Now Comes Good Sailing: Writers Reflect on Henry David Thoreau

Published by Princeton University Press 2021

Now Comes Good Sailing

Writers Reflect on Henry David Thoreau

Edited by: Andrew Blauner

https://doi.org/10.1515/9780691230955

Overview
Contents

About this book

From twenty-seven of today’s leading writers, an anthology of original pieces on the author of Walden

Features essays by Jennifer Finney Boylan ● Kristen Case ● George Howe Colt ● Gerald Early ● Paul Elie ● Will Eno ● Adam Gopnik ● Lauren Groff ● Celeste Headlee ● Pico Iyer ● Alan Lightman ● James Marcus ● Megan Marshall ● Michelle Nijhuis ● Zoë Pollak ● Jordan Salama ● Tatiana Schlossberg ● A. O. Scott ● Mona Simpson ● Stacey Vanek Smith ● Wen Stephenson ● Robert Sullivan ● Amor Towles ● Sherry Turkle ● Geoff Wisner ● Rafia Zakaria ● and a cartoon by Sandra Boynton

The world is never done catching up with Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862), the author of Walden, “Civil Disobedience,” and other classics. A prophet of environmentalism and vegetarianism, an abolitionist, and a critic of materialism and technology, Thoreau even seems to have anticipated a world of social distancing in his famous experiment at Walden Pond. In Now Comes Good Sailing, twenty-seven of today’s leading writers offer wide-ranging original pieces exploring how Thoreau has influenced and inspired them—and why he matters more than ever in an age of climate, racial, and technological reckoning.

Here, Lauren Groff retreats from the COVID-19 pandemic to a rural house and writing hut, where, unable to write, she re-reads Walden; Pico Iyer describes how Thoreau provided him with an unlikely guidebook to Japan; Gerald Early examines Walden and the Black quest for nature; Rafia Zakaria reflects on solitude, from Thoreau’s Concord to her native Pakistan; Mona Simpson follows in Thoreau’s footsteps at Maine’s Mount Katahdin; Jennifer Finney Boylan reads Thoreau in relation to her experience of coming out as a trans woman; Adam Gopnik traces Thoreau’s influence on The New Yorker editor E. B. White and his book Charlotte’s Web; and there’s much more.

The result is a lively and compelling collection that richly demonstrates the countless ways Thoreau continues to move, challenge, and provoke readers today.

Author / Editor information

Andrew Blauner is a literary agent and the editor of seven previous anthologies, including Coach: 25 Writers Reflect on People Who Made a Difference, The Peanuts Papers: Writers and Cartoonists on Charlie Brown, Snoopy & the Gang, and the Meaning of Life, and In Their Lives: Great Writers on Great Beatles Songs. Facebook.com/ThoreauAnthology

Reviews

“In true Thoreauvian fashion, the pieces in Now Comes Good Sailing range widely and thoughtfully across topics and disciplines. The collection provides multiple points of entry for readers new to Thoreau, while also encouraging those already familiar with him to revisit his life and writings in creative and timely ways.”—James S. Finley, editor of Henry David Thoreau in Context

"What a brilliant collection of some of my favorite writers about my very favorite writer. How to live: That was the secret that Thoreau was uncovering, and this book offers us a map to just that."—David Gessner, author of Quiet Desperation, Savage Delight: Sheltering with Thoreau in the Age of Crisis

“Harangues, meditations, songs of praise, hymns to a darkness that awakens thought—all are here and more. In Now Comes Good Sailing, a rich kaleidoscope of responses address Thoreau’s relentless question: Where do we live now, and what do we live for? These essays bring Thoreau back to life, and ourselves back into relation with each other and our common world.”—Laura Dassow Walls, author of Henry David Thoreau: A Life

“As this book ably demonstrates, few writers have meant as much to other writers as Thoreau. He began a conversation that is still underway, one that gives off heat but far more light."—Bill McKibben, author of Falter: Has the Human Game Begun to Play Itself Out?

Topics

Frontmatter Publicly Available Download PDF	i
CONTENTS Publicly Available Download PDF	vii
Preface Andrew Blauner Publicly Available Download PDF	xi
Acknowledgments Publicly Available Download PDF	xiii
Excursions near and Far
Wild Apples Lauren Groff Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	1
My Guidebook to Japan Pico Iyer Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	13
Walden and the Black Quest for Nature, or My Summer Vacation with Big Sis Gerald Early Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	23
Twenty-Four Hours on Pea Island Jordan Salama Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	41
The Fragility of Solitude Rafia Zakaria Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	51
My Failure Mona Simpson Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	62
Without Megan Marshall Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	70
Deliberate Living
To a Slower Life Alan Lightman Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	95
Walden as an Art Robert Sullivan Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	104
The Year of Not Living Thickly Sherry Turkle Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	118
If I Had Loved Her Less Jennifer Finney Boylan Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	127
Following Thoreau Kristen Case Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	148
Directions of his Dreams
Thoreau on Ice George Howe Colt Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	161
“The Record of My Love”: Thoreau and the Art of Science Michelle Nijhuis Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	176
The Apples of His Eye A. O. Scott Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	188
You Bring the Weather with You Zoë Pollak Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	198
Thoreau in Love James Marcus Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	206
Practicalities
As for Clothing Amor Towles Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	219
On Pencils and Purpose Celeste Headlee Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	227
The House That Thoreau Built Paul Elie Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	238
Is It Worth the While? Geoff Wisner Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	249
A Few Elements of American Style Adam Gopnik Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	259
At Walden
Concord Is a Kind of Word Will Eno Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	271
Dolittle’s Rebellion Stacey Vanek Smith Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	287
Ice, for the Time Being Tatiana Schlossberg Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	301
Walden at Midnight: Three Walks with Thoreau Wen Stephenson Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	310
Simplify, Simplify Sandra Boynton Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	322
Notes Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	323
Contributors Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	339
Credits Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	347

Language: English
Publisher: Princeton University Press
Pages
- Main content: 368
Illustrations
- Other: 2 b/w illus.
Keywords: Potentiality and actuality; Practical reason; Consciousness; Concept; Inference; Self-consciousness; Theory of justification; Philosophy; Reductio ad absurdum; Subject (philosophy); The Various; Sentience; The Phenomenology of Spirit; City Of; Addition; Self-knowledge (psychology); Perception

eBook

Published: October 19, 2021
ISBN: 9780691230955