∎ [PDF] The Maine Woods Writings of Henry D Thoreau Henry David Thoreau Joseph J Moldenhauer Paul Theroux 9780691118772 Books

The Maine Woods Writings of Henry D Thoreau Henry David Thoreau Joseph J Moldenhauer Paul Theroux 9780691118772 Books

Download As PDF : The Maine Woods Writings of Henry D Thoreau Henry David Thoreau Joseph J Moldenhauer Paul Theroux 9780691118772 Books

The Maine Woods Writings of Henry D Thoreau Henry David Thoreau Joseph J Moldenhauer Paul Theroux 9780691118772 Books

In 1848, 1853,and 1857, Henry David Thoreau travelled to the wilderness -- forests, lakes, rivers, and mountains in the northwest part of Maine. He wrote three lengthy essays describing each of his journeys, and they were gathered together, as Thoreau had wished, and published after his death, together with an appendix, as "The Maine Woods." It is a moving book, a classic work of American literature, and the founder of a genre of descriptive travel writing.

Readers coming to "The Maine Woods" after "Walden" or "A Walk on the Concord and Merrimack Rivers" may be in for a surprise. These earlier books do include extensive descriptions of nature and of plants and animals, but their focus is much more internalized and philosophical. Both books are full of discussions of themes that have little direct connection with nature. They show Thoreau as a Transcendentalist, an American philosopher akin to Emerson and others.

"The Maine Woods", in contrast, shows Thoreau as much more of a naturalist interested in describing the wilderness in great detail for its own sake. I think the book articulates a philosophical temperament akin to Thoreau's earlier books, but it is for the most part implicit rather than stated at length.

The three essays describe Thoreau's journeys at widely separated times to Mount Ktaadn, the Chesuncook River, and the Allegash and East Branch Rivers, journeys that overlapped to some degree. Thoreau travelled with a companion and with Indian guides. He gives the reader pictures of what was still largely a pristine wilderness even though it was, at that early time, already being subject to logging, the growth of towns, and despoilation. We see Thoreau and his companions travelling in canoes or batteaus on the interconnected rivers and lakes of northwest Maine, carrying and portaging their vessels around falls, camping in the woods, observing the vegetation and animals, getting lost, finding shelter from the rain, visiting lumber camps and the hardy residents of the woods, gathering berries, hunting, and much else. The narrative is filled with detail of Thoreau's experiences and thoughts.

I found the most moving part of the book was Thoreau's description of his climb up Mount Ktaadn in the first essay. We see this journey in detail, described with ancient Greek and American Indian symbolism. It concludes with a long peroration of the value of wilderness -- of land not controlled or under the disposition of people. Thoreau observes that "the country is virtually unmapped and unexplored, and there still waves the virgin forest of the New World." The "Chesuncook" essay includes a vivid description of the stalking and killing of a moose and Thoreau's resultant sense of discomfort. It closes with a call for the creation of national preserves for wilderness. The final essay describes a broad spectrum of adventures and places on a day-to-day basis. There are many passages that describe Thoreau's Indian guide, Joe Polis. Although Thoreau was deeply fascinated with the Indian heritage of Maine, some of his treatment of Polis will sound stereotyped to modern readers.

Thoreau's book was the first in a long line of American works devoted to nature. But I was reminded most of the Beat writers in some of their moments, of Jack Kerouac, (a native of Lowell, Massachusetts) in "The Dharma Bums" describing rucksacking and the climbing of a mountain and of the poetry of Gary Snyder.

This book is about the need to leave the beaten path and follow one's star. There are some fine websites in which the interested reader can get more information about the places Thoreau visited. [...]

Robin Friedman


Tags : The Maine Woods (Writings of Henry D. Thoreau) [Henry David Thoreau, Joseph J. Moldenhauer, Paul Theroux] on Amazon.com. *FREE* shipping on qualifying offers. Henry D. Thoreau traveled to the backwoods of Maine in 1846, 1853, and 1857. Originally published in 1864,Henry David Thoreau, Joseph J. Moldenhauer, Paul Theroux,The Maine Woods (Writings of Henry D. Thoreau),Princeton University Press,0691118779,Authors, American - 19th century,Authors, American;19th century;Biography.,Maine - Description and travel,Maine;Description and travel.,Piscataquis County (Me.) - Description and travel,Piscataquis County (Me.);Description and travel.,Thoreau, Henry David - Travel - Maine,19th century,Authors, American,BIOGRAPHY & AUTOBIOGRAPHY Personal Memoirs,Biography,Biography & Autobiography,Biography Autobiography,BiographyAutobiography,Biography: general,Description and travel,General Adult,Maine,Memoirs,Non-Fiction,Personal Memoirs,Piscataquis County (Me.),UNIVERSITY PRESS,United States

The Maine Woods Writings of Henry D Thoreau Henry David Thoreau Joseph J Moldenhauer Paul Theroux 9780691118772 Books Reviews

Most people are familiar with Thoreau through his Walden. Few know perhaps that he didn't stay put in Concord but journeyed to the Maine Woods and elsewhere, and that these travels were formative of his philosophy and ideas. Thoreau believed the Maine wilderness north of Bangor was every bit as wild as the west and other far flung corners of the continent in the 1850s, and here he shows us an incredible panorama of beauty and wonder. You will gain insight into how Native Americans hunted Moose in the mid-19th Century and why Thoreau, a vegetarian, disdained the killing of animals for meat. One of the most sriking passages is his description of the sound of a huge tree falling in the forest in the distance at night.

