winters inflicted upon mid-century Massachusetts; on the song of the telegraph harp. If you think you know the author of Civil Disobedience, think again, and meet the man behind the book. Indeed, as a contemporary of Thoreau's put it, this is no book: who touches this touches a man.

It was his friend Ralph Waldo Emerson, another inveterate journal keeper, who urged Thoreau to keep a record of his thoughts and observations. Begun in 1837, Thoreau’s journal spans a period of twenty-five years and runs to more than two million words, coming to a halt only in 1861, shortly before the author’s death. The handwritten journal had somewhat humble origins, but as it grew in scope and ambition it came to function as a record of Thoreau’s interior life as well as the source for his books and essays. Indeed, it became the central concern of the author’s literary life. Critics now recognize Thoreau’s journal as an important artistic achievement in its own right.

Making selections from the entirety of the journal, Cramer presents all aspects of Thoreau: writer, thinker, naturalist, social reformer, neighbor, friend. No other single-volume edition offers such a full picture of Thoreau’s life and work. Cramer’s annotations add to the reader’s enjoyment and understanding. He provides notes on the biographical, historical, and geographical contexts of Thoreau’s life. The relation between Journal passages and the texts of works published in the author’s lifetime receive special emphasis. A companion to Walden: A Fully Annotated Edition, this gift edition of the Journal will be dipped into and treasured, and it makes a welcome addition to any book lover’s library.

 

 

"A welcome and appealing work, whose chief strength lies in the range and detail of the information provided in its annotations."-David M. Robinson, author of Natural Life: Thoreau''s Worldly Transcendentalism

"In editing and annotating this selection from the two-million-word journal of Thoreau, Cramer has aimed to provide general readers with a clean, reliable, intelligently chosen series of entries from the massive original. . . . He has admirably succeeded."-Wayne Franklin, University of Connecticut

Jeffrey S. Cramer is curator of collections at The Thoreau Institute at Walden Woods. He is editor of Walden: A Fully Annotated Edition, published by Yale University Press.

Imprint: Yale University Press
Distributor: Yale University Press
Publication Date: 10-28-2007
Pages: 528
Measurements: 9.25in X 7.50in X 1.75in X 2.45lb