Writing Nature: Henry Thoreau's Journal

by Sharon Cameron, Henry David Thoreau

At his death, Henry Thoreau left the majority of his writing unpublished. The bulk of this material is a journal that he kept for twenty-four years. Sharon Cameron's major claim is that this private work (the Journal ) was Thoreau's primary work, taking precedence over the books that he published in his lifetime. Her controversial thesis views Thoreau's Journal as a composition that confounds the distinction between public and private—the basis on which our conventional treatment of discourse depends.

181 pages, Paperback

First published January 15, 1985

About the author

Sharon Cameron teaches nineteenth-century American literature and twentieth-century American poetry. She received her Ph.D. at Brandeis University, and has taught at Boston University, the University of California, Santa Barbara, UCLA, and Johns Hopkins, where she has been the William R. Kenan, Jr. Professor of English since 1985. She is also a member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences.

Reviews

[George Fowler · Rating 4 out of 5]

Sharon's interest is in the 'impersonal', but not as that word is most often used. Over the course of 50 years she has written from the perspective of the impersonal about great authors and poets who have explored the impersonal from the impersonal. It is a genuine discovery. An invaluable insight, in this case, into HDT.

[William · Rating 4 out of 5]

excellent