Edward Waldo Emerson Eddie Emerson
Total Page:16
File Type:pdf, Size:1020Kb
DR. EDWARD WALDO “EDDIE” EMERSON EDWARD EMERSON DR.EDWARD WALDO EMERSON EDDIE EMERSON AUTHOR OF: HENRY DAVID THOREAU AS REMEMBERED BY A YOUNG FRIEND EMERSON IN CONCORD WALDO’S RELATIVES This medical doctor’s general impression of Henry Thoreau’s physique: “I have never seen a person with more sloping shoulders, and seldom a narrower chest.” — Dr. Edward Waldo Emerson “NARRATIVE HISTORY” AMOUNTS TO FABULATION, THE REAL STUFF BEING MERE CHRONOLOGY HDT WHAT? INDEX DR. EDWARD WALDO EMERSON DR. EDWARD WALDO EMERSON 1844 July 10, Wednesday: Lidian gave birth to another boy, and Waldo bought some Concord property adjacent to Walden Pond and wrote Thomas Carlyle about a woodlot he had bought: TIMELINE OF WALDEN Edward we call him, and my wife calls him Edward Waldo. And when shall I show you a pretty pasture and wood- lot which I bought last week on the borders of a lake which is the chief ornament of this town, called Walden Pond? LIDIAN EMERSON WALDO EMERSON DR.EDWARD WALDO EMERSON WALDO’S RELATIVES HDT WHAT? INDEX DR. EDWARD WALDO EMERSON DR. EDWARD WALDO EMERSON NOBODY COULD GUESS WHAT WOULD HAPPEN NEXT Doctor Edward Waldo Emerson “Stack of the Artist of Kouroo” Project HDT WHAT? INDEX DR. EDWARD WALDO EMERSON DR. EDWARD WALDO EMERSON 1847 May 4, Tuesday: Annie Shepard Keyes was born, a daughter of John Shepard Keyes and Martha Prescott Keyes (she would get married with Dr. Edward Waldo Emerson). ... our home was blessed with a daughter who brought back life and cheer to our hearts. J.S. KEYES AUTOBIOGRAPHY HDT WHAT? INDEX DR. EDWARD WALDO EMERSON DR. EDWARD WALDO EMERSON At the New-York Gallery of the Fine Arts, Herman Melville viewed Thomas Cole’s “The Course of Empire” (this would influence his next book, MARDI; AND A VOYAGE THITHER). HDT WHAT? INDEX DR. EDWARD WALDO EMERSON DR. EDWARD WALDO EMERSON HDT WHAT? INDEX DR. EDWARD WALDO EMERSON DR. EDWARD WALDO EMERSON HDT WHAT? INDEX DR. EDWARD WALDO EMERSON DR. EDWARD WALDO EMERSON HDT WHAT? INDEX DR. EDWARD WALDO EMERSON DR. EDWARD WALDO EMERSON HDT WHAT? INDEX DR. EDWARD WALDO EMERSON DR. EDWARD WALDO EMERSON 1848 October 9-17: As Henry Thoreau would relate in CAPE COD, he and Ellery Channing left Concord on the morning of the 9th with the agenda of taking the steamer from Boston to Provincetown and walking “up” Cape Cod (walking, that is, toward the south, toward its connection with the mainland). This was his initial excursion to the Cape, probably upon wrapping up work on Draft C of WALDEN; OR, LIFE IN THE WOODS. The storm had, however, interrupted the steamer schedules and had caused, at Cohasset, the wreck of the St. John, one of the “coffin ships” loaded to the gunnels with Irish refugees. Changing their plans the duo boarded the southbound railroad for Cohasset to observe the aftermath of the shipwreck before continuing on to Bridgewater MA, where they spent the night.1 TIMELINE OF ACCIDENTS 1. With whom did they spend the night in the little town of Bridgewater MA? Did Thoreau perchance have any Dunbar cousins still residing in this locality? Or, possibly, would the duo have stayed with Thoreau’s Harvard classmate William Allen there? HDT WHAT? INDEX DR. EDWARD WALDO EMERSON DR. EDWARD WALDO EMERSON Meanwhile Ellen Fuller Channing and the Channing children Margaret Fuller Channing and Caroline Sturgis Channing were visiting for three weeks in Rockport, Massachusetts and Mrs. Lidian Emerson and the Emerson children Ellen Emerson and Edith Emerson and Edward Emerson were spending time in Plymouth. Lidian and Eddie Thoreau walked the shore at Cohasset with the Reverend Joseph Osgood, husband of Mrs. Ellen Sewall Osgood, seeing the gashed bodies of the drowned from the St. John. Thoreau and Channing walked via Cohasset and Sandwich MA, returning on the Provincetown/Boston steamer, and Thoreau, at least, perceived the shore as “naked Nature, –inhumanly sincere, wasting no thought on man.”2 2. If you have scuba gear, you can swim in Henry Thoreau’s and Ellery Channing’s footsteps: the track taken in 1849 by these hikers is now more than 400 feet out, beyond the breakers at the bottom of the ocean. HDT WHAT? INDEX DR. EDWARD WALDO EMERSON DR. EDWARD WALDO EMERSON WISHING to get a better view than I had yet had of the ocean, which, we are told, covers more than two-thirds of the globe, but of which a man who lives a few miles inland may never see any trace, more than of another world, I made a visit to Cape Cod in October, 1849, another the succeeding June, and another to Truro in July, 1855; the first and last time with a single companion, the second time alone. I have spent, in