The Maine Woods

by Henry David Thoreau

Qui décrira la douceur indicible et la vie immortelle de cette austère forêt, où la Nature, même au coeur de l'hiver, est toujours à son printemps, où les arbres couverts de mousse et en état de décomposition ne sont pas vieux mais semblent dotés d'une jeunesse éternelle : et la Nature bienheureuse et innocente, tel un enfant serein, est trop contente pour faire du bruit, à l'exception du gazouillement des oiseaux et du clapotis des ruisseaux ? Quel endroit pour vivre, pour mourir et y être enterré ! H.D. Thoreau

Genres: Nature, Nonfiction, Classics, Philosophy, Travel, Memoir, Literature

423 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1864

About the author

Henry 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...

Reviews

[Paul Haspel · Rating 5 out of 5]

The Maine woodlands of the Pine Tree State’s far north are not particularly easy to visit, even today; and they were considerably more difficult to access when Henry David Thoreau made three separate voyages, between 1846 and 1857, into the remote woodlands north of Bangor. And anyone who loves the wild beauty of Maine will be grateful that Thoreau made those three Maine journeys, because he set down his impressions with a characteristic combination of scientific thoroughness and poetic sensibility in a book that was published in 1864 – two years after Thoreau’s untimely death – as The Maine Woods.

Thoreau is known, even among relatively casual students of American literature, as a fearlessly individualistic thinker and writer. His refusal to pay a Massachusetts poll tax, on grounds that the tax money would be spent to finance an immoral war with Mexico, resulted in a brief period of incarceration for Thoreau, and helped prompt the writing of Resistance to Civil Government or Civil Disobedience (1849), with its famous declaration that “Under a government that imprisons any unjustly, the only place for a just man is also a prison.” And his observation that “The mass of men lead lives of quite desperation” led him to forsake human society, live alone for two years in a cabin next to then-remote Walden Pond, and engage in the observations of wild nature and reflections on human society that would one day become Walden; or, Life in the Woods (1854), one of the most important books ever written by an American.

As in Walden, so in The Maine Woods, Thoreau begins with painstaking observation of nature, and of the people around him, and uses those observations as the basis for incisive conclusions regarding human nature and human society.

The first of the three essays is titled “Ktaadn.” Appalachian Trail hikers who have enjoyed beginning or ending their A.T. adventure at what we now call Mount Katahdin – the northern terminus of the Trail – will quickly get used to Thoreau’s anomalous spelling of the mountain’s name. And as Mount Katahdin is the highest point of land in the State of Maine (5269 feet, or 1606 metres), readers who have ascended the mountain will not be surprised to know that Katahdin’s name “is an Indian word signifying ‘highest land’” (p. 3).

Thoreau and his companions had to use logging roads for part of their journey, and Thoreau did not like what he had seen, in empty lumber camps, of the work the lumbermen had done: “The mission of men there seems to be, like so many busy demons, to drive the forest out of all the country, from every solitary beaver swamp, and mountainside, as soon as possible” (p. 3). Thoreau builds upon the observations he had made in earlier works regarding the malign influence of society, writing that “This was what you might call a brand new country; the only roads were of Nature’s making, and the few houses were camps. Here, then, one could no longer accuse institutions and society, but must front the true source of evil” (pp. 8-9).

Here, we see a refinement of the Transcendentalist thinking with which writers like Thoreau and Ralph Waldo Emerson are often associated. It has become almost a truism among literary historians and critics to say that Transcendentalists believed that human beings are basically good, and that the corrupting, conformist influence of social institutions like political parties and churches can lead human beings toward wrongdoing. Yet in these passages from The Maine Woods, Thoreau seems to be suggesting that the thoughtful reader cannot settle for blaming “society” every time human beings do something bad. Society may have a corrupting influence, but the individual human being must choose whether or not to be corrupted.

Thoreau’s observations in “Ktaadn” are often ironic and humorous. Meeting a man who offers to carry messages to a remote stretch of the Aroostook country into which he is travelling, Thoreau reflects that “I suspect that, if you should go to the end of the world, you would find somebody there going further, as if just starting for home at sundown, and having a last word before he drove off” (p. 7). Shortly afterward, Thoreau suggests that “the deeper you penetrate into the woods, the more intelligent and, in one sense, less countrified do you find the inhabitants; for always the pioneer has been a traveller, and, to some extent, a man of the world; and, as the distances with which he is familiar are greater, so is his information more general and far-reaching than the villager’s” (p. 11).

Thoreau was always a careful student of that about which he wrote. He invokes the Abenaki bird spirit Pamola when writing about those who want to “conquer” mountains like Katahdin:

The tops of mountains are among the unfinished parts of the globe, whither it is a slight insult to the gods to climb and pry into their secrets, and try their effect on our humanity. Only daring and insolent men, perchance, go there. Simple races, as savages, do not climb mountains – their tops are sacred and mysterious tracts never visited by them. Pomola is always angry with those who climb to the summit of Ktaadn. (p. 30)

Quickly, “Ktaadn” moves toward a characteristically Thoreauvian setting-forth of the Transcendentalist idea that through isolation and contemplation, one can get in touch with the best of oneself. He writes at one point, from amidst the isolation of the Maine woods around Mount Katahdin, that “It is difficult to conceive of a region uninhabited by man. We habitually presume his presence and influence everywhere. And yet we have not seen pure Nature, unless we have seen her thus vast, and drear, and inhuman, though in the midst of cities. Nature was here something savage and awful, though beautiful” (p. 33).

