Walking – March 5, 2010 Author: Visit Amazon's Henry David Thoreau Page | Language: English | ISBN:
1451529791 | Format: EPUB
Walking – March 5, 2010 Description
From the Back Cover
A meandering ode to the simple act and accomplished art of taking a walk. Profound and humorous, companionable and curmudgeonly. Walking, by America's first nature writer, is your personal and portable guide to the activity that, like no other, awakens the senses and soul to the 'absolute freedom and wildness' of nature.
--This text refers to an alternate
Paperback
edition.
About the Author
Henry David Thoreau (1817 1862) was an American author, poet, abolitionist, naturalist, tax resister, development critic, surveyor, historian, philosopher, and leading transcendentalist. He is best known for his book Walden, a reflection upon simple living in natural surroundings, and his essay Civil Disobedience, an argument for individual resistance to civil government in moral opposition to an unjust state. Thoreau's books, articles, essays, journals, and poetry total over 20 volumes. Among his lasting contributions were his writings on natural history and philosophy, where he anticipated the methods and findings of ecology and environmental history, two sources of modern day environmentalism. His literary style interweaves close natural observation, personal experience, pointed rhetoric, symbolic meanings, and historical lore; while displaying a poetic sensibility, philosophical austerity, and "Yankee" love of practical detail. He was also deeply interested in the idea of survival in the face of hostile elements, historical change, and natural decay; at the same time he advocated abandoning waste and illusion in order to discover life's true essential needs. He was a lifelong abolitionist, delivering lectures that attacked the Fugitive Slave Law while praising the writings of Wendell Phillips and defending abolitionist John Brown. Thoreau's philosophy of civil disobedience influenced the political thoughts and actions of such later figures as Leo Tolstoy, Mahatma Gandhi, and Martin Luther King, Jr.
--This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.
- Paperback: 38 pages
- Publisher: CreateSpace Independent Publishing Platform (March 5, 2010)
- Language: English
- ISBN-10: 1451529791
- ISBN-13: 978-1451529791
- Product Dimensions: 0.2 x 5 x 8 inches
- Shipping Weight: 1.6 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
Thoreau began WALKING by saying that he wanted to regard man as a part of nature, rather than a part of society. There were already enough people taking up the causes of society and that wasn't his purpose. Thoreau really walked, and sometimes it was for hours, unlike the half-hour walks he mentioned that others told him about and that they probably walked on the highway. He wasn't a highway walker, but instead walked in the forests and fields to observe, appreciate and commune with nature and himself. This freed Thoreau from the everyday problems of life and the civilized world around him.
Beauty was everywhere, even in the swamps, and he mentioned how he would love having a house built right at the edge of a swamp. Even in the first half of the 19th century, Thoreau noticed that forest land was being cut down in order to build houses. He turned out to be very prophetically correct when he said that eventually walking on the earth would mean trespassing on someone else's property, something that we have to be conscious of today. Thoreau spoke of improving "our opportunities, then, before the evil days come." By not taking advantage of getting outdoors and walking and really noticing nature, we would miss the enjoyment of it all.
I found this to be quite inspiring to urge me to get outdoors again and walk, no matter how far or long my endurance lasts. This essay is also very relaxing and thought-provoking to read. I especially loved how he spoke of trees and especially hemlocks, since the hemlock is my favorite tree. Thoreau says that if we listen to the "subtle magnetism" of nature that we will yield to it.
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