all, about three weeks on the Cape; walked from Eastham to Provincetown twice on the Atlantic side, and once on the Bay side also, excepting four or five miles, and crossed the Cape half a dozen times on my way; but, having come so fresh to the sea, I have got but little salted. My readers must expect only so much saltness as the land-breeze acquires from blowing over an arm of the sea, or is tasted on the windows and on the bark of trees twenty miles inland after September gales. I have been accustomed to make excursions to the ponds within ten miles of Concord, but latterly I have extended my excursions to the sea-shore. HDT WHAT? INDEX DR. EDWARD WALDO EMERSON DR. EDWARD WALDO EMERSON THOREAU’S 1ST VISIT TO CAPE COD 1st visit, 1849 — by train — by stage — on foot 4th visit, 1857 — on foot HDT WHAT? INDEX DR. EDWARD WALDO EMERSON DR. EDWARD WALDO EMERSON 1854 August: Martin Robison Delany sponsored a national black emigration convention in Cleveland, Ohio, and lectured on “The Political Destiny of the Colored Race on the American Continent.” The Reverend Samuel Ringgold Ward was accompanied by Richard Griffiths, Esq., who could speak Welsh, on a visit to Wales. We visited Bangor, Holyhead, Beaumaris, Caernarvon, Llanberris, Snowdon, Aberystwyth, Welshpool, and so forth. My stay was so short that I can say but little of Wales, but must say that little with very great pleasure; for no country, no people, ever pleased me so much — excepting black people, of course. I spent a Sabbath at Bangor, preaching three times to audiences of whom some could not understand sufficient English to follow a discourse. They came, however, because they wished to encourage the cause I represented, and to show their interest in the gospel, though preached in a language of which they could understand but few words. In one instance, however, there was a sermon in Welsh from one of the native ministers. This gave those who could not understand me an opportunity to receive benefit in their own tongue. I had a very large anti-slavery meeting in Bangor, and the kind feeling of the audience was peculiar to that most benevolent people.... At Beaumaris I spoke on temperance, part of the evening, and the other part, on anti-slavery; the same at Holyhead and Caernarvon. On one of the days of our sojourn at Bangor we visited the Penryn slate quarries, belonging to the Honourable Colonel Tennant. It is a most gigantic work: the number of men employed would make quite a town, in Canada. The good order, steady industry, and regular habits, of the workmen, were quite evident. The village near the castle, composed of the labourers’ cottages, and the schoolhouse and gardens, are the most beautiful and the most comfortable cottages in North Wales: indeed, I know of none equal to them anywhere. Lady Louisa, Colonel Tennant’s wife, had them erected according to models of her own drawing. The school, I believe, is at her expense. Neglected as the labourers of Wales generally are, it was most gratifying to see this specimen of kind carefulness. Beaumaris is quite a fashionable watering-place, and it is a very quiet, neat little town. It has a most capital hotel, quite HDT WHAT? INDEX DR. EDWARD WALDO EMERSON DR. EDWARD WALDO EMERSON equal to the great majority of English ones. The same may be true of Bangor; but the kindness of Mr. Edwards, our host, would not allow us to know. Caernarvon is, of course, rich in historic interest: its castle is a fine ruin. I spent some two or three days there very agreeably, being the guest of Mr. Hughes, a most kind and hospitable gentleman. From his house we made up a party to visit Snowdon — ascending it on foot, and returning in the same way. A more fatiguing journey of five miles it was never my fortune, good or ill, to make. What added to the discomfort of it was, that on reaching the top, we saw nothing but a thick Welsh mountain fog! but we had a most delightful view of the neighbouring hills and dales, from a point about half way to the summit. Being obliged to drive eight miles and speak that night at Caernarvon — to travel ninety-seven miles the next day, in a stage coach — and to preach three times the third day — made no small affair of the exercise. Reaching Aberystwyth late on Saturday night, I was glad to take the comfortable quarters offered to the weary in the Royal Hotel. It had rained all day; but, in spite of rain, it was most delightful to travel amid the beautifully diversified scenery betwixt Caernarvon and Aberystwyth. It is bolder than Irish scenery, and the cultivation is far better — though not so good, I thought, as the Scotch; but the farming of Wales is far from being indifferent.