Contemporary Notices and Reviews of 
Walden; or, Life in the Woods
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"Walden, or Life in the Woods"
Home Journal [New York] (2 September 1854): p. 2, col. 7.

Walden is the history of a year passed on the shores of a quiet New England lake.  It abounds in pleasant pictures of forest life, enlivened by such incidents and adventures as befal [sic] a contemplative dweller in the woods.  Incidents which, unimportant in themselves, go to make up the life of almost hermit-like retiracy which our author labours to depict.  The seasons have each their novelty and charm, and the ever-varying aspect of the lake furnishes an endless theme for reflection and comment.  No utterance of nature is void and trivial when listened to and sympathized with in the spirit that inspires the recluse of Walden Pond.  The water-fowl come with the glowing leaves of autumn, and sport on the waters of the lake, and wing their way southward, to return in the spring; the wild pigeons wheel along the mountains, and the jay screams among the shrubs in the clearing; the red squirrel scampers and chatters over the roof, and the large-eyed hare burrows under the floor of the hut where the author, regardless of seasons, (or rather kindly regarding each,) lives a sort of half dreamy, half active life—part philosopher, part hunter, and husbandsman.  There is a wealth of pure sentiment, and a graphic minuteness of narrative and description in this work, that renders it, beyond doubt, among the most delightful of books.  As a companion for a country ramble, or a book for city reading, where rural longings make up for realities, we have seldom met a better.

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