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Praise for Solid Seasons
“Cramer’s lucid, spare writing and deep knowledge join one quotation to the next without seeming effort. The book’s two primary characters become familiars, each one easily approached, often via the observation of the other. Cramer has a knack for choosing and integrating his subjects’ words, and from that you get sentences and stories that are easy walking. That sums to a wonderful read, both for the general reader interested in Emerson and Thoreau, and for those who feel themselves academic family to these two famous 19th-century thinkers and writers.”
—SANDY STOTT, The Roost
“This is a rich cornucopia for Emerson and Thoreau enthusiasts, who will feel the pulse of each man’s heart beat through the words as they come alive on the page.”
—CYNTHIA-MARIE MARMO O’BRIEN, America: The Jesuit Review of Faith & Culture
“An illuminating history of an exceptional friendship.”
—Booklist (starred review)
“Editor of many works by Emerson and Thoreau and curator of collections at the Walden Woods Project’s Thoreau Institute, Cramer brings both authority and sensitivity to his biographical overview and to a judicious selection of excerpts from the men’s prolific writings . . . A deeply sympathetic dual biography.”
—Kirkus Reviews
“Cramer intelligently examines the bond between two famous authors in an admirable volume that mixes biography with selections of their writing . . . The words offer inquisitive readers encouragement to refresh their acquaintance with Emerson and Thoreau through this ‘new view of an old story.’”
—Publishers Weekly
ALSO EDITED BY JEFFREY S. CRAMER
Essays by Henry D. Thoreau: A Fully Annotated Edition
I to Myself: An Annotated Selection from the Journal of Henry D. Thoreau
The Maine Woods: A Fully Annotated Edition
The Portable Emerson
The Portable Thoreau
The Quotable Thoreau
Robert Frost Among His Poems: A Literary Companion to the Poet’s Own Biographical Contexts and Associations
Thoreau on Freedom: Selected Writings of Henry David Thoreau
Walden: A Fully Annotated Edition
Solid Seasons
All original material copyright © 2019 by Jeffrey S. Cramer
Page 316 constitutes an extension of this copyright page.
First hardcover edition: 2019
First paperback edition: 2020
All rights reserved under International and Pan-American Copyright Conventions. No part of this book may be used or reproduced in any manner whatsoever without written permission from the publisher, except in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical articles and reviews.
Images courtesy of the Walden Woods Project
The Library of Congress has cataloged the hardcover as follows:
Names: Cramer, Jeffrey S., 1955– author.
Title: Solid seasons : the friendship of Henry David Thoreau and Ralph Waldo Emerson / Jeffrey S. Cramer.
Description: First hardcover edition. | Berkeley, California : Counterpoint, 2019. | Includes bibliographical references.
Identifiers: LCCN 2018045435 | ISBN 9781640091313
Subjects: LCSH: Thoreau, Henry David, 1817–1862—Friends and associates. | Emerson, Ralph Waldo, 1803–1882—Friends and associates. | Authors, American—19th century—Biography. | Friendship—United States—History—19th century.
Classification: LCC PS3053 .C83 2019 | DDC 818/.309 [B]—dc23
LC record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2018045435
Paperback ISBN: 978-1-64009-383-6
Cover design by Sarah Brody
Book design by Jordan Koluch
COUNTERPOINT
2560 Ninth Street, Suite 318
Berkeley, CA 94710
Printed in the United States of America
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To friends—
past, present, and future
Every man passes his life in the search after friendship.
—RALPH WALDO EMERSON, Journal, February 3, 1840
No word is oftener on the lips of men than Friendship.
—HENRY DAVID THOREAU, A Week on the Concord and Merrimack Rivers
Contents
A Biography of the Friendship of Henry David Thoreau and Ralph Waldo Emerson
(from A Week on the Concord and Merrimack Rivers)
Selected Writings on Friendship