In the second and shortest essay, “Chesuncook,” Thoreau recounts a moose-hunting expedition. After a moose is killed, he is deeply saddened: “The afternoon’s tragedy, and my share in it, had affected the innocence, destroyed the pleasure of my adventure” (p. 55). He sounds downright modern when he states that “this hunting of the moose merely for the satisfaction of killing him – not even for the sake of his hide – without making any extraordinary exertion or running any risk yourself, is too much like going out by night to some woodside pasture and shooting your neighbor’s horses” (p. 55). He follows up these reflections by writing that “Every creature is better alive than dead, men and moose and pine-trees, and he who understands it aright will rather preserve its life than destroy it” (p. 56). Thoreau’s humane sensibilities make his work forever contemporary and ever relevant.

“The Allegash and East Branch,” the last and longest of the Maine Woods essays, gives Thoreau the chance once again to invoke the Indigenous folklore of the Maine woods:

While we were crossing this bay, where Mount Kineo rose dark before us, within two or three miles, the Indian repeated the tradition respecting this mountain having anciently been a cow moose – how a mighty Indian hunter, whose name I forget, succeeded in killing this queen of the moose tribe with great difficulty, while her calf was killed somewhere among the islands in Penobscot Bay, and, to his eyes, this mountain had still the form of the moose in a reclining posture, its precipitous side presenting the outline of her head. (p. 79)

The Maine woods are not always idyllic. The logging roads can make for rough going for even the hardiest travellers: Thoreau remarks acerbically that “Making a logging-road in the Maine woods is called ‘swamping it,’ and they who do the work are called ‘swampers.’ I now perceived the fitness of the term. This was the most perfectly swamped of all the roads I ever saw. Nature must have co-operated with art here” (p. 100). Negotiating the rapids, or portaging around them, is always strenuous and often dangerous. And the insects, in those pre-spraying days, could clearly be an affliction: mosquitoes, black flies, moose-flies, and midges all inflict their own peculiar brand of torment.

But then there are those moments of sheer wilderness beauty that still draw tens of millions of tourist visitors to Maine, each and every year. Anyone who has spent time by a Maine pond or lake, and has heard the night-time calls of a loon, will appreciate Thoreau’s description of hearing the loon’s haunting cry: “In the middle of the night, as indeed each time that we lay on the shore of a lake, we heard the voice of the loon, loud and distinct, from far over the lake. It is a very wild sound, quite in keeping with the place and the circumstances of the traveller, and very unlike the voice of a bird. I could lie awake for hours listening to it, it is so thrilling” (p. 102).

In the loon’s call, which Thoreau describes as being “like the hallooing of a man on a very high key, having thrown his voice into his head”, Thoreau finds that he feels “affinity to the loon; as if its language were but a dialect of my own, after all. Formerly, when lying awake at midnight in those woods, I had listened to hear some words or syllables of their language, but it chanced that I listened in vain until I heard the cry of the loon” (p. 103). It is a profoundly Transcendentalist moment, in the best sense of the term.

Thoreau contrasts those moments of transcendence with the money-grubbing mindset that he sees at work in the society around him: “The Anglo-American can indeed cut down and grub up all this waving forest, and make a stump speech, and vote for [James] Buchanan on its ruins, but he cannot converse with the spirit of the tree he fells, he cannot read the poetry and mythology which retire as he advances” (p. 103). Thoreau’s contempt for the mindset that “ignorantly erases mythological tablets in order to print his handbills and town-meeting warrants on them”, that “coins a pine-tree shilling, as if to signify the pine’s value to him” (p. 103), is palpable.

The Maine Woods is a recommended book in many Maine travel guides, and after reading this book, during a summer trip to a cabin on Penobscot Bay, I can understand why. Thoreau captures so well the feeling of adventure, of a joyous kind of solitude among nature’s beauty, that Maine offered then and still offers now:

[T]here is no sauntering off to see the country, and ten or fifteen rods seems a great way from your companions, and you come back with the air of a much travelled man, as from a long journey, with adventures to relate, though you may have heard the crackling of the fire all the while – and at a hundred rods you might be lost past recovery, and have to camp out. It is all mossy and moosey. In some of those dense fir and spruce woods there is hardly room for the smoke to go up. The trees are a standing night, and every fir and spruce which you fell is a plume plucked from night’s raven wing. Then at night the general stillness is more impressive than any sound, but occasionally you hear the note of an owl farther or nearer in the woods, and if near a lake, the semi-human cry of the loons at their unearthly revels. (p. 126)

Thoreau, who is nothing if not thorough, follows his three Maine Woods essays with a series of Appendices listing northern Maine’s trees, flowers, shrubs, birds, and mammals. He provides a list of words from the languages of the Indigenous nations of Maine, and even a complete “Outfit for an Excursion” in case you want to emulate one of Thoreau’s journeys. The Maine Woods is a marvelous book – one of the best travel narratives that I have ever read.

