A Week on the Concord and Merrimack Rivers

by Henry David Thoreau, Carl F. Hovde (Editor), William L. Howarth (Editor), Elizabeth Hall Witherell (Editor), John McPhee (Introduction)

Overview

Thoreau's classic account of a river journey depicting the early years of his spiritual and artistic growth

This paperback edition of Henry D. Thoreau's A Week on the Concord and Merrimack Rivers features an invaluable introduction by noted writer John McPhee. Unusual for its symbolism and structure, its criticism of Christian institutions, and its many-layered storytelling, this classic work was Thoreau's first published book.

In the late summer of 1839, Thoreau and his older brother John made a two-week boat-and-hiking trip from Concord, Massachusetts, to the White Mountains of New Hampshire. After John's sudden death in 1842, Thoreau began to prepare a memorial account of their excursion. He wrote two drafts of this story at Walden Pond, which he continued to revise and expand until 1849, when he arranged for its publication at his own expense. The book's heterodoxy and apparent formlessness troubled its contemporary audience, but modern readers have come to see it as an appropriate predecessor to Walden.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780691118789
Publisher:	Princeton University Press
Publication date:	06/13/2004
Series:	Writings of Henry D. Thoreau , #19
Edition description:	With a New introduction by John McPhee
Pages:	624
Sales rank:	417,304
Product dimensions:	5.00(w) x 8.00(h) x (d)

About the Author

John McPhee is the author of many books, including The Control of Nature, Irons in the Fire, and Annals of the Former World, for which he was awarded the Pulitzer Prize in 1999.

Date of Birth:

July 12, 1817

Date of Death:

May 6, 1862

Place of Birth:

Concord, Massachusetts

Place of Death:

Concord, Massachusetts

Education:

Concord Academy, 1828-33); Harvard University, 1837

Table of Contents

Introduction by John McPhee ix

Concord River 5

Saturday 15

Sunday 43

Monday 117

Tuesday 179

Wednesday 235

Thursday 298

Friday 334

Index 395