A Week on the Concord and Merrimack RiversPrinceton University Press, 1980 - 610 pages In the late summer of 1839 Thoreau and his elder brother John made a two-week boat-and-hiking trip from Concord, Massachusetts, to the White Mountains of New Hampshire. After John's sudden death in 1842, Henry began to prepare a memorial account of their excursion. At Walden Pond he wrote two drafts of this story, which he continued to revise and expand until 1849, when he arranged for its publication at his own expense. The contemporary audience for A Week was troubled by its heterodoxy and apparent formlessness; but modern readers have come to see it as an appropriate predecessor to Walden, with Thoreau's story of a river journey actually depicting the early years of his spiritual and artistic growth. |
Contents
Concord River | 5 |
Saturday | 15 |
Sunday | 43 |
Monday | 117 |
Tuesday | 179 |
Wednesday | 235 |
Thursday | 298 |
Friday | 334 |
Acknowledgments | 425 |
Editorial Contributions | 427 |
List of Abbreviations | 429 |
Historical Introduction | 435 |
Textual Introduction | 501 |
Textual Notes | 545 |
Table of Textual Variants | 561 |
Table of Emendations | 599 |
Other editions - View all
A Week on the Concord and Merrimack Rivers Henry David Thoreau,Carl Hovde,William L. Howarth,John McPhee No preview available - 2004 |
Common terms and phrases
49 follows ancient appeared Aulus Persius Flaccus bank beauty Billerica boat Brahman Chelmsford Concord and Merrimack Concord River copy copy-text Corr corrections distant draft dreams Dunstable earlier version earth edition emended Emerson essays F. B. Sanborn fall fields fish floating flowers Friend Friendship Goffstown ground hear heard heavens Henry Henry David Thoreau Henry Thoreau hills Hooksett Indian inhabitants island Journal lacking P 49 land length light lives look manuscript Margaret Fuller meadows Merrimack Rivers miles morning mountains Nashua nature never night Penacook perchance pine Pms-a poet poetry Printer underlined proof query mark revised rocks sail says seemed seen sentences serene shore side silent sound stand stream summer T's source Textual things Thor Thoreau thou thought tion town trees ture voyage Walden Walter Harding Week wild wind wood words write wrote