Although Walden by Henry David Thoreau has fascinated me for years, Louisa May Alcott’s Hospital Sketches is new to me. Obviously, many people know Alcott, another prominent writer from Concord, for Little Women. This past year my daughter read the book for the first time, which is much more than I can boast, but I’ve …
Continue reading "Two Experiments: Walden and Hospital Sketches"
In this week's blog post, I share the details of an early edition of Thoreau's Walden published by the Burt Company, examining the "story" told by both its title page and frontispiece.
Above one of the classroom doors in my high school, there’s a well-known quote credited to Thoreau that so many of us have heard over the years: “Go confidently in the direction of your dreams. Live the life you imagine.” No doubt, it’s a beautiful sentiment. And yet every time I pass that classroom, I …
Continue reading "Transcendentalism and the Problem of Misquotation"
Gardening is a strange pleasure. In Walden, Henry David Thoreau describes his experience in the bean field as a “small Herculean labor” and a long battle, the Trojans taking the form of worms, weeds, and woodchucks. For a weapon, he recounts leveling his enemy with his long-handled hoe, turning dirt and dust over the weeds …
It’s been almost thirty years since I first wrote about Pink Floyd. To be honest, I never felt compelled until last Thursday, when my friend Dave, who co-teaches my English 11 class with me, mentioned Pink Floyd while we reviewed the words for a vocabulary test. More on that later, but for now, let me …
The White Whale 