Henry David Thoreau dedicated his life to preserving his freedom as a man and an artist. Nature was the fountainhead of his inspiration and his refuge from what he considered the follies of society. Heedless of his friends’ advice to live in a more orthodox manner, he determinedly pursued his own inner bent, which was that of a poet-philosopher, in prose and verse.
Carl Bode brings together the best of Thoreau’s works in The Portable Thoreau, a comprehensive collection of the writings of a unique and profoundly influential American thinker. The complete texts of Thoreau’s classic works Walden and “Civil Disobedience,” as well as selections from The Maine Woods, Cape Cod, the Journal, and eighteen poems are included. Bode’s introduction rounds out this compact volume, offering a thorough and informative analysis of Thoreau and the forces that shaped his life and writing.
“This compact book, containing infinite riches in a little room, is a simple setting for sound sense, nugget-like thought, the refined essences of a point of view”
— St. Louis Post-Dispatch
The Portable Thoreau
Introduction by the Editor
Chronology
Natural History of Massachusetts, 1842
A Winter Walk, 1843
The Maine Woods, 1848
The Wilds of the Penobscot
Life in the Wilderness
Civil Disobedience, 1849
A Week on the Concord and Merrimack Rivers, 1849
Poems
I Am a Parcel of Vain Strivings Tied
In the Busy Streets, Domains of Trade
I Knew a Man by Sight
Lately, Alas, I Knew a Gentle Boy
Each More Melodious Note I Hear
Independence
Not Unconcerned Wachusett Rears His Head
My Friends, Why Should We Live
Low in the Eastern Sky
Great Friend
Fog
Brother Where Dost Thou Dwell
This Is My Carnac, Whose Unmeasured Dome
Love Equals Swift and Slow
Though All the Fates Should Prove Unkind
Manhood
Between the Traveler and the Setting Sun
Nature
A Yankee in Canada, 1853
Concord to Montreal
Walden, 1854
Economy
Where I Lived, and What I Lived For
Reading
Sounds
Solitude
Visitors
The Bean Field
The Village
The Ponds
Baker Farm
Higher Laws
Brute Neighbors
Housewarming
Former Inhabitants; and Winter Visitors
Winter Animals
The Pond in Winter
Spring
Conclusion
Journal, 1858
Walking, 1862
Life without Principle, 1863
Cape Cod, 1864
The Wellfleet Oysterman
The Last Days of John Brown, 1860
Epilogue by the Editor
Further Reading
