The Compositional, Lecture, and Publication Histories of Henry David Thoreau’S “Walking” Read Ecocritically

Beyond the Book: The Compositional, Lecture, and Publication Histories of Henry David Thoreau’s “Walking” Read Ecocritically By Jennie Lynn Walker B. A. May, 1997, Salisbury State University M. A. May, 2001, Salisbury State University A Dissertation submitted to The Faculty of The Columbian College of Arts and Sciences Of The George Washington University In partial fulfillment of the requirements For the degree of Doctor of Philosophy January 31, 2010 Dissertation directed by Christopher Sten Professor of English The Columbian College of Arts and Sciences of The George Washington University certifies that Jennie Lynn Walker has passed the final examination for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy as of 4 September 2009. This is the final and approved form of the dissertation. Beyond the Book: The Compositional, Lecture, and Publication Histories of Henry David Thoreau’s “Walking” Read Ecocritically Jennie Lynn Walker Dissertation Research Committee: Christopher Sten, Professor of English, Dissertation Director Ann Romines, Professor of English, Committee Member Sandra Petrulionis, Professor of English, Pennsylvania State University, Committee Member ii © Copyright 2010 by Jennie Lynn Walker All rights reserved iii Dedication The author wishes to dedicate her work to Joseph Gilbert who has taught me to follow my bliss, and who, in Thoreau’s spirit, embraces the sauntering life from his little mountain top home each day, and in memoriam of Bradley P. Dean, a true Thoreau scholar and friend. The author also wishes to dedicate her work to her family for their continual support of her academic pursuits: for my parents who gave me every educational opportunity; for baby Ellie whose refusal to let me put her down kept me grounded in front of my computer while she slept blissfully on my lap through the writing of much of this work; for big sister Livi whose daily reminder complete with hugs that “after mommy is a doctor, we can go to the beach” was often the encouragement I needed to keep plugging away; and finally to my husband, Chad Wollenweber, for his unwavering patience and faith in me every step of the way, without whom this project never would have been written. iv Acknowledgments The author wishes to acknowledge the generosity of her dissertation committee. To her director, Professor Christopher Sten: I could not have asked for a more supportive, encouraging, and dedicated director. No detail was too small for your thought-provoking comments that served to enhance the project. To committee member Professor Sandra Petrulionis: your research and revisionary suggestions and enthusiasm for the project were always welcome rewards of my work with you. To committee member Ann Romines: your positive remarks coupled with questioning seemed to strike just the right balance on my drafts. Thank you all for creating such a positive final step in my pursuit of the Doctorate of Philosophy, and for helping to make that pursuit a success. v Abstract of Dissertation Beyond the Book: The Compositional, Lecture, and Publication Histories of Henry David Thoreau’s “Walking” Read Ecocritically This dissertation offers an analysis of Thoreau’s lecture career that ultimately establishes his success in that role; provides a detailed ecocritical reading of “Walking’s” compositional and lecture histories; and analytically synthesizes all known extant information regarding the publication history of “Walking.” Chapter one provides an overview of the project and explains the need for an examination of pertinent biographical elements that impacted the development of Thoreau’s lecturing and writing. This chapter evidences the need for an ecocritical analysis of the seemingly extra-textual events that arguably served as the crux of the evolution of his work. Chapter two’s comprehensive examination of Thoreau’s lecturing career calls into question previous scholarship that overwhelmingly considers Thoreau’s lecturing career to be quite unsuccessful. Rather, historical and biographical evidence proves that Thoreau achieved more than a modicum of platform success, not the least of which is the literary legacy of his lecture-essays. Chapter three considers the development of his “Walking” lecture-essay, giving particular attention to its environmental significance. An ecocritical, biographical analysis of the compositional and lecture histories of “Walking” evidences the development of Thoreau’s ecocentric paradigm. Extant correspondence and Journal passages reveal the symbiotic relationship between Thoreau’s writing and lecturing that are the outgrowth of his excursions in vi nature. Chapter four examines “Walking” beyond Thoreau’s lecturing by providing textual publication history from the initial 1862 Atlantic