Wood-Notes Wild by Mary Kullberg

Henry David Thoreau earned immortality for his eloquent prose in Walden, the masterpiece that resulted from his communing with nature at Walden Pond in Concord, Massachusetts.

Less widely known are the journals Thoreau kept for twenty-four years as he walked at least four hours a day in the Concord area. From 1837 until 1861, he carried a homemade notebook as he explored the woods, fields, ponds, and rivers of the area. He took notes as he traveled, revising them at home for his journal, which became his major literary project.

First published posthumously in 1906, the fourteen-volume Journal of Henry D. Thoreau shows Thoreau's close relationship with nature, but the Journal runs to a formidable two million words. Taming this daunting literary landmark, Mary Kullberg selects from the Journal, and from Thoreau's other books, essays, and letters, excerpts that create a typical year of Thoreau's nature excursions, clearly illustrating how Thoreau recognized the importance of each natural entity and its relationship to the total habitat, the earth. Thus, the Thoreau who emerges from Wood-Notes Wild is the Thoreau his closest friends knew, Kullberg notes, "brother to the trees, the sun and stars, the rocks, the ponds and rivers, the birds and animals--an exuberant man who felt such a kinship with the earth that he could be no other place but with nature."

In Thoreau's eulogy, Emerson said: "It was a pleasure and a privilege to walk with him. He knew the country like a fox or a bird, and passed through it as freely by paths of his own. He knew every track in the snow or on the ground, and what creature had taken the path before him. His power of observation seemed to indicate additional senses. . . . One must submit abjectly to such a guide, and the reward was great."

Only a privileged few walked with Thoreau, but Wood-Notes Wild gives the reader the opportunity to join Thoreau on his excursions. Kullberg lights the way through these contemplative walks with an epigraph from the master himself: "I come to my solitary woodland walk as the homesick go home. I thus dispose of the superfluous and see things as they are, grand and beautiful."

These words provide a hint as to why Kullberg compiled this fascinating collection. Like Thoreau, she has a close relationship with the natural environment and she has observed nature in many habitats throughout the United States.

Placed throughout the book and enhancing the words of Thoreau are nature drawings by Christine Stetter.