Capturing the Complexities of Thoreau’s Life

Abstract

The appearance of Laura Dassow Walls’ biography was the marquee event of the Henry David Thoreau bicentennial in 2017, in part because it had been decades since a comprehensive overview of his life had appeared, and in part because, in this moment of environmental, racial, and civic disruption, Thoreau’s work seems more relevant than ever. As an eminent scholar of nineteenth-century science and culture with several landmark books to her credit, Walls brings a wealth of knowledge and theoretical sophistication to the task of writing Thoreau’s life, and her book does not disappoint. More remarkable, given that this is her first biography, is the grace and texture with which she captures a writer’s life. Walls conveys with remarkable force the push and pull of personal and social forces on an individual making his way in a turbulent time, and traces with a confident hand the fits and starts by which Thoreau, a promising but uncertain young man, developed a voice and vision that continues to remake American culture.