Wild fruits : Thoreau's rediscovered last manuscript

Bibliographic Information

Wild fruits : Thoreau's rediscovered last manuscript

Henry David Thoreau ; edited and introduced by Bradley P. Dean ; illustrations by Abigail Rorer

W.W. Norton, 1999, c2000

Available at  / 15 libraries

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Note

Includes bibliographical references and index

Description and Table of Contents

Description

The distinctly American gospel--never before published--of our great nature writer, mystic, ecologist, and prophet. "Above all, we cannot afford not to live in the present . . . . There is something suggested by [the cockcrow] not in Plato nor the New Testament. It is a newer testament--the Gospel according to this moment," Henry David Thoreau wrote in "a sort of introduction" to Wild Fruits--his last manuscript and his transcendental gospel of the sacredness of nature. The difficulties of his handwriting, method of composition, notations, and pagination have kept his final observations and meditations from publication until now; thanks to the assiduous efforts of Thoreau specialist Bradley Dean, this great work can finally be brought to light. Wild Fruits is beautifully illustrated throughout with line drawings of the "wild fruits" Thoreau considers, as he writes, for example, "Famous fruits imported from the East or South . . . do not concern me so much as many an unnoticed wild berry whose beauty annually lends a new charm to some wild walk . . ." This work may be considered Thoreau's last will and testament, in which he protests our desecration of the landscape and envisions a new American scripture. As Dean writes, "the Thoreau New Testament suggests that the Holy Land is under our feet, as well as over our heads."

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Details

  • NCID
    BA47193728
  • ISBN
    • 0393047512
  • LCCN
    99031377
  • Country Code
    us
  • Title Language Code
    eng
  • Text Language Code
    eng
  • Place of Publication
    New York
  • Pages/Volumes
    xvii, 409p.
  • Size
    25 cm
  • Classification
  • Subject Headings
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