Journal

Abstract

The first volume of Thoreau’s journal collects dated entries from 1837–1846, undated material associated with his years at Walden, and transcripts from earlier notebooks. Walks and river journeys, observations of weather, plants and animals, and encounters with neighbours appear alongside poems, literary quotations and criticism, and reflections on friendship, work, moral conduct and journal keeping. Later sections describe life at Walden, including planting, household work, local inhabitants and animal life, and contain material subsequently used in A Week on the Concord and Merrimack Rivers and Walden. Bradford Torrey’s edition explains the surviving manuscripts and identifies passages reused in Thoreau’s published works; he tentatively dates one undated notebook to 1845–1847. – AI-generated abstract.