In Ktaadn, Thoreau defines the essence of wilderness

"Nature was here something savage and awful, though beautiful. I looked with awe at the ground I trod on, to see what the Powers had made there, the form and fashion and material of their work. This was that Earth of which we have heard, made out of Chaos and Old Night. Here was no man's garden, but the unhandselled globe. It was not lawn, nor pasture, nor mead, nor woodland, nor lea, nor arable, nor wast-land. It was the fresh and natural surface of the planet Earth as it was made forever and ever."

You do not need to read The Maine Woods on a wooded island in Maine (as I did) to be captivated and transported by it to a higher and greater sense of wilderness than you may ever have imagined.
I liked the thorough descriptions of the excursions of the vast, wild Maine woods circa 1860. I followed the narrative going back and forth to Google Earth which made it feel as I was "along on the journey".
Anyone whom appreciates the outdoors and nature will gravitate to the reverence in which HDT treats this collection of essays.
This is a comment about the edition rather than the book

I bought this edition based on the review about the very helpful index. Please be careful about what edition you are actually buying. Many of these reviews are about different editions. I bought the BiblioLife paperback book with a picture of the green bicycle on the cover. I just received it and there is NO INDEX.

It looks like the original text from an original printing (with smaller physical dimensions) was photocopied page by page and put into this paperback book. This will do the trick but I am a little disappointed and wish I had bought a different edition.

It is confusing on because when you click "look inside" it shows an index, with a tiny note saying the "look inside" refers to a different edition.
Of the three books I have read by Thoreau (Walden and the Maine Woods being the other two), I enjoyed this one the most. Thoreau's description of the Cape Cod bay and coast are impeccable, and actually make you long to resort there. I would love to re-trace his course from Barnstable to Provincetown, visiting Truro and Wellfleet as I perused through the dunes and cliffs. There is quite a bit of very interesting history in this book as well, and he often cites "Mourt's Relation", a pilgrim document which I have since endeavored to read as well, and found to be very fascinating. Cape Cod is definitely a very worthwhile book to read, especially if you like images of the sea, wind, sand, and coastal weather. I truly enjoyed it very much.
As someone who treasures his limited opportunities to get to coastal Maine (about every 3 years or so), his description of the inland areas I have not visited makes me want to add this to my next visit itinerary. For those of us who appreciate his unique prose and detailed description along with environmental commentary well ahead of his time, this was an enjoyable excursion to a time when the unspoiled was already starting to lose out to commercial interests. Of course those who toiled for subsistence wages in the dangerous and unbearable conditions were glad for the opportunities the resources of the woods provided.
In 1848, 1853,and 1857, Henry David Thoreau travelled to the wilderness -- forests, lakes, rivers, and mountains in the northwest part of Maine. He wrote three lengthy essays describing each of his journeys, and they were gathered together, as Thoreau had wished, and published after his death, together with an appendix, as "The Maine Woods." It is a moving book, a classic work of American literature, and the founder of a genre of descriptive travel writing.

Readers coming to "The Maine Woods" after "Walden" or "A Walk on the Concord and Merrimack Rivers" may be in for a surprise. These earlier books do include extensive descriptions of nature and of plants and animals, but their focus is much more internalized and philosophical. Both books are full of discussions of themes that have little direct connection with nature. They show Thoreau as a Transcendentalist, an American philosopher akin to Emerson and others.

"The Maine Woods", in contrast, shows Thoreau as much more of a naturalist interested in describing the wilderness in great detail for its own sake. I think the book articulates a philosophical temperament akin to Thoreau's earlier books, but it is for the most part implicit rather than stated at length.

The three essays describe Thoreau's journeys at widely separated times to Mount Ktaadn, the Chesuncook River, and the Allegash and East Branch Rivers, journeys that overlapped to some degree. Thoreau travelled with a companion and with Indian guides. He gives the reader pictures of what was still largely a pristine wilderness even though it was, at that early time, already being subject to logging, the growth of towns, and despoilation. We see Thoreau and his companions travelling in canoes or batteaus on the interconnected rivers and lakes of northwest Maine, carrying and portaging their vessels around falls, camping in the woods, observing the vegetation and animals, getting lost, finding shelter from the rain, visiting lumber camps and the hardy residents of the woods, gathering berries, hunting, and much else. The narrative is filled with detail of Thoreau's experiences and thoughts.

I found the most moving part of the book was Thoreau's description of his climb up Mount Ktaadn in the first essay. We see this journey in detail, described with ancient Greek and American Indian symbolism. It concludes with a long peroration of the value of wilderness -- of land not controlled or under the disposition of people. Thoreau observes that "the country is virtually unmapped and unexplored, and there still waves the virgin forest of the New World." The "Chesuncook" essay includes a vivid description of the stalking and killing of a moose and Thoreau's resultant sense of discomfort. It closes with a call for the creation of national preserves for wilderness. The final essay describes a broad spectrum of adventures and places on a day-to-day basis. There are many passages that describe Thoreau's Indian guide, Joe Polis. Although Thoreau was deeply fascinated with the Indian heritage of Maine, some of his treatment of Polis will sound stereotyped to modern readers.

Thoreau's book was the first in a long line of American works devoted to nature. But I was reminded most of the Beat writers in some of their moments, of Jack Kerouac, (a native of Lowell, Massachusetts) in "The Dharma Bums" describing rucksacking and the climbing of a mountain and of the poetry of Gary Snyder.

This book is about the need to leave the beaten path and follow one's star. There are some fine websites in which the interested reader can get more information about the places Thoreau visited. [...]

Robin Friedman