Searching for Thoreau: On the Trails and Shores of Wild New England - Softcover

“Searching for Thoreau is an attempt to encounter and understand Henry David Thoreau through place -- the specific places in New England that he journeyed to and wrote about. It is not a biography of Thoreau, still less a scholarly study of his travel writings or of Walden. It is simply my attempt to connect with Thoreau and to understand him better by visiting the places that were most important to him. For the past few years I have been going to those places with Thoreau in mind, and writing about them, and him. They were almost all in New England, and so my search focused there. I have enjoyed the project enormously. Not only did I visit some of the most beautiful and interesting spots in New England, I got to see them through the eyes of a fascinating, very quirky writer. Reading Thoreau deeply is a little like riding a mountain bike down a twisting mountain trail: you don’t know whether you’re in for a long, gradual run-out, an unannounced right-angle turn, or a blind jump that will catapult you into thin air. He doesn’t always go where you expect him to.” from the author’s introduction.DESCRIPTION: Searching for Thoreau vividly transports the reader to the places in New England that were most important to the great American writer/naturalist Henry David Thoreau in 10 vigorous essays that range from Walden Pond to the shores of Cape Cod and the heights of Mount Katahdin in northern Maine. The author, Tom Slayton, recounts his first-hand experiences comparing them to Thoreau’s from 150 years earlier; he also compares their observations on the places themselves and their reflections on the causes of change, all with ample use of excerpts from Thoreau’s writings.CONTENTS: Foreword by J. Parker Huber Introduction 1. Walden Pond and Walden 2. A Walk in the Concord Woods 3. A Day on the Concord and Merrimack Rivers 4. The Mountains of Home 5. Katahdin Means Greatest Mountain 6. Northern Maine: Big Woods, Big Question 7. Walking Cape Cod 8. Mount Washington, Two Times 9. Conclusion: What’s Left Chronology of Thoreau’s travels When You Go: Tips on Tracking Thoreau Bibliography and Sources

Tom Slayton, editor-in-chief of Vermont Life Magazine from 1986-2007 and a long-time commentator for Vermont Public Radio, has published books on various subjects related to travel, art, and literature, including “Sabra Field, the Art of Place.” He has spent more than 30 years studying the works of Henry David Thoreau and traveling to places associated with him. He has given public presentations and published articles on those travels. Mr. Slayton is a member of the Green Mountain Club, the Appalachian Mountain Club and the 4,000-footers Club of the Appalachian Mountain Club.