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Rating: Summary: The Thoreau extracts, as always, are wonderful Review: Although this is a lightly brushed up, updated reprint of "Thoreau in the Mountains" (Farrar, Straus, Giroux, 1983), it merits four stars because the extracts from Thoreau's writings (which form most of the volume) are, as always, superb.
Rating: Summary: A superb guide to little-known Thoreau writings Review: Henry David Thoreau is perhaps the most famous of the nineteenth century American naturalists and left behind a large body of work that is still very much read and appreciated today. Walking With Thoreau comprises Thoreau's writings about his own hikes up nine New England mountains including the Wachusett and Greylock in Massachusetts; Kathahdin and Kineo in Maine; Wantastiquet, Fall Mountain, Washington, Lafayette, and Monadnock in the White Mountains of New Hampshire and Vermont. Thoreau expert William Howarth enhanced Walking With Thoreau with insightful commentaries for the contemporary reader replete with historical facts and anecdotes on Thoreau that are relevant to his tales of mountain experiences. Replete with specially drawn sate maps and day-by-day itineraries, Walking With Thoreau readily lends itself to anyone wishing to hike the same routes as were once taken by Thoreau. Walking With Thoreau is a "must" for all students of his work and writings, outdoor enthusiasts seeking to retrace the great man's steps, as well as armchair travelers with an appreciation for observant essays on hiking mountains in a bygone era.
Rating: Summary: Faith in his Deed Review: I wish that the anonymous reviewer from Lincoln who is a Thoreauvian scholar in his own right had faith in his deed and had indeed placed his name here as he was willing to do in other reviews.
Rating: Summary: A superb guide to little-known Thoreau writings Review: The previous commentator seems to have a personal vendetta going with the editor of this text and its reviewers. He should take his psycho-drama elsewhere and stop trashing a book that so many others have found to be excellent. (As its sales rise, he seems to froth more at the mouth.)Most erroneous is his claim that "Walking with Thoreau" is a reprint. Apparently he has not actually read and compared the two editions. The later one is vastly revised, from a new introduction to fresh, updated notes throughout, reporting on changes in local details and new discoveries in Thoreau scholarship. The bibliography is much longer and arranged into topics, citing the latest publications on a wide range of natural history subjects. Beacon Press dropped the early illustrations but kept the lovely maps and added much more text, setting it in a compact, readable format. To my scholarly eyes, all those changes add up to a new, revised edition, and NOT a reprint. If you love Thoreau, take this book along on your next trip to the New England mountains. It's a superb guide to some little-known writings by one of America's great originals, whose call for a simple and thoughtful life has never been more timely. My students at Harvard have taken to giving it as a gift to their families!
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