Now Comes Good Sailing: Writers Reflect on Henry David Thoreau
368Now Comes Good Sailing: Writers Reflect on Henry David Thoreau
368Paperback
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Overview
Features essays by Jennifer Finney Boylan • Kristen Case • George Howe Colt • Gerald Early • Paul Elie • Will Eno • Adam Gopnik • Lauren Groff • Celeste Headlee • Pico Iyer • Alan Lightman • James Marcus • Megan Marshall • Michelle Nijhuis • Zoë Pollak • Jordan Salama • Tatiana Schlossberg • A. O. Scott • Mona Simpson • Stacey Vanek Smith • Wen Stephenson • Robert Sullivan • Amor Towles • Sherry Turkle • Geoff Wisner • Rafia Zakaria • and a cartoon by Sandra Boynton
The world is never done catching up with Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862), the author of Walden, “Civil Disobedience,” and other classics. A prophet of environmentalism and vegetarianism, an abolitionist, and a critic of materialism and technology, Thoreau even seems to have anticipated a world of social distancing in his famous experiment at Walden Pond. In Now Comes Good Sailing, twenty-seven of today’s leading writers offer wide-ranging original pieces exploring how Thoreau has influenced and inspired them—and why he matters more than ever in an age of climate, racial, and technological reckoning.
Here, Lauren Groff retreats from the COVID-19 pandemic to a rural house and writing hut, where, unable to write, she rereads Walden; Pico Iyer describes how Thoreau provided him with an unlikely guidebook to Japan; Gerald Early examines Walden and the Black quest for nature; Rafia Zakaria reflects on solitude, from Thoreau’s Concord to her native Pakistan; Mona Simpson follows in Thoreau’s footsteps at Maine’s Mount Katahdin; Jennifer Finney Boylan reads Thoreau in relation to her experience of coming out as a trans woman; Adam Gopnik traces Thoreau’s influence on the New Yorker editor E. B. White and his book Charlotte’s Web; and there’s much more.
The result is a lively and compelling collection that richly demonstrates the countless ways Thoreau continues to move, challenge, and provoke readers today.
Product Details
ISBN-13: | 9780691247953 |
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Publisher: | Princeton University Press |
Publication date: | 03/07/2023 |
Pages: | 368 |
Sales rank: | 1,105,769 |
Product dimensions: | 5.50(w) x 8.40(h) x 1.00(d) |
About the Author
Table of Contents
Preface Andrew Blauner xi
Acknowledgments xiii
Excursions Near and Far
Wild Apples Lauren Groff 3
My Guidebook to Japan Pico Iyer 13
Walden and the Black Quest for Nature, or My Summer Vacation with Big Sis Gerald Early 23
Twenty-Four Hours on Pea Island Jordan Salama 41
The Fragility of Solitude Rafia Zakaria 51
My Failure Mona Simpson 62
Without Megan Marshall 70
Deliberate Living
To a Slower Life Alan Lightman 95
Walden as an Art Robert Sullivan 104
The Year of Not Living Thickly Sherry Turkle 118
If I Had Loved Her Less Jennifer Finney Boylan 127
Following Thoreau Kristen Case 148
Directions of his Dreams
Thoreau on Ice George Howe Colt 161
"The Record of My Love": Thoreau and the Art of Science Michelle Nijhuis 176
The Apples of His Eye A. O. Scott 188
You Bring the Weather with You Zoë Pollak 198
Thoreau in Love James Marcus 206
Practicalities
As for Clothing Amor Towles 219
On Pencils and Purpose Celeste Headlee 227
The House That Thoreau Built Paul Elie 238
Is It Worth the While? Geoff Wisner 249
A Few Elements of American Style Adam Gopnik 259
At Walden
Concord Is a Kind of Word Will Eno 271
Dolittle's Rebellion Stacey Vanek Smith 287
Ice, for the Time Being Tatiana Schlossberg 301
Walden at Midnight: Three Walks with Thoreau Wen Stephenson 310
Simplify, Simplify Sandra Boynton 322
Notes 323
Contributors 339
Credits 347
What People are Saying About This
“As this book ably demonstrates, few writers have meant as much to other writers as Thoreau. He began a conversation that is still underway, one that gives off heat but far more light."—Bill McKibben, author of Falter: Has the Human Game Begun to Play Itself Out?“Harangues, meditations, songs of praise, hymns to a darkness that awakens thought—all are here and more. In Now Comes Good Sailing, a rich kaleidoscope of responses address Thoreau’s relentless question: Where do we live now, and what do we live for? These essays bring Thoreau back to life, and ourselves back into relation with each other and our common world.”—Laura Dassow Walls, author of Henry David Thoreau: A Life
"What a brilliant collection of some of my favorite writers about my very favorite writer. How to live: That was the secret that Thoreau was uncovering, and this book offers us a map to just that."—David Gessner, author of Quiet Desperation, Savage Delight: Sheltering with Thoreau in the Age of Crisis
“In true Thoreauvian fashion, the pieces in Now Comes Good Sailing range widely and thoughtfully across topics and disciplines. The collection provides multiple points of entry for readers new to Thoreau, while also encouraging those already familiar with him to revisit his life and writings in creative and timely ways.”—James S. Finley, editor of Henry David Thoreau in Context