Frank Sanborn: "An Unpublished Concord Journal"

       Friday, May 18 [1855].
       To-night Mr. Thoreau came in as I was reading Demosthenes, and we fell to talking about Greek, Latin, Milton, Wordsworth, Emerson, Ellery Channing, and other things. But first of all let me describe Thoreau.... He is a sort of pocket edition of Mr. Emerson, as far as outward appearance goes, in coarser binding and with wood" cuts instead of the fine steel-engravings of Mr. Emerson. He is a little under size, with a huge Emersonian nose, bluish gray eyes, brown hair, and a ruddy, weather-beaten face [p. 834] which reminds one of that of some shrewd and honest animal, some retired philosophic woodchuck or magnanimous fox. He dresses very plainly, wears his collar turned over like Mr. Emerson, and often an old dress-coat, broad in the skirts, and by no means a fit. He walks about with a brisk rustic air, and never seems tired. He talks like Mr. Emerson and so spoils the good things which he says; for what in Mr. Emerson is charming, becomes ludicrous in Thoreau, because an imitation.
       — Frank Sanborn, "An Unpublished Concord Journal," Century, CII (April, 1922), 834-835.