Authors: Henry David Thoreau, Cynthia Brantley Johnson (Editor), Alyssa Harad
ISBN-13: 9780743487726, ISBN-10: 0743487729
Format: Mass Market Paperback
Publisher: Simon & Schuster Adult Publishing Group
Date Published: June 2004
Edition: (Non-applicable)
"How vain it is to sit down to write when you have not stood up to live," Henry David Thoreau once observed. The American poet, essayist and philosopher certainly held himself to that standard -- living out the tenets of Transcendentalism, recounting the experience in his masterpiece, Walden (1854), and passionately advocating human rights and civil liberties in the famous essay, Civil Disobedience (1849).
Shrinking Walden into picture book size is somewhat like trying to fit Moby Dick into an aquarium. Still, Lowe's selections from Thoreau's iconoclastic work will give children a brief taste of this classic. Using only quotations from the original work, Lowe tells the story of Thoreau's year in the woods, emphasizing his descriptions of nature,stet comma and action rather than his philosophical musings. Readers see the young Thoreau putting shingles on his roof, hoeing beans, welcoming a stranger; they can revel in the natural wonders he describes--the ``whip-poor-wills,'' in summer, the drifting snow in winter, the ice breaking in the pond in spring. Sabuda's superb linoleum-cut prints lend a hard-edged brilliance to the dark woods--where sunlight is filtered through etched leaves, and moonlight shimmers on the waters of the pond made famous by a young man's experiment with life. All ages. (Nov.)
Introduction | vii | |
Chronology of Henry David Thoreau's Life and Work | xvii | |
Historical Context of Walden and On the Duty of Civil Disobedience | xix | |
Walden or, Life in the Woods | ||
1. | Economy | 3 |
2. | Where I Lived, and What I Lived For | 86 |
3. | Reading | 106 |
4. | Sounds | 119 |
5. | Solitude | 138 |
6. | Visitors | 150 |
7. | The Bean-Field | 166 |
8. | The Village | 180 |
9. | The Ponds | 187 |
10. | Baker Farm | 216 |
11. | Higher Laws | 226 |
12. | Brute Neighbors | 240 |
13. | House-Warming | 256 |
14. | Former Inhabitants; and Winter Visitors | 275 |
15. | Winter Animals | 291 |
16. | The Pond in Winter | 303 |
17. | Spring | 320 |
18. | Conclusion | 342 |
On the Duty of Civil Disobedience | ||
Poems | 359 | |
Sic Vita | 391 | |
Winter Memories | 393 | |
To the Maiden in the East | 394 | |
Smoke | 396 | |
Mist | 397 | |
Inspiration | 398 | |
Notes | 402 | |
Interpretive Notes | 431 | |
Critical Excerpts | 440 | |
Questions for Discussion | 452 | |
Suggestions for the Interested Reader | 454 |