[Chris J · Rating 3 out of 5]

What is this book? - The Maine Woods is a spliced together, montage of three different canoe/hiking trips that Thoreau and various others took during the 1850s. These expeditions were entirely inland, through vast forests that scant white men had yet seen. From what I have read, editing this collection of writings is what occupied Thoreau during the last years of his life (he died in 1862).

Why did I read this book? - I read this book chiefly because of an upcoming trip to Maine (although not to its 'woods'). I have read Walden a couple times (though it being probably 20 years or more now) and knew I enjoyed his combination of a naturalist's eye with a philosophical bent. I find it bewilderingly difficult to find good regional descriptions or histories, so I figured The Maine Woods would probably be as good as anything I could hope to find before my trip.

Thoughts: There is nothing magical about this book. It is not a masterpiece of any genre, nor would I even encourage anyone to read it. However, I am glad I read it for several reasons. The fact that it exists is interesting in its own right. It is difficult in our day to fully grasp the effort it would have taken to perform the expeditions Thoreau took in 1850. Few non-Indians had ever seen a landscape such as this and fewer had the fortitude and perseverance to go where he went and do what he did. Hiking Mt. Katahdin is one thing. Hiking it when there is no trail, much less a trail map, is another. Fortnights on a canoe is one thing, but fortnights in a canoe with no Cliff bars, no sleeping bag, no tent to speak of, and no repellent, well, that's another.

The book does have some memorable philosophical moments, but not as many as I had hoped. His descriptions are interesting and kept my attention. His knowledge of nature was more than impressive and is yet another sad reminder to me of the lore lost in our age.

[David Lentz · Rating 5 out of 5]

As a child, I vacationed on the lakes of Maine. I spent fours years there in college. I skied Sugarloaf and Squaw Mountain, the latter once with a wind chill of 28 below zero. In my youth I climbed Mt. Katahdin. I have caught-and-released salmon in Moosehead Lake in the shadow of Mt. Kineo. And traveled nearly the entire length of the Maine coast. This summer I drove through the woods of northern Maine on the way to Prince Edward Island in Canada for a brief visit. But the best way to see the heart of Maine, her woods, is with Thoreau and his companions as guides in "Maine Woods." I still remember well climbing Mt. Katahdin years ago and passing through Thoreau Springs on the trail to the summit. I wondered then, as now, what the woods were like in Thoreau's time. The answer is that they were an American Eden. As I grew up nearby Concord and have also read "Walden," there are themes there which also show up in "Maine Woods." One of those themes is "self-reliance", which was so admirably preached by Emerson and Thoreau in their transcendental vision. With a Native-American guide, without whom Thoreau may not have survived his time in the woods, we find the epitome of such self-reliance. "He carried no change of clothing, but putting on a stout, thick jacket, which he laid aside in the canoe, and seizing a full-sized axe, his gun and ammunition, and a blanket, which would do for a sail or a knapsack, if wanted, and strapping on his belt, which contained a large sheath knife, he walked off at once, ready to be gone all summer. This looked very independent." During Thoreau's visits to the Maine woods he would, at times, travel 60 miles from the nearest home. They traveled by canoe up pure lakes like Moosehead which is 40 miles long and down the rapids of wilderness rivers. They carried their equipment, including their canoe, on foot making frequent passages to avoid waterfalls or connect to new waterways. At every camp they made their own site thusly: "I groped about cutting spruce and arbor-vitae on account of its fragrance, and spread it particularly thick about the shoulders. It is remarkable with what pure satisfaction the traveler in these woods will reach his camping-ground on the eve of a tempestuous night like this, as if he had got to his inn, and, rolling himself in his blanket, stretch himself in his six feet by two feet bed of dripping fir twigs, with a thin sheet of cotton for roof, snug as meadow-mouse in its nest." He halls asleep and revels in the sounds of the woods and the lakes and rivers. "Sitting in that dusky wilderness, under that dark mountain, by the bright river which was full of reflected light, still I heard the wood-thrush sing, as if no higher civilization could be attained." He is critical in "Maine Woods" of the hunters, trappers and loggers who come into the wilderness for profit. In "Walden" he was vociferously critical of the Fitchburg railroad. As to loggers, he writes, "There is a higher law affecting our relation to pines as well as men. A pine cut down, a dead pine, is no more a pine than a dead human carcass is a man...All the pines shudder and heave a sigh when that man steps on the forest floor. No, it is the poet, who loves them as his own shadow in the air, and lets them stand." This reminds me of a quote by Saul Bellow in which he asks what it says about a man's relationship with nature if he will only enter the woods carrying a gun. For Thoreau the Maine Woods are a pure paradise despite the "base and coarse motives" of loggers, fur trappers and hunters. "Strange that so few ever come to the woods to see how the pine lives and grows and spires, lifting its evergreen arms to the light -- to see its perfect success." Thoreau is a man in tune with nature as he makes tea of the needles of certain trees. He eats abundant raspberries and blueberries. He dines on trout caught in lake and stream. But he only takes what he needs to survive and advises that "there are certain transcendentia in every creature, which are the indelible character of God." Thoreau sees his creator everywhere in the Maine woods: in the bald eagles, towering white pines, mountains, black bears and moose, the "muttering of thunder" and the abundance of plants that reside there as he is the penultimate botanist of this American Eden. He can foresee a time when man will irrevocably change the character of the garden by his intrusion. "But Maine, perhaps, will soon be where Massachusetts is." By that he means that man is grubbing up and poaching his own domain. He writes of a solitary man who lived by a dam who spent his time "tossing a bullet from one hand to the other, for want of employment... This sort of tit-for-tat between his two hands, bandying to and fro a leaden subject, seems to have been his symbol for society." The Native-American can tell by the length of the main branches of a spruce tree which direction is south: it's where the largest branches point. He can find his way through the wilderness like a New Yorker in Manhattan. This great book is a remarkably experienced and vividly written accounting of an American Eden. Thoreau came to Maine three times and returned each time to the lovely village Concord, which he seemed to view as East of Eden. Based on what I saw on the road to New Brunswick and PEI through the great Maine woods, it is reassuring to find so much American wilderness, changed thought it was, awaiting those who would cherish the beauty of the land. I heartily encourage you to read this great book by an American naturalist, botanist and poet. His pure poetic reverence for the beauty of the Maine woods will take your breath away.

