Letters to a Spiritual Seeker

by Henry David Thoreau, Bradley P. Dean (Editor)

Overview

"With quotable lines on every page, this is an important and affecting addition to the Thoreau shelf." —Booklist

The writing of Henry David Thoreau is as full of life today as it was when he published Walden one hundred years ago. In seeking to understand nature, Thoreau sought to "lead a fresh, simple life with God." In 1848 a seeker named Harrison Blake, yearning for a spiritual life of his own, asked the then-fledgling writer for guidance. The fifty letters that ensued, collected here for the first time in their own volume by Thoreau specialist Bradley P. Dean, are by turns earnest, oracular, witty, playful, practical— and deeply insightful and inspiring, as one would expect from America's best prose stylist and great moral philosopher.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780393327564
Publisher:	Norton, W. W. & Company, Inc.
Publication date:	11/17/2005
Edition description:	(Edited by Bradley P. Dean)
Pages:	270
Sales rank:	1,002,560
Product dimensions:	5.50(w) x 8.00(h) x 0.70(d)

About the Author

Henry David Thoreau spent almost his entire life in the village of Concord, Massachusetts, where he was born in 1817. After graduating from Harvard College in 1837, he developed a deep friendship with the writer and philosopher Ralph Waldo Emerson, the foremost figure in the Transcendentalist movement. Emerson’s emphasis on the cultivation of intuition and experience as keys to personal and social enlightenment profoundly influenced Thoreau. In 1845, Thoreau built a small cabin on a parcel of land Emerson owned near Walden Pond, where he lived for most of two years, seeking a new relationship to nature, society, and his own self. His experiences there are the raw material of his masterpiece, Walden, or Life in the Woods. Although he was first and last a writer and outdoorsman, Thoreau worked as a surveyor and handyman and was an active abolitionist and opponent of war and imperialism. He died in 1862 of tuberculosis.

Bradley P. Dean, an independent scholar living in West Peterborough, New Hampshire, has written extensively on Thoreau's life and writings, and has edited two of Thoreau's previously unpublished booklength manuscripts.

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	11
	A Note on the Texts	27
	Illustrations	29
Letter 1	March 1848 (from Blake)	33
Letter 2	March 27, 1848	35
Letter 3	May 2, 1848	40
Letter 4	April 17, 1849	45
Letter 5	August 10, 1849	46
Letter 6	November 20, 1849	48
Letter 7	April 3, 1850	52
Letter 8	May 28, 1850	56
Letter 9	August 9, 1850	59
Letter 10	July 21, 1852	63
Letter 11	September 1852	67
Letter 11	Enclosure 1	69
Letter 11	Enclosure 2	76
Letter 12	February 27, 1853	81
Letter 13	April 10, 1853	89
Letter 14	December 19 and 22, 1853	93
Letter 15	January 21, 1854	99
Letter 16	August 8, 1854	103
Letter 17	September 21, 1854	107
Letter 18	October 5, 1854	109
Letter 19	October 14, 1854	111
Letter 20	December 19, 1854	112
Letter 21	December 22, 1854	116
Letter 22	June 27, 1855	118
Letter 23	July 8, 1855	121
Letter 24	July 14, 1855	123
Letter 25	September 26, 1855	124
Letter 26	December 9, 1855	127
Letter 27	March 13, 1856	130
Letter 28	May 21, 1856	134
Letter 29	November 19, 1856	137
Letter 30	December 6 and 7, 1856	140
Letter 31	December 31, 1856	145
Letter 32	February 6, 1857	147
Letter 33	April 17, 1857	148
Letter 34	June 6, 1857	150
Letter 35	June 23, 1857	151
Letter 36	August 18, 1857	152
Letter 37	November 16, 1857	155
Letter 38	June 1, 1858	161
Letter 39	June 29, 1858	162
Letter 40	July 1, 1858	163
Letter 41	January 1, 1859	165
Letter 42	January 19 and 29, 1859	171
Letter 43	February 7, 1859	173
Letter 44	September 26, 1859	174
Letter 45	October 31, 1859	177
Letter 46	May 20, 1860	180
Letter 47	August 3, 1860	184
Letter 48	November 4, 1860	186
Letter 49	December 2, 1860	192
Letter 50	May 3, 1861	193
	Notes	197
	Acknowledgments	263
	A Note to the Reader	265

Editorial Reviews

I open this book at random and find daily strength in Thoreau's words that gives me courage. . . .This is a book I keep on my desk as a record of shared faith.

Terry Tempest Williams

Dean (editor, Faith in a Seed) compiles for the first time in one volume the letters of Henry David Thoreau to Harrison G.O. Blake. After meeting Thoreau, Blake wrote to him asking for his thoughts on matters relating to the soul. Blake, an ex-minister and single parent, was struggling with his own spiritual development and hoped that Thoreau's words might rouse him to "a truer and purer life." Of the 50 letters collected here, dating from 1848 to 1861, 49 are from Thoreau to Blake. They start off meekly but over time develop into a rich, deeply spiritual discussion. Thoreau advises on earning a living, courage, materialism, sex, morality, solitude, religion, and stillness. Although some of the letters are brief and logistical, many bring out the principles that Thoreau is best remembered for his self-reliance, discipline, enjoyment of nature, and desire to live on his own terms. Sure to be welcomed by Thoreau lovers as well as readers of spiritual texts and the voluntary simplicity movement, this book is recommended for large public and academic libraries. [See Prepub Alert, LJ 4/1/04.] Jaime Anderson, Cty. of Henrico P.L., VA Copyright 2004 Reed Business Information.

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