The letters of Thoreau, early or late, which did not reach me in time
to be used in the original edition of this book, and have since
appeared in print here and there, are included either in order of
their date in the preceding pages (in the case of the additional
Ricketson letters) or in this Appendix. I owe the right to use the
following correspondence to Mr. E. H. Russell of Worcester and to Dr.
S. A. Jones of Ann Arbor, Michigan, who first obtained from the family
of Calvin H. Greene of Rochester, Michigan, the Greene letters, five
in number, all short, but characteristic. Dr. Jones printed these in a
small edition at Jamaica, N. Y., and along with them some letters of
Miss Sophia Thoreau to Mr. Greene, and portions of Greene's Diary
during his two visits to Concord in September, 1863, and August, 1874.
In these papers he left initials, or letters commonly used for unknown
quantities, to stand for certain names occurring there. "X." and "X.
Y. Z." in this Diary, and in Miss Thoreau's letters, signify Ellery
Channing, to whom in March, 1863, Mr. Greene had sent the manzanita
cane, headed with buffalo-horn and tipped with silver, which he had
made with his own hands and intended for Thoreau, and which Mr.
Channing gave to me, as the mutual friend of the two Concord poets. In
the Diary I am "Mr. S." This Diary and the letters of Miss Thoreau
supply some useful facts for a Thoreau biography, which this
collection of Familiar Letters was meant to be,--a biography largely
in the words of its subject. Notice is taken of such facts in
footnotes.
The earlier letters to Isaac Hecker, afterwards known as Father Hecker
of New York, grew out of an acquaintance formed with him while he was
living at Mrs. Thoreau's, and taking lessons of the late George
Bradford, brother of Mrs. Ripley. They were subsequent to Hecker's
brief stay at Brook Farm and Fruitlands, and when he was studying to
be a Catholic priest. He cherished the vain hope of converting Thoreau
to his own newly acquired faith, amid the influences of Catholic
Europe. The brief correspondence is printed in the _Atlantic Monthly_
for September, 1902.
Isaac Hecker, born in December, 1819, two and a half years after
Thoreau, was the son of a German baker in New York city, and of little
education until he came to Massachusetts at the age of twenty-three,
as the disciple and friend of Dr. Brownson, then a Protestant preacher
and social democrat. In January, 1843, he entered the Brook Farm
community, not as a member, but as a worker and student, making the
bread for the family and taking lessons of George Ripley, George
Bradford, Charles Dana, and John S. Dwight,--all friends of the
Concord circle of authors. But he was restless, and yearned for a more
ascetic life, and before he had been at Brook Farm a month he was
writing to Bronson Alcott about entering the as yet unopened
Fruitlands convent, between which and Brook Farm Concord was a
half-way station, both physically and spiritually. Hecker tried all
three; was at Brook Farm, off and on, for six months, at Fruitlands
two weeks (from July 11 to July 25, 1843), and at Concord two months
(from April 22 to June 20, 1844). Then, August 1, he was baptized in
the Catholic faith at New York. The day before this final step,
towards which he had been tending for a year, he wrote to Thoreau,
proposing a journey through Europe on foot and without money. During
his brief Concord life he had been a lodger at the house of John
Thoreau (the Parkman house, where now the Public Library stands), and
had seen Henry Thoreau daily. Hecker thus describes his room, his
rent, and his landlady, who was Thoreau's mother:
"All that is needed for my comfort is here,--a room of good size, very
good people, furnished and to be kept in order for 75 cents a week,
including lights,--wood is extra pay; a good straw bed, a large table,
carpet, wash-stand, bookcase, stove, chairs, looking-glass,--all, all
that is needful. The lady of the house, Mrs. Thoreau, is a _woman_.
The only fear I have about her is that she is too much like dear
mother,--she will take too much care of me. If you were to see her,
Mother, you would be perfectly satisfied that I have fallen into good
hands, and met a second mother, if that is possible. I have just
finished my dinner,--unleavened bread from home, maple-sugar, and
apples which I purchased this morning. Previous to taking dinner I
said my first lesson to Mr. Bradford in Greek and Latin."
Hecker "boarded himself," but no doubt often partook of Mrs. Thoreau's
hospitality, and took long walks with Thoreau. Writing to him three
months after the first meeting at Concord, Hecker said: "I have formed
a certain project which your influence has no slight share in forming.
It is, to work our passage to Europe, and to walk, work, and beg, if
need be, as far, when there, as we are inclined to do."