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From 1837 to 1861 Thoreau kept a journal that began as a conventional record of ideas, grew into a writer's notebook, and eventually became the principal imaginative work of his career. The source of much of his published writing, the Journal is also a record of both his interior life and his monumental studies of the natural history of his native Concord, Massachusetts. In contrast to earlier editions, the Princeton Edition reproduces the Journal in its original and complete form, in a reading text that is free of editorial interpolations but keyed to a comprehensive scholarly apparatus.Covering an annual cycle from spring 1852 to late winter 1853, Journal 5 finds Thoreau intensely concentrating on detailed observations of natural phenomena and on "the mysterious relation between myself & these things" that he always strove to understand. Increasingly, the Journal attempts to balance a new found scientific professionalism and the accurate recording of phenological data with a firmly rooted belief in the spiritual correspondences that Nature reveals. Fittingly, the year of observation ends with Thoreau pondering an invitation to join the Association for the Advancement of Science, an invitation he ultimately declined in order to pursue his own life studies.
List of contents
XI April 28, 1852-July 8, 1852 1
XII July 9, 1852-August 31, 1852 201
XIII August 31, 1852-January 7, 1853 325
XIV January 8, 1853-March 8, 1853 433
Appendix 477
Indexes of MS Volumes
Annotations 501
Map 536
Index 539
EDITORIAL APPENDIX
Notes on Illustrations 555
Acknowledgments 556
Editorial Contributions 558
Historical Introduction 559
Textual Introduction 588
Textual Notes 599
Table of Emendations 609
Table of Alterations 630
End-of-Line Hyphenation 690
Later Revisions 694
Cross-References to Published Versions 712
About the author
Patrick F. O'Connell is Professor of English at Gannon University.
Summary
From 1837 to 1861 Thoreau kept a journal that began as a conventional record of ideas, grew into a writer's notebook, and eventually became the principal imaginative work of his career. This book finds Thoreau intensely concentrating on detailed observations of natural phenomena and on 'the mysterious relation between myself and these things.