[Kremena Koleva · Rating 5 out of 5]

Когато се сдобия с книга на Хенри Дейвид Торо, аз се изгубвам в нея. В опияняващото описание на местата, в релаксиращата среща с природата и с отрезвяващия поглед към човешката намеса и променящото й въздействие.
* " " Така именно човек следва да живее живота си, на предела, оттатък който е дивата природа ... "

Хенри Дейвид Торо ми е близък по възгледи, по избор на начина на живот и по отношението към заобикалящата го реалност. Когато го срещнах като герой в книгата на Amy Belding Brown Mr. Emerson's Wife, още повече ме привлече личността му.
В " Мейнските гори " се изгубих близо месец. Както и в " Кейп Код " сюжетът е пътуване, разузнаване, наблюдение и възприемане на мястото с географската му и природна даденост. Аз обичам горите, реките и водопадите! И при четенето на " Мейнските гори " имах удоволствието да бъда " заобиколена " от природата на Нова Англия от 1864 година. Още тогава Торо вижда дейността на човека в оцелелите през хилядолетията гори, ручеи, потоци, скали и животински свят, но вече подложени на сеч, на преграждане, на изтребление, опожаряване и на някакво подобие на облагородяване. Такава промяна, че в днешно време вече трудно може да си представим дивото, чисто , тихо и величествено място в Мейн.

* " Журналистите смятат , че няма кой знае какво да кажат за тъй наречените " подобрения " в селското стопанство ; минават за нещо очевидно, както набожността ; ... Да изкараш два стръка трева там, където преди е расъл един, не е свръхчовешко постижение. "

Торо е любител на живота извън забързаността, графика и задължителното общуване в обществото. Той е критик на човешките страсти и изкуствено създадените потребности на живота.

* " За да пропусне светлината да пада връз земята тъй както пада връз езерната повърхност, човекът изсича горите от хълмовете и равнините и като същински маг хвърля отгоре им ситни тревни семена, покривайки така земята със здрав тревен килим. "

Авторът среща хора от местните индиански племена, опитващи се да живеят както винаги са го правили - от природата и от собствената си способност да ловуват. Но белият човек променя все повече и това. Дори толкова далеч на север, на границата с Канада и толкова дълбоко в Мейнските гори промяната в обстоятелствата се усеща. Торо разговаря с индианците, които са негови водачи в това му пътуване в територията на Мейн и с онези, които среща в поселища като ловци там. Учи се от тях на миналото и си задава въпроси за бъдещето.
Откровената мъдрост на Торо е гравирана в сърцето ми. С цялото си познание по ботаниката, земемерие, орнитология, зоология и ихтиология , неговите литературни умения и философско мислене, Торо превръща книгите си в освежаващо и отварящо широко очите на читателя преживяване на друго ниво. Дава възможност да видим какво правим с природата около себе си.
И при това " Мейнските гори " са писани далеч далеч преди крясъците и напъните на медийни природолюбители и еколози да изпълват ушите ни с напразен шум. А след него нарочното опожаряване и изсичане на гори продължава, изхвърлянето на отпадъци в реки и морета е пандемично опасно и индустриализацията унищожава чистия ни въздух. Торо стои далеч от хората , но наблюденията му са честни както тогава , през 1864 - та година, така и в 21 - ви век. А сигурно ще са биеща камбана и във вековете напред. Но за ушите на глухите никоя аларма няма да е достатъчно предупреждение. Човекът си обича да променя природата и ще продължи дотогава, докато от нея не остане нищо! За да започне да имитира зелена природа в задния си двор с райграс, изкуствени езерца и водопади , поддържани чрез соларни помпи...

