The Road to Walden | Free Book
When Henry David Thoreau launched his experiment in living at Walden Pond, he began by walking beyond the narrow limits of his neighbors, simply by putting himself at a mile remove from Concord's bourgeois epicenter - and a thousand-mile remove from stasis, complacency, and conformity. Kevin Dann emulates and extends Thoreau's experiment in radical self-education. Alternating between personal anecdotes from his spring 2017 walking pilgrimage and other "traveler" encounters and episodes told by Thoreau, Dann structures his book around 12 "injunctions"--distillations of seminal stories about overcoming convention and stasis. In this essential reading for every Thoreau enthusiast, naturalist and historian Kevin Dann brings to life an essential American icon in refreshing and modern way.
In The Press
PRAISE FOR EXPECT GREAT THINGS BY KEVIN DANN
"Far from the well-worn paths of academic scholarship,
Dann acquaints his reader with a protagonist who is an American
mystic, a new-age prophet, a cosmic explorer … Dann takes the road
less traveled, leading a reader into out-of-the-way places, through
hidden passages in Thoreau’s personal life … Expect Great Things is eccentric, strange, even far-fetched, but nonetheless
admirable — a bit like Henry David Thoreau.”
-John Kaag, New York Times Book Review
"[I]n plumbing Thoreau’s own singular and profoundly personal
quest for the infinite, [Dann] delivers keen insights. A refreshing
new perspective on an American icon."
-Booklist, starred review
“A graceful, attentive inquiry into the mind of Henry
David Thoreau … Dann shows an ease with the metaphysical (which is
typically considered at odds with the discipline of the historian),
making a warm sympathetic argument for Thoreau as a mystic and
visionary and redefining his reputation.”
–Publishers Weekly
"A reappraisal of the writer's life, focusing on
Thoreau's connection to, and celebration of, the invisible and
ineffable ... Thoreau emerges from this admiring portrait as a man
richly connected to the cosmos."
-Kirkus Reviews
“If you think you know all about Thoreau think again. Expect Great Thingsreintroduces an American icon in a thoroughly fresh and vital way,
bringing to crackling life a time and place full of drama,
achievement, adventure, and excitement. Thoreau reached spiritual
maturity in an age like our own, full of uncertainty and potential.
Kevin Dann’s highly readable prose places Thoreau amid an assortment
of eccentric characters and shows how his philosophy of solitude and
nature may be more relevant today than ever before.”
–Gary Lachman, author of The Secret Teachers of the Western World
“A vivid and beautifully written portrait not only of Thoreau
but of his milieu. And it does full justice to Thoreau’s nature
mysticism.”
–Richard Smoley, author of How God Became God: What Scholars Are Really Saying about God and
the Bible
“Kevin Dann’s biography of Henry David Thoreau offers a
refreshing perspective on the most down-to-earth of the
Transcendentalists. Dann shows how Thoreau’s free-ranging musings
encompassed many of the otherworldly interests of his contemporaries,
such as a fascination with faeries, mysterious appearances of
gossamer, and other curiosities. Dann makes a strong case that while
Thoreau’s writings were grounded in tough-minded observations of
nature, his own worldview and ‘sympathetic science’ were far from
disenchanted.”
–Fred Nadis, author of The Man from Mars: Ray Palmer’s Amazing Pulp Adventure and Wonder Shows: Performing Science, Magic, and Religion in
America
- Title: The Road to Walden | Free Book
- Author: Steven
- Created at : 2024-10-21 02:41:38
- Updated at : 2024-10-26 17:49:46
- Link: https://novels-ebooks.techidaily.com/95888625-9780525504719-the-road-to-walden/
- License: This work is licensed under CC BY-NC-SA 4.0.