Most erroneous is his claim that "Walking with Thoreau" is a reprint. Apparently he has not actually read and compared the two editions. The later one is vastly revised, from a new introduction to fresh, updated notes throughout, reporting on changes in local details and new discoveries in Thoreau scholarship. The bibliography is much longer and arranged into topics, citing the latest publications on a wide range of natural history subjects. Beacon Press dropped the early illustrations but kept the lovely maps and added much more text, setting it in a compact, readable format. To my scholarly eyes, all those changes add up to a new, revised edition, and NOT a reprint.

If you love Thoreau, take this book along on your next trip to the New England mountains. It's a superb guide to some little-known writings by one of America's great originals, whose call for a simple and thoughtful life has never been more timely. My students at Harvard have taken to giving it as a gift to their families!


Replete with historical facts and anecdotes   October 15, 2001
 2 out of 4 found this review helpful

Henry David Thoreau is perhaps the most famous of the nineteenth century American naturalists and left behind a large body of work that is still very much read and appreciated today. Walking With Thoreau comprises Thoreau's writings about his own hikes up nine New England mountains including the Wachusett and Greylock in Massachusetts; Kathahdin and Kineo in Maine; Wantastiquet, Fall Mountain, Washington, Lafayette, and Monadnock in the White Mountains of New Hampshire and Vermont. Thoreau expert William Howarth enhanced Walking With Thoreau with insightful commentaries for the contemporary reader replete with historical facts and anecdotes on Thoreau that are relevant to his tales of mountain experiences. Replete with specially drawn sate maps and day-by-day itineraries, Walking With Thoreau readily lends itself to anyone wishing to hike the same routes as were once taken by Thoreau. Walking With Thoreau is a "must" for all students of his work and writings, outdoor enthusiasts seeking to retrace the great man's steps, as well as armchair travelers with an appreciation for observant essays on hiking mountains in a bygone era.


Rehash of a 1982 title   June 12, 2001
 4 out of 7 found this review helpful

The compiler, "a very senior figure in ... Thoreauvian studies," as another reviewer refers to him, has simply changed the title of his 1982 Farrar, Straus, Giroux book of excerpts from Thoreau's writings (relating to Thoreau in the mountains) and republished it with Beacon Press. There's nothing new here at all, just republished stuff from almost twenty years ago! One would think that this fellow of "impeccable" scholarship would have had the decency to at least mention somewhere in this compilation that it is, in fact, nothing more than a reprint.


A marvelous book   May 18, 2001
 1 out of 2 found this review helpful

Howarth is a very senior figure in the turbulent, often messy field of Thoreauvian studies, and "Walking With Thoreau" is a welcome follow-up to his excellent "The Book of Concord: Thoreau and His Journal." Howarth's scholarship is impeccable, making "Walking With Thoreau" literary commentary of a very high order, but it's also a great read for anyone who admires (or is baffled by) this American original. All who want to follow Thoreau's mountain treks for real should definitely slip this handsome edition in their day-packs, but those who enjoy both philosophy and mountaineering armchair-style will also enjoy Thoreau's accounts of his (often quite dangerous and daring) expeditions to ten New England heights, among them Katahdin and Tuckerman Ravine. Thoreau's mountain narratives are among his lesser-known but most important and heartfelt works; for all, Howarth supplies historical and critical context with clarity, wit and not a little affection.


Walking with Thoreau   May 18, 2001
 2 out of 2 found this review helpful

A thoughtful book. No self-respecting nature lover should be unfamiliar with these passages from Thoreau. Read them, and then do what Thoreau would suggest: get off your chair, put on your boots, throw a sandwich in your backpack, and get out there and see the real Greylock, Katahdin, and Mt. Washington.