[robin friedman · Rating 5 out of 5]

With Thoreau In The Maine Woods

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 despoliation. 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

[Heidi'sbooks · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book is boring in the most delightful way! Thoreau takes 3 trips into the Maine Wilderness in the 1850's. The book is part travelogue, part scientific documentary, part historical record. You could study this book over and over to learn more about the flora and fauna at that time in Maine. He documents the flowers and plants and trees by their Latin scientific names. It's most like a research trip with specimens gathered. On the first trip he heads to Katahdin Mountain, the second trip he goes to Moosehead Lake, and the third trip he goes to the Allagash River--his furthest trip north.

The trips are described in detail. They slept on arbor vitae, ate pork and hard bread, picked blueberries and mountain cranberries, hunted moose, and fished, etc. On one occasion he caught a 3 pound trout in the Penobscot. He describes the boatman in their bateaus, the process of warping up a stream, and details their portage of the supplies. He describes Katahdin Mountain with its rock face and loose rocks, some perpendicular falls. Katahdin is 5,300 ft. high with the most abrupt precipice. The Indians didn't climb the mountain because it was sacred them.

Which brings me to his Indian guides. In the first trip he seems to treat the guide poorly, but by the last trip with his guide Joe Polis, he tries to learn his language and medicinal secrets and wilderness tactics. The benefit of the documentation of the Native American names/language and medicine and ways is extremely valuable for historical purposes. I lived in Maine growing up and didn't know all the tribes he discussed. He talks about the St. Francis Indians, the Abenaki, the Penobscott. Thoreau even stayed in an Indian Wigwam overnight. Thoreau recounts an Indian origin story, and an Indian story of the origin of Mt. Kineo which is the back of a moose. It's incredible what tidbits are in here.

He describes the loggers and how they built dams to float the logs down for sale. They wore the red flannel shirts so hunters wouldn't mistake them in the woods. He really rebukes the hunters who went just to kill. In one place hunters had killed 22 moose in 2 months and left their carcasses on the ground. He was mortified. But most of all he was not a fan of the loggers because they killed the living spirit of the tree which was as immortal as man in Thoreau's view. The timberman admired the dead trunk more than the tree. Thoreau points out that you can't converse with the spirit of a dead tree. He discovers a phosphorescent wood in the dead moosewood and is thrilled.

His trip takes him through swamps and he describes the mosquitos, black flies, no-see-ums (They called them no-see-ums back then too!), and moose flies. He described a homemade paste he put on that consisted of oil, turpentine, peppermint, and camphor to ward off the flies, but the cure was worse than the bite! The woods were so wet like a sponge with moss and swamps, etc. On one occasion he tromped through a swamp all day with mud up over his shoes.

I don't miss the bugs, but I sure do miss the Maine woods.

[Sharon · Rating 2 out of 5]

Thoreau goes on some trips in Maine. I wanted to feel close to nature when reading this book - but actually, I felt sad that Thoreau didn't seem to have much connection with the other people around him. Good book if you want a glimpse of that time in history and some good naturalist's listings. Good book if you want to learn more about Thoreau. Not a good book if you want to feel a sense of adventure and being close to the universe.

[Jim · Rating 4 out of 5]

It's a magnificent journey into the Maine woods. His descriptions of the areas he traveled, the economies & lifestyle were very interesting. The only thing that detracted from this is my dislike of him. He continually borrows what he can't afford with little thought - seems like he feels it is his due. He judges others with an arrogance that is appalling & so offhand. He lacks any empathy towards others. He is fairly intelligent & knowledgeable, but his manner just puts me off.

[Jim · Rating 5 out of 5]

When he book is written about the most important ecologists before our time, pride of place would have to go to Henry David Thoreau. I have just finished reading his The Maine Woods, which describes three trips the author took to the North Woods of Maine in the mid 19th century. How he managed to travel in such primitive conditions (canoeing, portaging) while managing to take detailed notes of the flora and fauna he encountered is amazing to me.

In fact, the latter part of the book is a detailed inventory of the plants and animals he encountered. On the third trip, he was accompanied by a Penobscot Indian named Joe Polis whom Thoreau constantly questioned, asking him for his peoples' names for various places, animals, and plants.

This book was put together after Thoreau's death, but it is still a tribute to his powerful searching mind. The more I read about Thoreau, the higher he rises in my estimation.

[Tom · Rating 4 out of 5]

And odd book at first glance, it appears to be nothing more than a collection of accounts of 3 different trips Thoreau took to wilds of Maine, but in the fact all 3 are unified by T's increasing fascination with the primitive world (something hard to imagine these days, I know) and the "wild," both environmental and psychological. The first section, Ktaadn, is the most well-known, as it describes T's trip to the top of this famous mountain, where T. experiences one of his trademark connections with the sublime wild, but this one is rather more awesome in tone than the celebratory exhiliration of Walden. The next two sections, Chesuncook and Allegash / East Branch focus primarily on the Indian guide for each trip. In what amount to extended character profiles, mixed with much natural history, T. subtly reflects on the changing state of American natives who though still retaining their wilderness skills are also gradually becoming domesticated (corrupted?) by white civilization. While showing off the impressive skills of these guides, T. does not romanticize them at all, showing the quirks and at times annoying traits in their personalities. It's revealing to consider how even in T's day, questions of development and conservation were already becoming important issues.

