From "They Went to the Woods Because They Wished to Live Deliberately/Paying homage to the long-dead Transcendentalist, some people are building full-scale replicas of Henry David Thoreau’s Walden cabin" (NYT)(gift link, so you can read more and see the pictures, and read the comments, predictably from folks who just have to recite the received idea, his mother did his laundry).
"Even before 'Walden,' critics questioned Thoreau’s motivations for building and moving into his isolated cabin. 'I think he touches a lot of nerves,' said Laura Walls, a scholar of American Transcendentalism. 'What a lazy bum this guy has to be, not pulling his weight in society and isolating himself like that,' she said, paraphrasing his detractors. But for fans of Thoreau, that individualism is the appeal, 'the whole idea of leaving society behind and rebelling against industrialization and being self-reliant with hand tools,' said Luke Barnett, whose Sam Beauford Woodworking Institute offers the Walden cabin series...."
ADDED: After reading this article, I went directly to Grok and prompted: "I want to road trip through the U.S. staying in AirBnB cabins that are built on the Thoreau Walden plan. Show me where these authentic cabins are and chart me a route, perhaps 1 month." And then: "I just realized: I need a bathroom and I need WiFi." Grok is great for this sort of thing.
AND: "We gave ourselves what we called the 'third year liberty' where we said, 'OK, if Thoreau would have stayed a third year, he would have wanted a little front porch. He would’ve wanted a garret.''" Well, I'm thinking, Thoreau would've wanted WiFi.
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54 comments:
I never go anywhere unless I know there are the dents and nicks in the furniture.
Still water whispers,
Solitude cradles the soul-
Walden breathes through pines.
Well we all have our special interests and hobbies, so I'm not critical of people pursuing them, building stuff with their own hands. I wouldn't jump to calling any of these folks poseurs - I notice there appear to be no privies included in these reproductions.
I can appreciate the effort and skills that went into building this. It's a far greater accomplishment than, say, teaching a dog to dance upon its hind legs.
The commercialization of Transcendentalism
Not sleeping on the ground is a huge plus.
Everyone does know that Thoreau was a rich dude who went and lived in the woods for a year, wrote a book, and then went back to being a rich dude, yes?
How to remain human in the age of robotic agi
If you read through some of his other works, and from the memoirs of some of the other Transcendentalists--Emerson and the like--you can't help but conclude that for much of the time Thoreau was a real jerk.
With his cabin and bean patch, Thoreau's lifestyle wasn't that different from that of pioneers on the frontier in his day. Of course, in the wilds of Minnesota or Arkansas one was contributing to the progress of civilization, while 20 miles outside of Boston one was a slacker, contributing nothing to the country.
There's been an anti-Thoreau upsurge in the 2020s, a delayed reaction to the individualist waves of the Sixties and Eighties -- Thoreau as an egotist who turned his back on society.
The criticism I've heard more often though was that Thoreau was a faker who could always walk the mile and half to Emerson's place for a hot meal and conversation. The Van Eerdens seem in line with the current "tiny house" trend.
when people told me about HOW AWESOME Thoreau was,
i was Super Impressed!
Then..
I read his works, and read about the man and his life..
He was a Fucking LOSER, that lived off of others like a leech,
and not a very interesting author either.
Want to read tales about the outdoors and a Nature?
There's a (dead) guy name Aldo Leopold, that actually makes it happen
Whose woods these are I think I know. We stole it from them years ago.
Pencil maker, teacher. Not really a rich dude, though he always seemed to have enough to live on. He was a Harvard man, so rich adjacent.
"He was a Fucking LOSER, that lived off of others like a leech,
and not a very interesting author either"
Let's talk about Jean Jacques Rousseau...
But I disagree on the writing. Much of Walden is exquisite.
Like Rousseau....and Nietzsche...and....
two years, two months, and two days.
He moved into the cabin he built himself on July 4, 1845, and left on September 6, 1847. This period is famously detailed in his book Walden; or, Life in the Woods (published in 1854), where he reflects on his experiment in simple living and self-reliance near Concord, Massachusetts, on land owned by his friend Ralph Waldo Emerson.Many sources, including Thoreau's own writings, historical records from the Thoreau Society, and the Walden Pond State Reservation, confirm this exact duration of 2 years, 2 months, and 2 days.
meanwhile..