Monthly printing to editions of printed as recently as 2008. In particular, substantive textual emendations that were likely unauthorized, yet still printed in many contemporary editions, are here explored. Through its examination of Thoreau’s lecture career, ecocritical reading of the compositional and lecture histories of “Walking,” and detailed study of the publication of the essay, this dissertation provides an analysis of heretofore unexplored avenues of Thoreau research that reveal a great deal about the author and his writing. Ecocritically examining Thoreau’s world beyond the text evidences biographical elements that impacted the composing, revising, and publication of the essay, and ultimately help to explain the philosophical development of Thoreau’s ideas that led to the ecocentric paradigm he outlines in “Walking.” vii Table of Contents Dedication iv Acknowledgments v Abstract of Dissertation vi Table of Contents vii Chapter 1: Introduction: Thoreau’s Creating Imagination 1 Chapter 2: An Uncommon Success: Thoreau’s Lecturing Career 20 Chapter 3: The Flowering of a Work: An Ecocritical Examination of the Compositional and Lecture Histories of Thoreau’s “Walking” 100 Chapter 4: Heretic of Concord: The Publication History of Thoreau’s “Walking” 208 Works Cited 282 viii 1 Thoreau’s “Creating Imagination” Henry David Thoreau’s environmental legacy is often mentioned in literary scholarship about the writer and his works, yet even with the recent surge of reading texts with nature in mind, there is much left to explore regarding the writings of this most famous author. In particular, while a good deal of ecocritical 1 analysis has been done regarding Thoreau’s “Walking,” this essay remains fertile ground for scholars. Though not as famous as Walden , and perhaps not as politically fiery as “Civil Disobedience” or “A Plea for Captain John Brown,” Thoreau’s “Walking” is a radical text that can be considered the heart of his contribution to the environmental movement; it is the crux of Thoreau’s environmental thought, his ecocentric manifesto. Thoreau himself believed this work to be a defining moment in his life, writing across the top of a lecture draft, “I regard this as a sort of introduction to all that I might write hereafter” (Dean, “A Sort of Introduction” 1). 2 The essay was refined over a span of more than ten years, yet how Thoreau grew the work from journal entries, to lyceum lectures, to the published text has been little studied. The extended genesis of “Walking” took even longer than the seven- 1 Cheryll Glotfelty writes that “ecocriticism is the study of the relationship between literature and the physical environment” (xviii). In the following study, I take that definition one step further by considering how the physical environment was elemental in the very shaping of Thoreau’s literary pursuits – in particular, “Walking.” 2 See Bradley P. Dean, “A Sort of Introduction.” Thoreau Research Newsletter 1 (January 1990): 1-2. This text is difficult to locate in libraries, but it is available via the World Wide Web at the Thoreau Reader where it has been reprinted with permission from the author: www.thoreau.eserver.org\sortof.html. 2 year span in which he wrote Walden , the development of which has been finely explored in J. Lyndon Shanley’s The Making of Walden . In some respects the following study of “Walking” parallels Shanley’s work on Walden ; both consider the compositional, lecture, and publication histories of their respective texts. Shanley, however, examines the manuscript pages of Walden and provides an early version of that text. My work with the genesis of “Walking” led me in a different direction – specifically, to an examination of the two most significant biographical influences on the text: Thoreau’s lecturing career and his pursuits in nature. In particular, understanding the development of “Walking” reveals the importance of the text on the formation of Thoreau’s environmental philosophy. In other words, while the final published text has received much study, almost nothing has been written concerning the seminal process of Thoreau’s writing of the essay that was deeply rooted in his public self (Thoreau as lecturer) and his personal experiences (Thoreau as explorer of nature). Further, the author’s correspondence with friends provides significant information concerning his lecture career, his works, and his writing process. Moreover, an examination of the voluminous journal evidences passages incorporated into his essays. Less explicitly, Thoreau’s journal reveals the study, observations, and experiences that influenced his writing, many of which were recollections, notes, and philosophical ponderings regarding Nature. Most significantly, examining Thoreau’s study of and excursions in nature demonstrates the crucial

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