Laura Dassow Walls

I intentionally waited to read this until the 40th anniversary of a magical summer, marking the week in which I wrote a paper on Emerson and Thoreau for my American Lit. class at The University of Chicago. I wrote the paper sitting on a rock overlooking a still pond in Maine (not Concord, MA), but reading Walden and writing that paper in that quiet place was one of the highlights of my young life. A few years ago, I attended "Nature: A Play," an outdoor walking play about Thoreau and Emerson.

I had the pleasure of meeting Ms. Walls at the Printers Row Lit Fest a couple of years ago. Her book measured up to all of my expectations. It is readable, meticulously researched and meaningful for me. This is a magnificent and definitive biography that will have a prominent place on my bookshelf for years to come. Ms. Walls is to be congratulated on her effort.… (mere)

Beautifully written and as thorough as any biography on Thoreau. Having been to Walden Pond and walked on the ground where he build his cabin, reading the parts of Thoreau’s life from WP were all that more meaningful. This biography dispels the myth that Henry was a solitary man. He was anything but a loner. In fact, when he went on excursions, it was his preference to take someone along, and he usually did. Reading Walden is enough to given readers an appreciation of Thoreau’s powers of observation and documentation. He filled hundreds of notebooks during his lifetime, a treasure trove of information about nature and the wonders of nature. Laura Dassow Walls has given Thoreau fans a gift to complement the great author’s masterpiece, Walden.… (mere)