‘And What Became of Your Philosophy Then?’ Women Reading Walden

Abstract

Examines the inclusion of Thoreau’s words in three very different texts. Claims that selections from Walden recorded by Katherine Whited open a conversational space within a quotation book that was part and parcel of her Adirondack cabin in the woods. Observes how Elizabeth von Arnim, situated an ocean away on a German estate, uses Thoreau’s words to shape her own unconventional experiment in soul growth. Discusses comments on Thoreau made by Virginia Woolf in her centennial essay on him, noting how she adopts his techniques for linking writer and reader in her novels. Concludes Walden’s advocacy of distance is perhaps Thoreau’s best gift to marginalized readers, opening the revolutionary prospect that a markedly different perspective can successfully challenge the dominant one.