Why does anybody read a biography of Henry David Thoreau published in 1939? Shouldn’t each new generation make a fresh assessment of the thinkers who’ve influenced us?
I think so. But I also think that Henry Seidel Canby, who wrote for my grandfather’s generation, had a remarkable sympathy for Thoreau. I trust Canby’s instincts in interpreting a difficult personality, one not easily understood.
That sympathy comes out in odd places. Here’s one example:
Young Henry conducted his famous experiment at Walden Pond when Ralph Waldo Emerson bought 14 acres. There was talk of a shrewd landowner selling a briar patch to a philosopher. Thoreau’s friend Ellery Channing called the place “Briars.”
Thoreau was to clear some of the land — and there’s blood involved in clearing briars — to make room for a bean field and cabin.
That I knew. But I didn’t know that when the experiment was over and Thoreau moved back to town, he planted pines in his bean field, wanting to see the traces of man erased and the ways of nature restored.
Canby says a true story is always the best argument for how to live a good life. I like that story about the way Thoreau chose to live.
• Source: Henry Seidel Canby, Thoreau; Boston: Beacon Press, 1958, p. 245.
No comments:
Post a Comment