What do you think?
Rate this book
Thoreau on Cape Cod: His Journeys and the Lost Maps
Henry David Thoreau's journals and histories of Cape Cod. Accompanying maps.
235 pages, Hardcover
Published January 1, 2010
1 person is currently reading
20 people want to read
About the author
Henry David Thoreau
2,341 books6,690 followersHenry David Thoreau (born David Henry Thoreau) was an American author, naturalist, transcendentalist, tax resister, development critic, philosopher, and abolitionist who is best known for Walden, a reflection upon simple living in natural surroundings, and his essay, Civil Disobedience, an argument for individual resistance to civil government in moral opposition to an unjust state.
Thoreau's books, articles, essays, journals, and poetry total over 20 volumes. Among his lasting contributions were his writings on natural history and philosophy, where he anticipated the methods and findings of ecology and environmental history, two sources of modern day environmentalism.
In 1817, Henry David Thoreau was born in Massachusetts. He graduated from Harvard University in 1837, taught briefly, then turned to writing and lecturing. Becoming a Transcendentalist and good friend of Emerson, Thoreau lived the life of simplicity he advocated in his writings. His two-year experience in a hut in Walden, on land owned by Emerson, resulted in the classic, Walden: Life in the Woods (1854). During his sojourn there, Thoreau refused to pay a poll tax in protest of slavery and the Mexican war, for which he was jailed overnight. His activist convictions were expressed in the groundbreaking On the Duty of Civil Disobedience (1849). In a diary he noted his disapproval of attempts to convert the Algonquins "from their own superstitions to new ones." In a journal he noted dryly that it is appropriate for a church to be the ugliest building in a village, "because it is the one in which human nature stoops to the lowest and is the most disgraced." (Cited by James A. Haught in 2000 Years of Disbelief.) When Parker Pillsbury sought to talk about religion with Thoreau as he was dying from tuberculosis, Thoreau replied: "One world at a time."
Thoreau's philosophy of nonviolent resistance influenced the political thoughts and actions of such later figures as Leo Tolstoy, Mohandas K. Gandhi, and Martin Luther King, Jr. D. 1862.
More: http://plato.stanford.edu/entries/tho...
http://thoreau.eserver.org/
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Henry_Da...
http://transcendentalism-legacy.tamu....
http://www.biography.com/people/henry...
Thoreau's books, articles, essays, journals, and poetry total over 20 volumes. Among his lasting contributions were his writings on natural history and philosophy, where he anticipated the methods and findings of ecology and environmental history, two sources of modern day environmentalism.
In 1817, Henry David Thoreau was born in Massachusetts. He graduated from Harvard University in 1837, taught briefly, then turned to writing and lecturing. Becoming a Transcendentalist and good friend of Emerson, Thoreau lived the life of simplicity he advocated in his writings. His two-year experience in a hut in Walden, on land owned by Emerson, resulted in the classic, Walden: Life in the Woods (1854). During his sojourn there, Thoreau refused to pay a poll tax in protest of slavery and the Mexican war, for which he was jailed overnight. His activist convictions were expressed in the groundbreaking On the Duty of Civil Disobedience (1849). In a diary he noted his disapproval of attempts to convert the Algonquins "from their own superstitions to new ones." In a journal he noted dryly that it is appropriate for a church to be the ugliest building in a village, "because it is the one in which human nature stoops to the lowest and is the most disgraced." (Cited by James A. Haught in 2000 Years of Disbelief.) When Parker Pillsbury sought to talk about religion with Thoreau as he was dying from tuberculosis, Thoreau replied: "One world at a time."
Thoreau's philosophy of nonviolent resistance influenced the political thoughts and actions of such later figures as Leo Tolstoy, Mohandas K. Gandhi, and Martin Luther King, Jr. D. 1862.
More: http://plato.stanford.edu/entries/tho...
http://thoreau.eserver.org/
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Henry_Da...
http://transcendentalism-legacy.tamu....
http://www.biography.com/people/henry...
Ratings & Reviews
Friends & Following
Create a free account to discover what your friends think of this book!
Community Reviews
Displaying 1 of 1 review
September 22, 2020
When I was in high school my teacher had us read The Night Thoreau Spent in Jail and thus began my lifelong crush on Henry David Thoreau. I was bound to fall for anyone who appreciated solitude as much as Thoreau.
My friends know how much I love the man and so when one of them came across this beautiful book in a used bookstore she bought it for me. (I know, I have the greatest friends ever.)
It really is a beautifully made book which the light blue font, the illustrations, nice wide margins, and the fun facsimile maps. I enjoyed reading it very much.
I saw the no material could withstand the power of the waves...
This book is a compilation of Thoreau's journeys across Cape Cod. I really appreciated that the editor pulled out the "history" sections that go with the maps and put them at the end. It really helped with the flow. The beginning starts of strong with a shipwreck that Thoreau and his traveling companion come across. He had some poignant thoughts about death.
This shipwreck had not produced a visible vibration in the fabric of society...I saw the corpses might be multiplied, as on the field of battle, till they no longer affected us in any degree, as exceptions to the common lot of humanity...It is the individual and private that demands our sympathy.
This felt especially poignant because of what's happening with Covid right now.
...they were within a mile of its shores; but, before they could reach it, they emigrated to a newer world than ever Columbus dreamed of...
Every once in a while HDT will throw out some truly poetic descriptions. I eat those up.
The breakers looked like droves of a thousand wild horse of Neptune, rushing to the shore, with their white manes streaming far behind.
