Henry David Thoreau

Thoreau is well known as a lyrical nature writer, environmental prophet, rebel against stifling convention, and theorist of strategic intervention to protest injustice. He was also a part-time surveyor and graphite grinder, student of Native America, abolitionist, philosopher, and shrewd Transcendentalist. Whether living at Walden Pond or comfortably on Main Street in central Concord, Thoreau made deep inquiries into life and gave all to his craft. Drawing on the work of outstanding scholars and critics, this companion provides information on the full body of Thoreau’s work, his life, and his world, connecting the factors that affected Thoreau’s thought and writing and highlighting his impact, in his own time and since. This study brings these various aspects of Thoreau’s life and writings into focus in over one hundred interconnected essays.

Michael Berger is an independent scholar, retired professor of English and communications, and former English teacher in Cincinnati’s magnet public high school. He is a former member of the board of directors of the Thoreau Society and past editor of the Thoreau Society Bulletin.

Michael Berger. Series Editor Ronald D. Morrison; Associate Editor Matthew D. Sutton
Format:
Pages:
Bibliographic Info: appendices, bibliography, index
Copyright Date: 2025
pISBN: 978-1-4766-7421-6
eISBN: 978-1-4766-5556-7
Imprint: McFarland
Series: McFarland Companions to 19th Century Literature

• “Michael Berger’s Henry David Thoreau: A Companion is a tremendously useful and accessible resource for all students of Thoreau—from undergraduates to seasoned Thoreau scholars. Berger’s Companion provides a remarkably comprehensive, sensitive, and meticulous gloss on Thoreau’s life and works, as well as useful and wide-ranging entries on the cultural and historical contexts that inform and enrich our understanding of Thoreau. The organization of the Companion by brief, alphabetical entries, enhanced by cross-referencing and bibliographical notes, makes this a most convenient and insightful reference work.”—Steven Fink, author of Prophet in the Marketplace: Thoreau’s Development as a Professional Writer

• “A great strength of Michael Berger’s Henry David Thoreau: A Companion is its appeal to readers with varied objectives—students, teachers, Thoreau scholars, and nonacademic enthusiasts as well. Berger engagingly articulates biographical, interpretive, and encyclopedic entries that, separately and together, inform a coherent understanding of Thoreau and his multiple contexts. The opening biographical essay is succinctly comprehensive, relating Thoreau’s living, thinking, and writing to his family and other notable persons, to Concord and other significant places, to his reading and education, and to both his own life-and-times and the encompassing history that influenced him and now reflects his influence. The book adjusts to the reader’s purpose and interest, whether targeting topical entries or following embedded keys to related entries and outside ‘further reading.’ Elegantly approachable and enduringly helpful, this book will prove a companion worth repeated visits.”—Ronald Hoag, author of influential essays on Thoreau and the sublime, former editor of the Concord Saunterer, past president of the Thoreau Society

• “Michael Berger has written a sparkling gathering of thoughtful and provocative essays on all things Thoreau. Taken together they create a true companion, to be read alongside Thoreau for sheer pleasure and illumination. This is a book that thinks with Thoreau, and more, that shows us how to do the same. A magnificent contribution to the philosophy of the poet-naturalist, one that will last as long as Thoreau finds readers.”—Laura Dassow Walls, author of Henry David Thoreau: A Life, and Seeing New Worlds: Henry David Thoreau and Nineteenth-Century Natural Science