OR, LIFE IN THE WOODS 4 37 2 BY HENRY DAVID THOREAU I do not propose to write an ode to dejection, but BOSTON BOSTON AND NEW YORK HOUGHTON, MIFFLIN AND COMPANY M DCCC XCIV 828 Copyright, 1854, BY HENRY D. THOREAU. Copyright, 1882, BY MARY A. T. LOWELL AND REBECCA J. THACHER, Copyright, 1893, BY HOUGHTON, MIFFLIN & CO. All rights reserved. The Riverside Press, Cambridge, Mass., U. S. A. INTRODUCTORY NOTE THOREAU lived in his Walden camp but two years, 1845-1847, and, as his narrative clearly shows, by no means exiled himself from home and companions. His hermitage was within easy walking distance of Concord; and, though his seclusion meant privacy at times, he was by no means debarred from society. The life in the woods was a characteristic expression of his stout independence of conditions, and served his purpose of living frugally and securing leisure for observation, reading, and writing. But since the act was in a way unique, it transferred something of its unique property to the book which recorded it, and the book is more closely identified with Thoreau's fame, has done more to give him distinction, than any other of his writings. The book Walden was what William Ellery Channing calls "the log-book of his woodland cruise at Walden." Thoreau him |