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Henry David Thoreau as prophet, naturalist, and stealth comedian

Discussed in this essay:

Henry David Thoreau: A Life, by Laura Dassow Walls. The University of Chicago Press. 640 pages. $35.

Given his role as the patron saint of environmentalism, it seems fitting that Henry David Thoreau’s life should be permeated with recycling. The cabin he built on Walden Pond was constructed in part from the boards of an Irish laborer’s shanty, whose owner had worked on the railroad that ran through the woods just a few hundred yards away. After Thoreau returned to civilization, the roof of his rotting cabin was used to cover a pigsty. As for…

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is the editor of Harper’s Magazine. His next book, Glad to the Brink of Fear: A Portrait of Emerson in Thirteen Installments, will be published next year.



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