Ted Kaczynski (known as the Unabomber) lived alone in his remote cabin near Lincoln, Montana, for approximately 25 years.He moved to the area and built (with help from his brother David) a small primitive cabin (about 10 by 12 or 14 feet, no electricity or running water) in 1971. He settled there permanently as a recluse starting that year, after briefly living with his parents in Illinois following his resignation from UC Berkeley in 1969.He remained there in near-total isolation—surviving off the land, doing occasional odd jobs, and receiving some family financial support—until his arrest by the FBI on April 3, 1996.
“After reading this article, I went directly to Grok and prompted: "I want to road trip through the U.S. staying in AirBnB cabins that are built on the Thoreau Walden plan. Show me where these authentic cabins are and chart me a route, perhaps 1 month." And then: "I just realized: I need a bathroom and I need WiFi." Grok is great for this sort of thing.”
I think Grok also offers psychiatric help.
The collapse in Bitcoin, and other crypto over the past week is truly amazing. Massive pain in Bro-ville.
I tried to think of a way to tie this to Thoreau so Ann wouldn't get pissed about me going off topic, but I couldn't.
Sorry Ann.
Seems like this is a movement of missing the point. About Thoreau but not of Thoreau. Though Thoreau was more of a wannabee himself, more of an influencer to use today's terminology. But he had some good insights and a back to basics approach is good for focus. I have found the early Christian monastics much more profound and persistent, though it is a hard path.
My favorite Thoreau quote that expresses my own heart: "My desire for knowledge is intermittent; but my desire to commune with the spirit of the universe, to be intoxicated with the fumes, call it, of that divine nectar, to bear my head through atmospheres and over heights unknown to my feet, is perennial and constant."
I took a few classes under Tom Regan (yeah, that Tom Regan) who wasn't a fan of Walden; or, Life in the Woods. He pointed out that Thoreau was inordinately proud of doing for a hobby what frontier families (the frontier in 1854 was Minnesota and Missouri) did for survival. His neighbors in Concord regarded the whole project pretentious as well. They were the grandsons and granddaughters of the embattled farmers, after all.
I dislike artificially distressed wood much as Prof. Althouse dislikes men in shorts. It is also easily possible to tell the difference between wood that was in a tree five years ago and then got dinged up on purpose, and wood that has sturdily lived through the decades periodically getting an accidental love tap here and there.
“"My desire for knowledge is intermittent; but my desire to commune with the spirit of the universe, to be intoxicated with the fumes, call it, of that divine nectar, to bear my head through atmospheres and over heights unknown to my feet, is perennial and constant."
Blechh. A far more insightful and better written book on these themes is Annie Dillard’s “Pilgrim at Tinker Creek”.
"I dislike artificially distressed wood much as Prof. Althouse dislikes men in shorts...."
I read "the dents and nicks in the wood desk matching the writer’s own" to mean they put the dents exactly where they were on Thoreau's desk — same number of dents, same depth, same location. If they did that... that's hilarious and deserving of respect, don't you think?
This couple seems pretty amusing , what with their "third year liberty" idea, playfully justifying the additions they wanted, just like me wanting the bathroom and the WiFi. Yeah, sure, Thoreau would've wanted it like that.
I'm glad the rocking chairs outside of Cracker Barrel are not distressed wood.
My dad’s cousin Joe lived in a cabin like that, he had a foot pump grinder wheel to sharpen the axe he used to cut the firewood he heated with, he had one electric light and an out of tune piano, and sometimes when we boys were playing in the creek down below his place, we would hear boogie woogie piano. If you climbed the hillside to get to his place, you had to make your way past a huge pile of empty liquor bottles. Dad said he was a popular musician playing in bars in the forties and fifties, but now he lived like a dipsomaniac Thoreau.
True story
“Now” being the 1860s
1960s
What a lazy bum this guy has to be, not pulling his weight in society and isolating himself like that,' she said, paraphrasing his detractors. But for fans of Thoreau, that individualism is the appeal
I think these are two different things: Thoreau as lazy bum and Thoreau as individualist. An individualist can be lazy or not, and industry doesn't necessarily have to include any concern for what other people think you ought to be doing (which is what I would contrast with "individualism").
As for the cabin - eh, why not? If nothing else, it might give visitors a visceral sense of the incredible fruits of modernity. Not to say that everything modern is an improvement, but HVAC certainly is - life-saving, even, under some circumstances.
@Money Manager: The collapse in Bitcoin, and other crypto over the past week is truly amazing. Massive pain in Bro-ville.
I tried to think of a way to tie this to Thoreau so Ann wouldn't get pissed about me going off topic, but I couldn't.
Not to worry, we can tie the crypto crash in with one of Thoreau's most famous quotations:
"A man is rich in proportion to the number of things which he can afford to let alone."
I have managed to let crypto alone ever since it was invented.
