From the voluminous record this “great and solitary” figure kept from 1827, at the age of twenty-four, a recent Harvard graduate, until his death in 1862,at forty-four years of age, Carl Bode has made this one-volume selection of the essence of the journals, showing the range and diversity of Thoreau’s outlook on life and presenting in highly readable form the man whose peculiar quality was his fresh insight into life in general and whose eye of innocence offers a new view.
Comprising fourteen printed volumes plus some fragments, Thoreau’s journals have been least read of all his works because of their length and inaccessibility. Yet all the qualities of his writing are found here—purity, lucidity, and a kind of plain elegance. Especially rewarding to read in our times because of the iron grasp Thoreau shows of the principles we increasingly neglect, these selections remind us that man was made to be free.
