Sign-In
Cart
The Essays of Henry David Thoreau
Paperback
Fiction AnthologiesGeneral Political ScienceNature Writing
Publisher Price: $24.00
ISBN13: 9781639551477
Publisher: Milkweed Editions
Published: Sep 16 2025
Pages: 472
Weight: 1.60
Height: 1.00 Width: 6.00 Depth: 8.90
Language: English
A definitive collection of Henry David Thoreau's major essays, annotated and introduced by Lewis Hyde.
Diverging from the long-standing custom of separating Thoreau's politics from his interest in nature, renowned author Lewis Hyde brings together essays that highlight the ways in which these two strands of thought were intertwined. Here, natural history begins not with fish and birds, but with a dismissal of the political world, and condemnation of slavery concludes with a meditation on the water lilies blooming on the Concord River.
This definitive edition includes Thoreau's most famous essays, Civil Disobedience and Walking, along with lesser-known masterpieces such as Wild Apples, The Last Days of John Brown, and an account of Thoreau's 1846 journey into the Maine wilderness to climb Mount Katahdin--an essay that ends on a unique note of sublimity and terror in the face of raw nature. While Thoreau's ideal reader was expected to be politically engaged in current affairs and well versed in Greek, Latin, poetry, and travel narrative, Hyde's inviting annotations clarify many of Thoreau's references and recreate the contemporary context of the day, when the nation's westward expansion was bringing to a head the racial tensions that would result in the Civil War.
Hyde deems Thoreau's writing prophetic because the prophet speaks of things that will be true in the future because they are true in all time. Thoreau's revelatory writing coupled with the luminous insights from Hyde--one of our country's greatest public thinkers (Lawrence Weschler)--make The Essays of Henry David Thoreau essential reading at a moment in our nation's history when his subversiveness, foresight, and lyricism are badly needed.
Also from
Hyde, Lewis
Liberties Journal of Culture & Politics: Summer 2026
Wilentz, Sean
Delbanco, Andrew
Hyde, Lewis
Paperback
Also in
Fiction Anthologies
On Quality: An Inquiry Into Excellence: Unpublished and Selected Writings
Pirsig, Robert M.
Pirsig, Wendy K.
Hardcover
James Weldon Johnson: Writings (Loa #145): The Autobiography of an Ex-Colored Man / Along This Way / Essays and Editorials / Selected Poems
Johnson, James Weldon
Hardcover
Frankenstein, Dracula, Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde
Shelley, Mary
Stevenson, Robert Louis
Stoker, Bram
Paperback
Sez I to Myself: The Collected Essays of Frank and Malachy McCourt
McCourt, Frank
McCourt, Malachy
Hardcover
Here in New England: Unforgettable Stories of People, Places, and Memories That Connect Us All.
Allen, Mel
Paperback
The Greek Tragedies: Seventeen Plays by Aeschylus, Sophocles, and Euripides
Aeschylus
Sophocles
Euripides
Paperback
Learn Russian with Beginner Stories: Interlinear Russian to English
Gettys, Serafima
Van Den End, Kees
Hyplern, Bermuda Word
Paperback
The Fall of the House of Usher and Other Writings: Poems, Tales, Essays, and Reviews
Poe, Edgar Allan
Hardcover
Obvious Adams -- The Story of a Successful Businessman: New Business Edition
Updegraff, Robert R.
Paperback
Bookin' in the Big House: What I Learned Leading a Women's Prison Book Club
Devoto, Pat Cunningham
Paperback
Japanese Folktales for Language Learners: Bilingual Legends and Fables in Japanese and English (Free Online Audio Recording)
Sato, Eriko
Sato, Anna
Paperback
The Valancourt Book of World Horror Stories, volume 1
Cubas, Cristina Fernández
Pedraza, Pilar
Fager, Anders
Paperback
The Serpent Mound, Adams County, Ohio (Facsimile Reprint)
Randall, E. O.
Randall, Emilius Oviatt
Paperback