Backwoods and Along the Seashore

The craft and insight that have made Walden one of the best-loved classics of American literature are also found in Henry David Thoreau's other writings. Here, in selections from two of his lesser-known gems, The Maine Woods and Cape Cod , are some of Thoreau's most inspired reflections on the natural world and our relationship to it. Included is Thoreau's record of his climb up Mount Katahdin, his arduous journey by canoe down the Allegash River, the deadly shipwreck he encountered on his first trip to Cape Cod—which was then a wild and sparsely populated place—and his wonderfully colorful and humorous portrait of a Wellfleet oysterman.