A Week on the Concord and Merrimack Rivers

Thoreau's classic account of a river journey depicting the early years of his spiritual and artistic growth This paperback edition of Henry D. Thoreau's A Week on the Concord and Merrimack Rivers features an invaluable introduction by noted writer John McPhee. Unusual for its symbolism and structure, its criticism of Christian institutions, and its many-layered storytelling, this classic work was Thoreau's first published book. In the late summer of 1839, Thoreau and his older brother John made a two-week boat-and-hiking trip from Concord, Massachusetts, to the White Mountains of New Hampshire. After John's sudden death in 1842, Thoreau began to prepare a memorial account of their excursion. He wrote two…