I hear that Thoreau went to jail for not paying his taxes too.
"Everyone does know that Thoreau was a rich dude who went and lived in the woods for a year, wrote a book, and then went back to being a rich dude, yes?"
I don't know that and checking, I don't believe it's true.
Grok: "Thoreau came from a modest middle-class family in Concord, Massachusetts. His father, John Thoreau, ran a small pencil-making business that provided a stable but not lavish income. The family occasionally struggled financially (especially earlier on), but improvements in the pencil business—thanks in part to Henry's own innovations in graphite processing—helped them reach a comfortable middle-class status. This allowed them to own a house, send Henry to Harvard (with family contributions, including from his siblings' teaching salaries), and maintain a respectable position in their small-town community.Thoreau himself, however, lived very simply and deliberately chose a low-income lifestyle aligned with his philosophical beliefs in self-sufficiency, minimalism, and rejecting materialism. Key points about his personal finances include: He worked intermittently in the family pencil factory, as a surveyor, handyman, lecturer, and writer—but his earnings remained modest.... He owned almost nothing beyond books, a rowboat, and basic possessions. He often boarded with family or friends (like the Emersons) rather than maintaining his own independent household. His writing (including Walden and "Civil Disobedience") brought little money during his lifetime; he died in 1862 with limited financial assets."
Forget Walden. Read Muir's books about Yosemite and Alaska.
’He moved into the cabin he built himself on July 4, 1845…’
On stolen land!! lol
A Week on the Concord and Merrimack River was pretty readable, so was The Maine Woods. He did not get rich as a travel writer, but it’s a respectable occupation
Thoreau sent his laundry home to be taken care of by his family's servants.
When we were in New England a while back, we tried to go to the site of Thoreau’s cabin. But Walden Pond is now a popular “beach,” and you have to pay $30 to park if you have an out-of-state license plate, so we skipped it. We saw his grave, littered with pens and pencils, instead. The cemetery is worth a visit.
But Walden Pond is now a popular “beach,”
It was a popular beach with a pier and showers long before it got turned into a sacred site with lines and admission charges. The place has gone downhill, and not for the first time -- check the history. It was where I learned to swim in the early 50's, Roland Robbins lived three houses down on a bit of the Old Cambridge Turnpike.
“Henry David Thoreau’s grave in Sleepy Hollow Cemetery in Concord, Massachusetts, is often adorned with pens, pencils, stones, pine cones, and other small items left by visitors. These offerings are intentional tributes, not litter, meant to honor his legacy as a writer and philosopher. The practice is common at Authors’ Ridge, where Thoreau is buried alongside other literary figures like Ralph Waldo Emerson, Nathaniel Hawthorne, and Louisa May Alcott, with fans leaving similar tokens at their graves as well. The pens and pencils specifically symbolize both Thoreau’s influential writings—such as Walden and “Civil Disobedience”—and his family’s pencil-manufacturing business. Thoreau’s father, John, founded a pencil company in 1823, and Henry himself worked there, innovating the process by baking graphite with clay to create higher-quality leads. The Thoreau pencils became some of the best in America at the time, and profits from the business even helped fund the publication of Walden. Leaving a pencil has thus become a tradition that nods to this dual aspect of his life: the literary giant and the practical inventor tied to his family’s trade.”
That’s very interesting. Louisa May Alcott actually had more pencils and pinecones than Thoreau. But Hawthorne, who to my mind deserves more accolades, had none.
If you can't have anything other than a super fantastic time while in and around Walden Pond, you need professional help. Clean clear cool spring fed pond, plenty of fish a resident Bald Eagle pair, Great Blue Heron, a jillion hiking trails, history.There are all sorts of woods on the other side of the commuter rail that takes you over vistas of the Great Lake that forms on the Sudbury River. Perfect for non-radical off-road biking with small hills and dales and gentle turns for an old man looking to not break his shoulder.
So, do you think Thoreau was just low-T?
"I took a few classes under Tom Regan (yeah, that Tom Regan)"
Tom Regan? ...who the fook is that guy?... Oh, an "animal rights" "philosopher" who was a vegan. And he didn't like Thoreau? Strange... Thoreau was the original vegan and animal rights advocate, and a truly great, truly American philosopher. His thoughts and "philosophy" are not tarted up with obscure vagaries and listless, pretentious language. His words and ideas are direct and inspirational. He wrote for the common man, and was their champion. His books and writings are brilliant, thoughtful, original, and they endure in importance, yet he's been slandered and purged by libtard Party academia because his philosophy of individual grace and agency contradicts the contemporary collective ideology of state supremacy. Sounds like plenty of the commenters here would do well to put away their favorite fantasy author's latest series of dashed off novels for a few hours of Thoreau's ruminations on Man and Nature, God and Life.
