Thoreau's Wildflowers

by Henry David Thoreau, Barry Moser (Illustrator), Geoff Wisner (Editor)

Some of Henry David Thoreau’s most beautiful nature writing was inspired by the flowering trees and plants of Concord. An inveterate year-round rambler and journal keeper, he faithfully recorded, dated, and described his sightings of the floating water lily, the elusive wild azalea, and the late autumn foliage of the scarlet oak.
 
This inviting selection of Thoreau’s best flower writings is arranged by day of the year and accompanied by Thoreau’s philosophical speculations and his observations of the weather and of other plants and animals. They illuminate the author’s spirituality, his belief in nature’s correspondence with the human soul, and his sense that anticipation—of spring, of flowers yet to bloom—renews our connection with the earth and with immortality.
 
Thoreau’s Wildflowers features more than 200 of the black-and-white drawings originally created by Barry Moser for his first illustrated book, Flowering Plants of Massachusetts. This volume also presents “Thoreau as Botanist,” an essay by Ray Angelo, the leading authority on the flowering plants of Concord.

Genres: Nature

345 pages, Kindle Edition

First published March 22, 2016

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

[Christopher · Rating 5 out of 5]

These selections from Thoreau's journals are arranged by day of the year, starting with early March, and so I read them over the course of a year, reading almost every day only the entries for that day. It's a wonderful trip through the seasons with Thoreau the naturalist sharing his observations of wildflowers and plants. Illustrated with beautiful drawings by Barry Moser.

[GONZA · Rating 3 out of 5]

I have never considered Henry David Thoreau as a botanist, but as it seems, he was one, and very good indeed. Anyway if you are not in love with him and/or botanic, this book can be a little bit boring, or maybe, you can considered it a well written plant based version of the Darwin's journey on the Beetle.

Non ho mai pensato che Henry David Thoreau fosse un botanico, ma mi sbagliavo, perché a quanto sembra lo era e pure bravo. Comunque se non amate particolarmente questo autore e/0 il mondo vegetale, questo libro puó essere un po' noioso, oppure potete considerarlo la versione vegetale dei viaggi di Darwin sul Beetle.

THANKS TO NETGALLEY AND YALE UNIVERSITY PRESS FOR THE PREVIEW!

[Debra Lowman · Rating 3 out of 5]

This was a unique book. The author aggregated Thoreau's nature journal entries by date, month first, so all of May of various years, for example. Sometimes the entries are poetic, sometimes mundane, and other times vague. I'm off to find those who stole my boat seat, for example. Nothing more than that. Odd, but interesting way to look at the flora surrounding Concord.

[Polly Krize · Rating 4 out of 5]

I received a copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.

A wonderful look inside Henry David Thoreau's journals. Thoughtfully arranged by month, the unfolding of wildflowers in nature makes one so aware of the turning of the seasons. The flow of his writings show his spirituality and engagement with the flora that he so loved.

[Lorianne DiSabato · Rating 4 out of 5]

This collection of wildflower observations from Thoreau's journal will undoubtedly bore a lay audience. But to Thoreauvians who have more than a passing interest in botany, it is a delight. Richly illustrated and organized into a single cycle from March until February, these excerpts speak to Thoreau's meticulous eye for natural detail.