The Thoreau You Don't Know: What the Prophet of Environmentalism Really Meant

Henry David Thoreau is one of those authors people think they know, even if they don't.  He's te solitary curmudgeon with the shack out in the woods, the mystic worshiping solemnly in the quiet church of nature.  He's our national Natural Man, the prophet of environmentalism.

But here Robert Sullivan--who himself has been called an "urban Thoreau" (New York Times Book Review)--presents the Thoreau you don't know: the activist, the organizer, the gregarious adventurer, the guy who likes to go camping with friends (even if they sometimes accidentally burn down the woods).  Sullivan argues that Walden was a book intended to revive America, a communal work forever pigeonholed as a reclusive one, and this misreading is at the heart of our troubled relationship with the environment today.  Sullivan shows us not a lonely eccentric but a man in his growing village: a man who danced and sang and laughed, who worked throughout his short life at the family pencil-making business, and moved into his parents' house after leaving Walden, but always paid his father rent.

Thoreau wrote at a time that bears a striking resemblance to our own, a time when the country was gripped by a serious financial panic and technological advance were changing the nature of jobs.  When Thoreau went to the woods, Sullivan argues, he wasn't looking for a way to escape society, but a way to improve it.  Passionate yet whimsical , eye-opening and entertaining, The Thoreau You Don't Know asks us to reexamine our everyday relationship with the natural world, and one another.

Editorial Reviews

"Sullivan weaves biography and American history in this playful attempt to recast Thoreau as more a complex (and convivial) creature than a dour and ascetic environmentalist and anarchical loner. The book may stir controversy among those who have appropriated Thoreau for a particular cause—a welcome prospect for the author, who writes, I suppose I have an ax to grind. The Thoreau you know bothers me too, in light of the one I think I've seen. According to Sullivan, the man has been lost to the myth, and the myth has removed him from the context of 19th-century Concord, Mass. Was he an eccentric genius? Probably. Was he an isolationist hermit with a lazy streak? No. In fact, Walden was just a stroll from town, and Thoreau thrived on visits from friends. Sullivan gleefully complicates our understanding of Thoreau and the values he championed—civil disobedience and environmentalism. Although the book may not be as revolutionary a study as Sullivan claims, he proves a fine companion on yet another pilgrimage to Walden."  --Publishers Weekly

"A mischievous reporter on the universe, Sullivan has found beauty in a notorious swamp in The Meadowlands (1998) and wisdom in an alley in Rats (2004). In his latest slyly philosophical inquiry, he endeavors to free Henry David Thoreau from his calcified reputation as a cantankerous hermit and nature worshiper. Sounding like your favorite teacher who manages to make history fun and relevant, Sullivan vibrantly portrays the sage of Walden as a geeky, curious, compassionate fellow of high intelligence and deep feelings who loved company, music, and long walks. An exceptional writer mad for puns, Thoreau was also a bold social critic and—the crux of Sullivan’s stimulating argument—a brilliant, tongue-in-cheek humorist. Sullivan, himself plenty saucy, also elucidates Thoreau’s radical focus on “man’s interaction with nature.” In command of a great diversity of fascinating material, Sullivan succinctly illuminates the striking parallels between Thoreau’s time and ours—foreclosures, lost jobs, and rapid technological change. Thoreau remains vital and valuable because of his acute observations, wit, and lyricism and his recognition that the “force of life is everywhere,” a perception even more essential now that the consequences of the societal choices Thoreau prophetically critiqued have reached staggering proportions."  --Booklist

About the Author

Robert Sullivan is the author of The Meadowlands, A Whale Hunt, Rats, and Cross Country. A contributing editor to Vogue, his writing has also appeared in the New York Times, The New Yorker, and Dwell magazine. He lives in Brooklyn with his wife and two children.