PREFACE.
The biographical sketch by Emerson which pre cedes the two papers by Thoreau, here printed, has this advantage over most biographies, that it helps one to understand the real man, and does not shut up the reader s interest in a knowledge of the mere circumstances of Thoreau s life. It is like a portrait which carries the eye straight to the character of the man portrayed, and does not arrest it at the dress or decorations. Indeed, Emerson was so impressed by the life and character of Thoreau that he forgot to mention the fact of his death. Thoreau died May 6, 1862. The only full narrative of his life is to be found in the volume Henry D. Thoreau, contributed by his friend and fellow-townsman, F. B. Sanborn, to the series of American Men of Letters.
Thoreau s own writings, however, furnish a still fuller account of his observations and thoughts. The first to appear was A Week on the Concord and Merrimac Rivers, published in 1849. It was a narrative of the adventure which he and his brother enjoyed ten years before, shortly after he graduated from college, when in a boat of their own making
