In 1840, Thoreau was recording journal entries about his 1839 trip with his brother John up the Concord and Merrimack Rivers. He started to think seriously of a book based on the trip after John's death in 1842. As he copied over journal entries relating to the trip, A Week on the Concord and Merrimack Rivers began to take shape in his mind. He was able to work his preliminary material into a first draft while living at Walden Pond; the second draft was completed in 1847. He continued to expand and revise the book until its publication in 1849.

They Read it Here First The Concord Magazine unwittingly played matchmaker between the author of Thoreau, Emerson and Transcendentalism and its publisher. Leslie Wilson (below) was asked to speak to the West Concord's Women's Club on the subject of Transcendentalism. She offered to write an article for this publication as part of her research and preparation for that talk. Her article, New England Transcendentalism, appeared in the Concord Magazine in November of 1998. For most of 1999, it was in the top five most popular pages on the entire ConcordMa.com website, which is pretty impressive considering it has at this time reached nearly 600 pages. Not long afterwards, IDG Books found the article in our ezine, was delighted with it, and contacted Wilson...with the end result being the book released in August, 2000. The writer's fee for the work was paid to the Special Collections of the Concord Free Public Library.

He first approached Ticknor & Company (predecessor of Ticknor and Fields) but, unable to obtain satisfactory terms, sent the manuscript to James Munroe and Company early in 1849. Munroe agreed to publish the book at the author's expense and issued it in an edition of 1,000 copies in May. In 1853, Munroe returned 706 unsold copies (256 bound, 450 in sheets) to the author. In 1862, just before Thoreau's death, Ticknor and Fields (publisher of Walden in 1854) bought the remaining 145 bound copies and the 450 unbound copies, which were reissued in 1862 with a new title page. Life, Death, and Regeneration as a Major Theme
Life, death, and renewal are presented in various contexts throughout A Week on the Concord and Merrimack Rivers. The book opens with an invocation -- tacitly a dedication -- to John Thoreau, Thoreau's brother, traveling companion, and friend, whose death in 1842 provided the impetus behind the writing of A Week.

Thoreau's discussion of fishes -- individually transient, enduring as species -- in "Saturday" focuses on both life and death. The passage of man's work into nature at Billerica Falls (in "Sunday") suggests impermanence and decay, and yet, at the same time, an absorption into something higher. "Monday" includes references to the Styx (ancient river of the underworld) and Charon (ferryman of the dead). A graveyard in "Monday" and Indian burial sites in "Wednesday" elicit comments on the enrichment of soil through decay of the bodies of the dead.

A Week is essentially an optimistic book in its treatment of death. Thoreau presents death not as an end but as part of larger natural and universal processes. Death not only results in the reabsorption of the body into the earth and into nature, but also in the transition of nature and the human soul into the infinity of the universe. The seed imagery throughout the book suggests constant regeneration even as individual lives pass away. The decay of Indian bones provides rich soil in which the food of later men may be grown. Thoreau's discussion of friendship in "Wednesday" ends with the confident assertion that "Friends have no place in the graveyard." A friend who dies will live on in the memories and hearts of those left behind. In "Friday," the final chapter, Thoreau lavishly develops the fall -- often viewed as a time of decay and decline -- as a vital season full of the promise of future growth.

The structure of A Week and the imagery of the river both powerfully suggest the passage of time. The journey takes place over the course of a week -- a defined measure of time with a distinct beginning and end -- and each chapter is organized around a single day. But time continues beyond the end of any measure of it. Moreover, there is optimism in the transition from summer to fall at the end of the book, and the implicit anticipation of spring. And while the movement of the river toward the sea suggests the flow of time and life, the sea incorporates the river and the river lives on as part of something larger than itself. Eternity, a force present side by side with death throughout A Week, diminishes the significance of death.

Main text: From CliffsNotes^TM Thoreau, Emerson, and Transcendentalism. Copyright ©2000 IDG Books Worldwide, Inc. All rights reserved. Used here by permission. CliffsNotes is a trademark of IDG Books Worldwide, Inc.
Other text: ©2000 The Concord Homepage
Backgrounds: Culprit Fey.
Photo of River: ©2000 Stan Groff.
Author's Photograph by Anderson Photo, Concord.