| Anonymous: in Kenneth Cameron, Emerson,
Thoreau and Concord in Early Newspapers Mr.
Hawthorne once wrote a pleasant letter introducing H. D. Thoreau to Mr. Epes Sargent, and
Mr. Sargent has just communicated this letter to Harper’s Weekly. "There is a
gentleman in the town of the name of Thoreau," says Hawthorne, "a graduate of
Cambridge, and a fine scholar, especially in old English literature, but withal a wild,
irregular, Indian-like sort of fellow, who can find no occupation in life that suits him.
He writes, and sometimes—often for aught I know—very well indeed.... In the Dial
for July there is an article on the natural history of this part of the country, which
will give you an idea of him as a genuine and exquisite observer of nature a character
almost as rare as that of a true poet. He writes poetry also—for instance, ’To
the Maiden in the East,’ ’The Summer Rain,’ and other pieces in the Dial
for October, which seem to be very careless and imperfect, but as true as bird
notes." |