Thursday 02 October 2014

The Adventures of Henry Thoreau by Michael Sims, review: 'a glimpse into Thoreau's times'

Henry Thoreau’s retreat to Walden Pond continues to influence US culture even today

4 out of 5 stars
Thoreau's account of his stay in Walden Woods is far more than a classic; it is a piece of America’s DNA
Thoreau's account of his stay in Walden Woods is far more than a classic; it is a piece of America’s DNA Photo: Alamy

On July 4 1845, a 28-year-old essayist named Henry Thoreau moved into a single room house on the shores of Lake Walden, Massachusetts. It was a self-build, only 60 sq ft, with a stone chimney at one end, a door at the other, and a window in each of the long sides. Thoreau clad the outer walls in closely fitting shingles and carefully plastered the interior. The house was large enough for his bed, writing table and not much else. Everything about Thoreau’s life at Walden Pond was laden with symbolism, from the start date – Independence Day – to the length of his stay; two years, two months and two days. The house stood on land owned by Thoreau’s friend and mentor, the writer Ralph Waldo Emerson, and was constructed using borrowed tools. Both the land and tools were returned in better condition than Thoreau had found them.

Thoreau described his life at Walden Pond as an experiment. His account of his stay, Walden, is far more than a classic; it is a piece of America’s DNA, exerting an almost unconscious influence over American life. Musicians from Dylan and the Band to Bon Iver have emulated his stay in the wilds. Novelists and painters from Jack Kerouac and Jackson Pollock to Philip Roth and Jonathan Franzen have fled to semi-rural retreats. In the Black Mountain College, a whole university was modelled after Thoreau’s Walden. There is also a darker side to Thoreau’s experiment. Theodor Kaczynski, the Unabomber, lived in an isolated cabin where he wrote political screeds and mailed bombs to American universities.

Thoreau spent a night in jail in 1846 for non-payment of national taxes as a protest against slavery and the Mexican-American war (his debt was paid anonymously, to Thoreau’s annoyance).

His 1849 book, Resistance to Civil Government, is cited as an inspiration by both Martin Luther King and Gandhi, one of Thoreau’s few non-American followers. Thoreau’s politics encompass a fierce patriotism, a belief in small government, and in freedom as a personal responsibility, as well as a passionate environmentalism and an activist’s commitment to civil rights. In 2004, John Updike described Thoreau as a “perfect crank” but he is an all-American crank. His political beliefs encompass positions on the right and the left; an American gumbo that is almost unintelligible to outsiders. Thoreau is a kind of shibboleth who means almost everything to Americans and little for the rest of us.

Michael Sims looks at Thoreau’s early life in order to frame a quite narrow question: why did Thoreau make his experiment at all? Why did he build his house by Walden Pond? This may be too small-scale for an English reader whose first question is more likely to be “who?” rather than “why?” Nevertheless, Sims provides a way in to understanding Thoreau’s times.

Throughout his adolescence, Americans were beginning to notice how few witnesses to their revolution were left. In Thoreau’s home town of Concord, the last remaining revolutionary was the aged vicar, a relative of Emerson’s, who still wore the coat and knickerbockers of the 1770s. On July 4, locals re-enacted battles, yet the significance of the revolution seemed in danger of being lost, for the very good reason that no one could agree what it was.

It is a paradox of history that those who come first are never the originators; it takes a later generation to forge the legacy of the founding fathers. The 1830s and 40s proved to be the crucible of the new America. Thoreau and Emerson supported the Whig party and shared its suspicious of central government, but so did the southern slave-owners that they vehemently opposed. Thoreau is associated with a love of the wilderness, but disliked the idea of endless expansion; indeed, Walden Pond was on the edge of urban Concord. He argued for a life of observation over restless toil (he is also the godfather of anyone who believes in a shortened working week), and believed that a mind that was unconcerned with the natural world would drift into vanity.

As to why he went to Walden Pond, it seems simply that he was feeling down: out-of-sorts and a local oddball. Yet the chief reason, like all aspiring writers, was that he needed something to write about. Today, a would-be diarist might cook for a year, or read the classics, or have more sex, or less. Thoreau went to the woods for two years, two months and two days – and we are still living with the consequences.

The Adventures of Henry Thoreau by Michael Sims

384pp, Bloomsbury, Telegraph offer price: £17.09 (PLUS £1.95 p&p). Call 0844 871 1514 or visit

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