“Time is but the stream I go a-fishing in. I drink at it; but while I drink I see the sandy bottom and detect how shallow it is. Its thin current slides away, but eternity remains.”
Tom Regan, though... Who the fook is that guy?
This story from a 1912 book of short stories always inspires me. Especially the description of this man. The other person is a young woman who ends up in town with her parents and suffering greatly after their death. The narrator tells of how he arranged for her to help out an older women on a farm and find her true nature again:
"Two people I have known who seemed to me to possess beyond all others I knew this deep, confident, unswerving intimacy with the world about them. One of them was a fellow, half gentleman and half vagabond, who had a strong aversion to work and a perpetual delight in hunting and fishing. He was called shiftless and lazy and all that ; but I think most folks had a touch of respect for him, because he loafed so openly and unabashed. As another man might go to his office or take his team to the fields, he shouldered his rifle or took his fishing rod and went his way, unashamed, indifferent to the gibes of those who toiled. When he needed a little money, he might be persuaded to do a few days' work ; and he worked faithfully, but with an evident lack of joy in his tasks. It was to him an unpleasant matter made necessary by circumstances, but a sheer loss of time that might have been devoted to better things. I have seen him sitting on a fallen log, his long-barreled squirrel rifle in his hand, waiting as still almost as a stump for the reappearance of a squirrel that had dodged into a hole ; and he seemed, from the placid patience with which he waited, to have no care of the lapsing hours. I have seen him, too, on mysterious trips afield or through the woods when there was nothing to kill. It was in the woods and fields that he belonged; and whenever he could, there he went. He might have been another Thoreau if he had had the ability of expression, but he was unlettered. I doubt, too, if in his calm detachment from what most people regard as the important things of life he would have thought it worth while to try to make these hurried, busy men understand the things that filled his heart.
"So he lived and died, a shiftless, improvident fellow whose name was synonymous with indolence and worthlessness. Yet I have wondered if he was not worthy to be accounted a success, since his life evidently brought to himself no sense of failure; and he walked amid his fellows with unimpaired self-respect, for all his laziness, "a gentleman unafraid." "
—E.E. Miller, ‘The Unchanging Love’, Field-Path and Highway, 1912
Oh, to live as that man. But just reading this story from a book happened upon on the Internet Archive always leaves me feeling contentment.
Want to spend some alone time in the woods with virtually no amenities? A few miles from my house there is an oil tank for rent. Sleeps three. The entrance is a rectangular hole torched into the side of the steel tank. $25 per night. Not kidding.
https://www.rentbyowner.com/property/oil-tank-cabin-in-the-woods/AB-7254398
What I remember most about Thoreau's cabin was that it was about a quarter mile away from his mothers house where he would go for meals and to have her do his laundry.
Word on the street was that Thoreau needed more lead in his pencil IYKWIM.
the dirty little secret is that he would mooch meals from local families. And it's a good thing: Eating primitive meals make you prone to scurvy every winter.
Pioneers lived in communities, not alone. You live alone, you end up dead if you have an accident or dysentery.
Sounds like the kind of place where Albert Brooks and Julie Haggerty might have stayed if she hadn't gambled away the nest egg.
We saw the bus where Chris McCandless, inspired by Thoreau, died in Alaska. Plus, I hear Thoreau still had Mom do his laundry.
Chris McCandless in Into the Wild was profoundly influenced by Henry David Thoreau, adopting his transcendentalist ideals of simplicity, solitude, and self-reliance to escape modern materialism. McCandless sought to emulate the spirit of Walden, aiming to "live deliberately" in nature, though his extreme application led to a tragic end. —From AI overview.
At 3:02 Ann said what I came to say. Pencils were state-of-the-art in writing instruments in Thoreau's day. Thoreau pencils were held in high regard. Henry signed his name, "H. D. Thoureau, Engineer" on at least one occasion. He invented improvements in the pencil-making business and he did some surveying. He was not only lost in thoughts about ideas.
New book out this year:
"Walden for Hire: Business Lessons from Henry David Thoreau"
It was only a matter of time before HDT joined other business strategists like Caesar, Lincoln, Napoleon, Moses, Jesus, and Atilla the Hun.
Living like it's 1826, but with internet, electric cars, modern meds, and legal cannabis, is the fantasy of many SWPL types. I dont understand it myself. Not at all.
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