Also on ample display is T's capacious curiosity for and diligent recording of the natural world. Though these works don't have the sustained lyricism of Walden (what work, by anybody, does?), there are plenty of, may I say, "transcendental" moments of description and reflection that match anything found in Walden. And just when you think that this earnest love of nature is getting to be a bit much, that droll T. sense of humor pops its head offers some quite witty and sardonic asides.

In the end, one can't help but marvel at T's sheer powers of physical and mental endurance. Whereas Emerson experienced the transcendental world mostly through the play of ideas, Thoreau lived it body and soul. Ironically, though, these near heroic feats of exploration also subtly portend what would become a relatively early death for T. at the age of 46 from a form of chronic bronchitis / pneumonia. Such awareness lends a tinge of sadness for the reader. Nonetheless, while T's arduous travels (no Patagonia fleece or gortex rain gear for those folks!)probably contributed to his mortality, they also proved the source of immortality in his words.

I probably would't recommend starting with this work if you've never read T. before, but for the serious Thoreau fan or environmentalist, this is a must read.

[Alan · Rating 5 out of 5]

Having read all of Thoreau over the years, not rushing, I can say that The Maine Woods is my favorite, along with parts--the funny and the elegiac parts--of Cape Cod. Certainly not Walden, a young man's elevated philosophizing, essentially sophomoric in the best sense. Parts of the Journals, yes, very limited parts, for much of the Journals reads like Melville' chapter on cetology, only more Latinate.
The Maine Woods features Abenaki language (I think--not Malasete-Pasamoquoddy) in its precision of place and meaning, the daily laboring life, the migration of workers from New Hampshire, etc etc. It reads like a journal by a great narrator. By the way, Maine has much improved its roadside plaques on lumbering--say, along the Arnold River and maybe one branch of the Dead River. The hard life in the huts, the waiting for the frozen rivers to slide logs far enough so with the thaw they float down the Androoscoggin, into NH to be divied up in Berlin, NH. The pilings are still there, where they were sorted by owners before the mills.
By the way, I would not recommend Theroux ever, so it is only by desperation I refer to this edition.
I'm sure the Library of America edition is adequate, but expensive.

[Hank Stuever · Rating 4 out of 5]

I read "The Maine Woods" while I was in the Maine woods. The key differences being things like Deep Woods Off!, Adirondack chairs, and cocktails while waiting for dinner in the main lodge.

[John · Rating 3 out of 5]

I decided to go ahead and mark this as read, even though I only actually read the "Katahdin" piece. This lives on my phone...I bought this whole Thoreau e-book collection for like a buck on Amazon, and so whenever I am in a place where I am bored but have no data and no other books to read (like a pub in Canada) I can read more Thoreau. So I'll get to the other parts eventually.
Thoreau spelled Katahdin "Ktaadn" because he is just so precious. Seriously, everything else is spelled the way it is currently spelled. I think he just needed the mountain to have a name that looked even more Indian-y and mysterious than it does already. He's like a little puppy. It made me think of how when you read "Moby Dick" the young, excitable Melville really comes across. Thoreau is SO EXCITED to be in the Maine woods. He just cannot get over it. And he interacts with ACTUAL Indians. How can his life get more thrilling? I know I'm making fun of him, but I did enjoy the book, it was just a bit overwrought.
Here's my favorite bit, where he drinks the actual blood of the wilderness:
"Instead of water we got here a draught of beer, which, it was allowed, would be better; clear and thin, but strong and stringent as the cedar sap. It was as if we sucked at the very teats of Nature's pine-clad bosom in these parts - the sap of all Millinocket botany commingled - the topmost, most fantastic, and spiciest sprays of the primitive wood..."
Henry, man...relax.

[Benjamin Stahl · Rating 3 out of 5]

A pleasant account of Thoreau's travels through the wilds of Maine, a state I have long been drawn to, thanks in part to Stephen King. New England in general looks like a stunning part of the world. In real life, of course, it may not be filled with zombies, homicidal toddlers and extra-terrestrial clowns, but I'm sure it is very naturally beautiful, with a rich Native Indian heritage for those who are interested.

[Katherine · Rating 5 out of 5]

Its Thoreau. C'mon.

[Mike Delpha · Rating 4 out of 5]

A very descriptive book about Thoreau’s journeys to remote northern Maine in the 1850’s traveling mostly by canoe. It certainly isn’t a page turner, but very interesting insight and observations about the flora, fauna, wildlife, geography and the people from that heavily forested, insect infested time and place.

[Pam · Rating 3 out of 5]

A mix of dry slogging endlessness with moments of clarity and humor all surrounded by the Latin names for every damn thing that exists in the Maine wilderness. Am I glad I read it? Absolutely. Would I do it again? Not a chance.

[Judith · Rating 5 out of 5]

On a rainy day, I enjoy going to the Maine woods with Thoreau. Here is a concise, tightly written work, where there is humor, sadness, and joy, communicated by a powerful mind. Mostly I enjoy the sparse language of the description of woods, waterways, and all that lives there, but the tinge of sadness comes when he describes the abuse of the natural resources already taking place in the 1860's.
He had a deep concern for the environment at a time when the country's natural resources seemed unlimited. I find that prophetic.

