CONCORD, January 18, 1856.
DEAR SIR,--I am glad to hear that my "Walden" has interested
you,--that perchance it holds some truth still as far off as Michigan.
I thank you for your note.
The "Week" had so poor a publisher that it is quite uncertain whether
you will find it in any shop. I am not sure but authors must turn
booksellers themselves. The price is $1.25. If you care enough for it
to send me that sum by mail (stamps will do for change), I will
forward you a copy by the same conveyance.
As for the "more" that is to come, I cannot speak definitely at
present, but I trust that the mine--be it silver or lead--is not yet
exhausted. At any rate, I shall be encouraged by the fact that you are
interested in its yield.
Yours respectfully,
HENRY D. THOREAU.
CONCORD, February 10, 1856.
DEAR SIR,--I forwarded to you by mail on the 31st of January a copy of
my "Week," post paid, which I trust that you have received. I thank
you heartily for the expression of your interest in "Walden" and hope
that you will not be disappointed by the "Week." You ask how the
former has been received. It has found an audience of excellent
character, and quite numerous, some 2000 copies having been
dispersed.[108] I should consider it a greater success to interest one
wise and earnest soul, than a million unwise and frivolous.
You may rely on it that you have the best of me in my books, and that
I am not worth seeing personally, the stuttering, blundering
clod-hopper that I am. Even poetry, you know, is in one sense an
infinite brag and exaggeration. Not that I do not stand on all that I
have written,--but what am I to the truth I feebly utter?
I like the name of your county.[109] May it grow men as sturdy as its
trees! Methinks I hear your flute echo amid the oaks. Is not yours,
too, a good place to study theology? I hope that you will ere long
recover your turtle-dove, and that it may bring you glad tidings out
of that heaven in which it disappeared.
Yours sincerely,
HENRY D. THOREAU.
CONCORD, May 31, 1856.
DEAR SIR,--I forwarded by mail a copy of my "Week," post paid to James
Newberry, Merchant, Rochester, Oakland Co., Mich., according to your
order, about ten days ago, or on the receipt of your note.
I will obtain and forward a copy of "Walden" and also of the "Week" to
California, to your order, post paid, for $2.60. The postage will be
between 60 and 70 cents.
I thank you heartily for your kind intentions respecting me. The West
has many attractions for me, particularly the lake country and the
Indians, yet I do [not] foresee what my engagements may be in the
fall. I have once or twice come near going West a-lecturing, and
perhaps some winter may bring me into your neighborhood, in which case
I should probably see you. Yet lecturing has commonly proved so
foreign and irksome to me, that I think I could only use it to acquire
the means with which to make an independent tour another time.
As for my pen, I can say that it is not altogether idle, though I have
finished nothing new in the book form. I am drawing a rather long bow,
though it may be a feeble one, but I pray that the archer may receive
new strength before the arrow is shot.
With many thanks, yours truly,
HENRY D. THOREAU.
CONCORD, Saturday, June 21, 1856.
DEAR SIR,--On the 12th I forwarded the two books to California,
observing your directions in every particular, and I trust that Uncle
Sam will discharge his duty faithfully. While in Worcester this week I
obtained the accompanying daguerreotype,[110] which my friends think
is pretty good, though better-looking than I.
Books and postage $2.64
Daguerreotype .50
Postage .16
----
3.30
5.00 You will accordingly
3.30
----
find 1.70 enclosed with my shadow.
Yrs.,
HENRY D. THOREAU.
CONCORD, July 8, 1857.
DEAR SIR,--You are right in supposing that I have not been Westward. I
am very little of a traveler. I am gratified to hear of the interest
you take in my books; it is additional encouragement to write more of
them. Though my pen is not idle, I have not published anything for a
couple of years at least. I like a private life, and cannot bear to
have the public in my mind.
You will excuse me for not responding more heartily to your notes,
since I realize what an interval there always is between the actual
and imagined author and feel that it would not be just for _me_ to
appropriate the sympathy and good will of my unseen readers.
Nevertheless, I should like to meet you, and if I ever come into your
neighborhood shall endeavor to do so. Can't you tell the world of your
life also? Then I shall know you, at least as well as you me.
Yours truly,
HENRY D. THOREAU.
CONCORD, November 24, 1859.
DEAR SIR,--The lectures which you refer to were reported in the
newspapers, _after a fashion_,--the last one in some half-dozen of
them,--and if I possessed one, or all, I would send them to you, bad
as they are. The best, or at least longest one of the Boston lectures
was in the Boston _Atlas and Bee_ of November 2d,--maybe half the
whole. There were others in the _Traveller_, the _Journal_, etc., of
the same date.
I am glad to know that you are interested to see my things, and I wish
I had them in printed form to send to you. I exerted myself
considerably to get the last discourse printed and sold for the
benefit of Brown's family, but the publishers are afraid of pamphlets,
and it is now too late.[111]