What Do I Read Next?
‘‘Walden’’ and Other Writings, edited by Brooks Atkinson and featuring a remarkable introduction by Ralph Waldo Emerson, encompasses Thoreau’s significant works, including additional nature essays and political writings such as ‘‘Civil Disobedience’’ and ‘‘A Plea for Captain John Brown.’’ Initially released in 1937, this collection was reissued in a new edition in 2000.
Essays: First and Second Series (1990), edited by Douglas Crase, brings together the pivotal essays of Ralph Waldo Emerson, Thoreau’s mentor and companion. These essays were first published in two separate volumes in 1841 and 1844, and they convey philosophies and perspectives closely akin to those in Walden.
My First Summer in the Sierra (1911), by John Muir, stands as the most celebrated work of the renowned conservationist and, along with Walden, is considered a quintessential American nature journal. In 1869, a young Muir spent the summer aiding in driving a large flock of sheep through the Sierra Nevada Mountains. When his diary from that summer was published years later, it inspired countless Americans to explore the region that eventually became Yosemite National Park.
Pilgrim at Tinker Creek (1974), by Annie Dillard, is often regarded as a contemporary Walden. Dillard chronicles her observations over a year spent at Tinker Creek in the Blue Ridge Mountains of Virginia. The book earned a Pulitzer Prize for nonfiction.
Leaves of Grass (1855), by Walt Whitman, was published a year after Walden. It celebrates nature and the American landscape through poetry in a manner similar to Thoreau’s prose.
Little Women (1868) is a beloved novel inspired by the childhood of its author, Louisa May Alcott, the daughter of New England transcendentalist Bronson Alcott, who was a friend of Thoreau. The book narrates the lives of the March family, focusing on sisters Meg, Jo, Beth, and Amy as they grow from children into adults. The March family embodies transcendentalist values, prioritizing self-reliance, individualism, compassion, and education over material and social success.
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