Emerson on Thoreau
In honor of the 200th anniversary of Ralph Waldo Emerson's birth, we lend this spot to his comments about his friend, Henry David Thoreau. Sampling selected by Leslie Perrin Wilson, Curator of Special Collections, Concord Free Public Library
"My good Henry Thoreau made this else solitary afternoon sunny with his simplicity & clear perception." -- RWE, journal, February 17, 1838
"Then we have Henry Thoreau here who writes genuine poetry that rarest product of New England wit." -- RWE to Mary Moody Emerson, December 22, 1839
"Our household is now enlarged by the presence of Mary Russell for the summer; of Margaret Fuller for the last fortnight; & of Henry Thoreau who may stay with me a year. I do not remember if I have told you about him: but he is to have his board &c for what labor he chooses to do: and he is thus far a great benefactor & physician to me for he is an indefatigable & a very skilful [sic] laborer & I work with him as I should not without him ... Thoreau is a scholar & a poet & as full of buds of promise as a young apple tree." -- RWE to William Emerson, June 1, 1841
"I am bound to be specially sensible of Henry T[']s merits, as he has just now by better surveying quite innocently made 60 rods of woodland for me, & left the adjacent lot, which he was measuring, larger than the deed gave it. There[']s a surveyor for you!" -- RWE to Daniel Ricketson, January 10, 1858
"He grew to be revered and admired by his townsmen, who had at first known him only as an oddity. The farmers who employed him as a surveyor soon discovered his rare accuracy and skill, his knowledge of their lands, of trees, of birds, of Indian remains, and the like, which enabled him to tell every farmer more than he knew before of his own farm. So that he began to feel as if Mr. Thoreau had better rights in his land than he. They felt, too, the superiority of character which addressed all men with a native authority." -- RWE, "Thoreau," Atlantic Monthly, August, 1862
"There was somewhat military in his nature not to be subdued; always manly and able, but rarely tender, as if he did not feel himself except in opposition ... It cost him nothing to say No; indeed, he found it much easier than to say Yes. It seemed as if his first instinct on hearing a proposition was to controvert it, so impatient was he of the limitations of our daily thought. This habit, of course, is a little chilling to the social affections ... Hence no equal companion stood in affectionate relations with one so pure and guileless. 'I love Henry,' said one of his friends, 'but I cannot like him: and as for taking his arm, I should as soon think of taking the arm of an elm-tree.' " -- RWE, "Thoreau," Atlantic Monthly, August, 1862
"Had his genius been only contemplative, he had been fitted to his life, but with his energy and practical ability he seemed born for great enterprise and for command; and I so much regret the loss of his rare powers of action, that I cannot help counting it a fault in him that he had no ambition. Wanting that, instead of engineering for all America, he was the captain of a huckleberry-party." -- RWE, "Thoreau," Atlantic Monthly, August, 1862
"In reading Henry Thoreau's Journal, I am very sensible of the vigor of his constitution. That oaken strength which I noted whenever he walked or worked or surveyed wood lots, the same unhesitating hand with which a field-laborer accosts a piece of work which I should shun as a waste of strength, Henry shows in his literary task. He has muscle, & ventures on & performs feats which I am forced to decline. In reading him, I find the same thought, the same spirit that is in me, but he takes a step beyond, & illustrates by excellent images that which I should have conveyed in a sleepy generality." -- RWE, journal, June, 1863
Photos: ArtToday.
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