And his delight at the ocean is something I wholeheartedly relate too. I miss the ocean.
All that is told of the sea has a fabulous sound to an inhabitant of the land, and all its products have a certain fabulous quality, as if they belonged to another planet.
...but I have no doubt that one shark in a dozen years is enough to keep up the reputation of a beach a hundred miles long.
The sea, vast and wild as it is, bears thus the waste and wrecks of human art to its remotest shore.
It is remarkable that men do not sail the sea with more expectation. Nothing remarkable was ever accomplished win a prosaic mood.
The sea-shore is a sort of neutral ground, a most advantageous point from which to contemplate this world.
The ocean is a wilderness reaching round the globe...Serpents, bears, hyenas, tigers rapidly vanish as civilization advances, but that most populous and civilized city cannot scare a shark far from its wharves.
I do adore Thoreau, but sometimes I am not always interested in everything he says, therefore I took off one star. My favorite parts in the book are when I'd come across little snippets of humor, as shown in the examples below.
They passed a town set upon by crows and blackbirds. The town had passed an order that every man would kill six blackbirds or three crows while he was single. If he didn't follow the order he wouldn't be allowed to marry until he did. HDT observed, The blackbirds, however, still molest the corn...From which I concluded, that either many men were not married, or many blackbirds were.
Thoreau describes the lovely idea of Charity-Houses, though he doesn't know if they actually helped anyone. The point of them was that people shipwrecked would have a shanty to stay in on the beach. The idea being that the locals would keep them stocked and ready. Thoreau and his companion came upon one and wanted to see what it was like, but it was locked. ...knowing that, though to him that knocketh it may not always be opened, yet to him that looketh long enough through a knot-hole the inside shall be visible...
They met a jolly old man who regaled them with stories. This was the merriest old man that we had ever seen, and one of the best preserved.
One of my favorite little anecdotes was about how a bank was robbed by two men around the time Thoreau and his companion were traveling. They were definitely suspect in the crime.
I really did enjoy reading this book. It was relaxing and easy. Thank you to my friend for this awesome gift!
But that is not treasure for us which another man has lost; rather it is for us to seek what no other man has found or can find.
My friends know how much I love the man and so when one of them came across this beautiful book in a used bookstore she bought it for me. (I know, I have the greatest friends ever.)
It really is a beautifully made book which the light blue font, the illustrations, nice wide margins, and the fun facsimile maps. I enjoyed reading it very much.
I saw the no material could withstand the power of the waves...
This book is a compilation of Thoreau's journeys across Cape Cod. I really appreciated that the editor pulled out the "history" sections that go with the maps and put them at the end. It really helped with the flow. The beginning starts of strong with a shipwreck that Thoreau and his traveling companion come across. He had some poignant thoughts about death.
This shipwreck had not produced a visible vibration in the fabric of society...I saw the corpses might be multiplied, as on the field of battle, till they no longer affected us in any degree, as exceptions to the common lot of humanity...It is the individual and private that demands our sympathy.
This felt especially poignant because of what's happening with Covid right now.
...they were within a mile of its shores; but, before they could reach it, they emigrated to a newer world than ever Columbus dreamed of...
Every once in a while HDT will throw out some truly poetic descriptions. I eat those up.
The breakers looked like droves of a thousand wild horse of Neptune, rushing to the shore, with their white manes streaming far behind.
And his delight at the ocean is something I wholeheartedly relate too. I miss the ocean.
All that is told of the sea has a fabulous sound to an inhabitant of the land, and all its products have a certain fabulous quality, as if they belonged to another planet.
...but I have no doubt that one shark in a dozen years is enough to keep up the reputation of a beach a hundred miles long.
The sea, vast and wild as it is, bears thus the waste and wrecks of human art to its remotest shore.
It is remarkable that men do not sail the sea with more expectation. Nothing remarkable was ever accomplished win a prosaic mood.
The sea-shore is a sort of neutral ground, a most advantageous point from which to contemplate this world.
The ocean is a wilderness reaching round the globe...Serpents, bears, hyenas, tigers rapidly vanish as civilization advances, but that most populous and civilized city cannot scare a shark far from its wharves.
I do adore Thoreau, but sometimes I am not always interested in everything he says, therefore I took off one star. My favorite parts in the book are when I'd come across little snippets of humor, as shown in the examples below.
They passed a town set upon by crows and blackbirds. The town had passed an order that every man would kill six blackbirds or three crows while he was single. If he didn't follow the order he wouldn't be allowed to marry until he did. HDT observed, The blackbirds, however, still molest the corn...From which I concluded, that either many men were not married, or many blackbirds were.
Thoreau describes the lovely idea of Charity-Houses, though he doesn't know if they actually helped anyone. The point of them was that people shipwrecked would have a shanty to stay in on the beach. The idea being that the locals would keep them stocked and ready. Thoreau and his companion came upon one and wanted to see what it was like, but it was locked. ...knowing that, though to him that knocketh it may not always be opened, yet to him that looketh long enough through a knot-hole the inside shall be visible...
They met a jolly old man who regaled them with stories. This was the merriest old man that we had ever seen, and one of the best preserved.
One of my favorite little anecdotes was about how a bank was robbed by two men around the time Thoreau and his companion were traveling. They were definitely suspect in the crime.
I really did enjoy reading this book. It was relaxing and easy. Thank you to my friend for this awesome gift!
But that is not treasure for us which another man has lost; rather it is for us to seek what no other man has found or can find.
Displaying 1 of 1 review