[Cam Netland · Rating 5 out of 5]

So many thoughts on this book.
Here’s how it figured in the end for me.

Part One: A supercharged forage into the unknown to discover if the sublime still exists in American wilderness. Turns out, it does! Huzzah! Excellent read.

Part Two: Turns out people are encroaching upon the sublime, oh no! Thoreau shares some thoughts on how to ethically hunt moose and cut down pines. Reading was enjoyable, a bit morose, but the thought provoking conservationist ending salvaged the slightly tedious falling action.

Part Three: My favorite part of the book, it’s a brilliant fusion of the first two adventures. The excitement is drawn from Thoreau’s contest with his Indian guide Joe Polis, in the form of stories, disagreements, and mutual learning. The two men are bound together in a series of exciting episodes involving moose hunting, losing their other party member, and navigating rapids. In the process, each animatedly displays their distinct cultural differences against the vast wilderness. The thick and dense Maine wilderness intertwines them into a comical and productive imbroglio that jointly suffer mosquito swarms, difficult portages, and violent storms. They even discuss contemporary figureheads such as Daniel Webster (who apparently wasn’t very impressive to Joe). Lastly, I was struck with a brilliant and oracular display of the missed encounter with the Other. When the longest journey in the wilderness ends, after so much adventure and learning, Thoreau departs from his guide in a perfunctory and unresolved manner, leaving the significance of his journey with Joe widely open for interpretation. Chills inducing.
Highly recommended.

[Lauren · Rating 4 out of 5]

Henry David Thoreau is my favorite American author, and lately I've been trying to read some of his lesser-known works. "The Maine Woods" is one of these, and I immensely enjoyed it. It’s not a perfect book by any means, however, and I should note that there are problematic aspects with some of Thoreau’s descriptions of Native Americans. He seems to be naively drawn into the simplistic stereotype (which is sometimes known as “the Noble Savage” stereotype) that Native Americans are somehow naturally attuned to nature in a way that others are not, and that therefore they are less complex and “purer” than Western civilizations. I think it's important to critique Thoreau's portrayal of Native Americans for its sometimes-questionable aspects, but also to recall that of course he was human, and no human is perfect. I will give Thoreau some credit and say that his view of Native Americans was certainly more progressive than those of many of his contemporaries; he is genuinely interested in understanding their culture and endeavors throughout the book to learn the Penobscot language from his guide, Joseph Polis.

While not quite on the same morally and philosophically-powerful level as "Walden" or "Civil Disobedience," “The Maine Woods” is certainly worth the reader's time. In many ways, it is Thoreau's account of his travels during three separate trips to the Maine wilderness in 1846, '53, and '57. However, because Thoreau is one of the great writers in American history, "The Maine Woods" is not merely an entertaining adventure narrative.

One of the reasons that I enjoy Thoreau's writing so much is because of his incredible ability to describe nature in gorgeous detail that also holds emotional power. "The Maine Woods," like "Walden," is full of stunning description. Reading this book in a way transports the reader to the New England forests of the nineteenth century. I don't know that I've ever encountered another writer with such a gift for placing the reader right in the natural scene and simultaneously making him or her consider deep philosophical concepts. One of the passages that stood out to me was this one, in which Thoreau describes the summit of Mount Ktaadn: “The mountain seemed a vast aggregation of loose rocks, as if some time it had rained rocks, and they lay as they fell on the mountain sides... They were the raw materials of a planet dropped from an unseen quarry, which the vast chemistry of nature would anon work up, or work down, into the smiling and verdant plains and valleys of earth”.

“The Maine Woods” also contains powerful reflections on the relationship of humans to nature, and the need for preservation . In one of my favorite quotes from the book, Thoreau writes that it is “strange that so few come to the woods to see how the pine lives and grows and spires, lifting its evergreen arms to the light,-- to see its perfect success; but most are content to behold it in the shape of many broad boards brought to market, and deem that its true success! … There is a higher law affecting our relation to pines as well as to men… Every creature is better alive than dead, men and moose and pine-trees, and he who understands it aright will rather preserve its life than destroy it… when at length I saw the tops of the pines waving and reflecting the light at a distance high over all the rest of the forest, I realized that the former were not the highest use of the pine. It is not the bones or hide or tallow that I love most. It is the living spirit of the tree” (56).

Finally, while reading “The Maine Woods,” I also observed the more scientific side of Thoreau. He often writes at length about the varieties of plants he finds growing in the Maine woods, listing all the Latin names and cataloguing them. The two sides of Thoreau in this regard are fascinating to me. In one regard, he is a surveyor and naturalist, closely observing the environment, yet at the same time he allows himself to merely feel the power and experience the beauty of being in nature, without needing to understand every fact.

