A staff editorial in the February 7, 2010 Boston Globe (http://www.boston.com/bostonglobe/editorial_opinion/editorials/articles/2010/02/07/ecology_thoreau_ly_different_at_walden_pond/) is another indication of the downfall of a once-great paper. There are several problems with the "facts" in this piece, but we will focus only on this assertion found therein: "[Thoreau's] work was scattered and mostly forgotten until it was reassembled by Bradley P. Dean, a leading Thoreau scholar."
Huh? Dean, who died a couple of years ago in mid-life, was indeed a leading Thoreau scholar. But that he is solely responsible for the collecting of Thoreau's works is utter pap. (A knowledgable commenter agrees, saying, "...Dean's important contribution involved
rediscovering and editing two not-quite completed manuscripts on
natural history; editing a volume of letters between Thoreau and a
friend; and editing a set Thoreau's field manuscripts. It may also have
been Dean who rediscovered materials related to a book or calendar
Thoreau planned on Concord flowering times.")
There were Thoreau scholars before Dean was born. The Thoreau Society holds one of the major collection of Thoreau's work (now housed in the Thoreau Institute in Lincoln where he used it in his own work). That collection was amassed before he became a scholar. (In life, it appeared to us that BPD as ardently self-promoting and protective of his position at the top of the Thoreauvian heap -- it's as if he's reaching out from the grave for more of the same now.)
There have been those since Thoreau's death who have kept the torch of his memory burning, collected his work and ephemera, published scholarly papers, and gathered to celebrate him. The Globe (and it's source(s) of this information) insults all those who came before. Issac Newton said, "If I have seen further it is only by standing on the shoulders of giants." Certainly, we can honor more recent scholarship and collecting without denigrating that which came before.
Photo: Walden Pond. © Nicole Lawton www.nicolelawtonphotography.com
Huh? Dean, who died a couple of years ago in mid-life, was indeed a leading Thoreau scholar. But that he is solely responsible for the collecting of Thoreau's works is utter pap. (A knowledgable commenter agrees, saying, "...Dean's important contribution involved
rediscovering and editing two not-quite completed manuscripts on
natural history; editing a volume of letters between Thoreau and a
friend; and editing a set Thoreau's field manuscripts. It may also have
been Dean who rediscovered materials related to a book or calendar
Thoreau planned on Concord flowering times.")There were Thoreau scholars before Dean was born. The Thoreau Society holds one of the major collection of Thoreau's work (now housed in the Thoreau Institute in Lincoln where he used it in his own work). That collection was amassed before he became a scholar. (In life, it appeared to us that BPD as ardently self-promoting and protective of his position at the top of the Thoreauvian heap -- it's as if he's reaching out from the grave for more of the same now.)
There have been those since Thoreau's death who have kept the torch of his memory burning, collected his work and ephemera, published scholarly papers, and gathered to celebrate him. The Globe (and it's source(s) of this information) insults all those who came before. Issac Newton said, "If I have seen further it is only by standing on the shoulders of giants." Certainly, we can honor more recent scholarship and collecting without denigrating that which came before.
Photo: Walden Pond. © Nicole Lawton www.nicolelawtonphotography.com















