Excursions Paperback - 2007

From the rear cover

'There was an excellent wisdom in him, proper to a rare class of men, which showed him the material world as a means and symbol... he had in a short life exhausted the capabilities of this world; wherever there is knowledge, wherever there is virtue, wherever there is beauty, he will find a home.' Ralph Waldo Emerson, from his Biographical Sketch A selection of ruminative nature writing on walking and the beauty of New England, here Thoreau's characteristically wide-ranging and philosophical style offers a multitude of fascinating observations. Excursions presents Thoreau's most studied and expansive collection of writing on the natural world. An early advocate of conservationism, he discusses here, in mesmerising prose, the complex but essential relationship between man and nature. This edition includes a remarkable Biographical Sketch by Thoreau's great contemporary and mentor Ralph Waldo Emerson. This choice collection of Thoreau's nature writing includes the essays 'The Succession of Forest Trees', 'Walking', and 'Autumnal Tints' - each one an explorative reach into the heart of the natural world. Thoreau's travels through the woods of New England are not only physical journeys through some of the most awe-inspiring landscapes in America but also spiritual excursions of the mind. Henry David Thoreau (1817-1862) was an American author, naturalist, transcendentalist, tax resister, development critic, and philosopher. His many publications include such classics as Walden and Civil Disobedience. Jeffrey S. Cramer is Editor of Walden: A Fully Annotated Edition and I to Myself: An Annotated Selection from the Journal of Henry D. Thoreau, both published by Yale University Press.