In his essay, “Sounding Walden Pond: The Depths and ‘Double Shadows’ of Thoreau’s Autobiographical Symbol,” Markus Poetzch writes about this in relation to Thoreau’s undertaking to sound the depth of Walden Pond. Poetzch writes that “if Thoreau were nothing more than a hard-nosed naturalist, his definition of reality might be…reduced…to measurements of feet”, however, “there is a depth to Walden Pond that is not traceable in feet or inches…he…draws solace from this apparently unreasonable resistance to the truth of his plumb line”.

I encountered a passage in “The Maine Woods” along a similar theme. In it, Thoreau recounts his first time seeing the phosphorescent glow of decaying wood in the forest at night. He writes that “I was in the frame of mind to see something wonderful, and this was a phenomenon adequate to my circumstances and expectations… I let science slide, and rejoiced in that light as though it had been a fellow-creature… A scientific explanation, as it is called, would have been altogether out of place there. That is for pale daylight… It suggested to me that there was something to be seen if one had eyes. It made a believer of me more than before. I believed that the woods were not tenantless, but choke-full of honest spirits as good as myself any day—not an empty chamber, in which chemistry was left to work alone, but an inhabited house,-- and for a few moments I enjoyed fellowship with them” (83). I especially enjoyed this passage because it reminded me of Thoreau’s mapping Walden Pond and his understanding that some dimensions can never be measured empirically. This does not mean that he does not do so, but that he believes there is more to the pond—- and to his experience with the glowing wood—- than facts and measurements could ever uncover. I respect Thoreau immensely for his ability to see both the science and the awe-inspiring beauty of nature. Though he understands the scientific aspects of nature, Thoreau takes comfort in the fact that, spiritually, some parts will always elude him.

[Cassie · Rating 4 out of 5]

While I greatly enjoyed this first hand look at Maine's history, I wasn't prepared to fully appreciate this work for what it is. THe Maine Woods is a collective thoughts recording of several of Thoreau's adventures in Maine. Though it is sprinkled with some poetic thoughts it is by no means a cohesive narrative, and it is my own failing for not being as comfortable out of the familar structure of one.

One aspect I enjoyed and found surprising was Thoreau's interactions and thoughts on the native population. There was also one observation about those residing in exceptionally rural places and who operated what amounted to trade outposts and the perspective of what we perceive as culture that stuck with me. Four stars because I recognize the quality and significance, but a three, three 1/2 personal experience.

[Annette]

Just fabulous! -- And it's headed back to the Book Nook, ready to be packed up for the AAUW book sale, opening in Brevard, NC, on Saturday, June 16th!

I had forgotten what a sense of humor Thoreau had, and I found myself chuckling often and sometimes even laughing out loud. For instance, before starting out for "Ktaadn," they found Greenleaf's Map of Maine on the wall of a public house and, "in good faith, traced what we afterwards ascertained to be a labyrinth of errors."

Great tales of camping, orienteering, an amazing Indian guide named Joe, and so many wonderful adventures. Also very impressive recollections of all the flora along the way.

Beautiful book!

[Adrienne Fike · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is what life was like before Google Reviews, TripAdvisor, or even photography. This is a *literal* play-by-play travel journal of three separate ventures into the largely uninhabited woods of Maine in the 1850s. It’s well-written and descriptive, but gets repetitive and is quite racist.

You know how they say a picture is worth 1000 words? Well, this book has no pictures, but with over 100,000 words…a few thousand of those FOR SURE could have been pictures.

[Anton Frommelt · Rating 4 out of 5]

Beautiful descriptions of a natural world that has essentially been lost with the development of the country. The most intriguing bits for me were reading about Thoreau's journeys with Native Americans; they were mentally, physically, and spiritually more in touch with nature than perhaps any other culture in history. The stories of the Maine woods will make you want to hike and make you sad that you cannot join Thoreau in his explorations.

[Josh Davidson · Rating 4 out of 5]

Only read first piece, may go back and read others. I had hiked Katahdin three times, so the first piece was what I was interested in. I loved every page, but could see how it could be too slow or boring. There wasn't a lot of poetic interludes, mostly a factual retelling on the journey upriver and then up mountain.

[Erica A · Rating 2 out of 5]

Libro scelto con un gruppo di lettura, decisamente non il mio genere letterario o semplicemente non mi è piaciuto Thoreau. Ho invece trovato molto interessante la sezione in chiusura a cura di Franco Meli.

[Dillon · Rating 5 out of 5]

Interesting read, learning about what the Maine Woods use to look like back in the 1800's!

[Peggy Page · Rating 4 out of 5]

Charming! Thoreau gives a vividly detailed description of his three trips in the wild and barely settled north woods of Maine, and we go with him every step of the way.

[Colleen Crayton · Rating 4 out of 5]

There's not a lot that drives plot in this book, it's more of a journal. It's a soothing read that was honestly meditative for me. One that might be enjoyable for nature/hiking enthusiasts.

[Saara Karjalainen · Rating 2 out of 5]

Odotin enemmän pohdiskelua ihmisen ja luonnon välisestä suhteesta. Koska kirja keskittyi tosi suurelta osin Thoreaun matkojen yksityiskohtaiseen kuvaamiseen pohdiskelevan ajattelun sijaan, se oli mielestäni vähän tylsä. Ehkä englanninkielinen versio olisi tuonut yhden tähden lisää.