Description |
1 online resource (285 pages). |
Series |
Henry David Thoreau anthology |
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Henry David Thoreau anthology.
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BiblioBoard Core module.
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Note |
First edition, edited by Sophia Thoreau and W. E. Channing. |
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The first three chapters appeared in Putnam's magazine 1853 under the title of "Excursion to Canada". |
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"Prayers" was attributed to Thoreau by mistake, only a prayer in verse included being his. The essay itself, first published in the Dial, is by Emerson and is now published in his Natural history of the intellect. |
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Original document: Book. |
Contents |
A Yankee in Canada.--Anti-slavery and reform papers: Slavery in Massachusetts.--Prayers.--Civil disobedience.--A plea for Captain John Brown.--Paradise (to be) regained.--Herald of freedom.--Thomas Carlyle and his works.--Life without principle.--Wendell Phillips before the Concord lyceum.--The last days of John Brown. |
Summary |
Around 1,500 copies of this first edition of Thoreau’s work exist today. While “A Yankee in Canada” is an interesting and valuable account of Thoreau’s trip to the north, the true value of this book lies in the second half among the “Anti-Slavery and Reform Papers.” It is the first time that Thoreau’s essay “Civil Disobedience” was published in book form. Thoreau was a lifelong abolitionist who refused any government that supported the institution of slavery. He held that the best government is the one that governs the least. A government of the majority does not make it right because a majority does not guarantee morality. “Civil Disobedience” has inspired countless people through history, including some of the world’s greatest moral leaders like Mahatma Ghandi, Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. and President John F. Kennedy. |
Note |
GMD: electronic resource. |
Subject |
Brown, John, 1800-1859.
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Slavery -- United States.
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Québec (Province) -- Description and travel.
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Added Author |
Thoreau, Sophia E., editor.
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Channing, William Ellery, 1817-1901, editor.
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Emerson, Ralph Waldo, 1803-1882.
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