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Tomorrow starts a month of transcendentalist reading on Between the Covers. Back in August, @JillIsReading, @RoofBeamReader and I started chatting on Twitter about Walden (by Thoreau), and that led to the decision to do a sort of read-along of the transcendentalists over the course of a month. From tomorrow until December 15th, the three of us will be reading Emerson, Thoreau, Fuller, and who-/whatever else we have chosen independently, and will be blogging about it on our respective sites. This is going to be a very laid back endeavor and anyone is welcome to join us–the more, the merrier!
I have stacked up the following books and essays for this month’s reading, although I know I will never get through them all in a month. I want to get through at least the first two, though. I might just continue this through the end of the year because I really want to read everything I have listed here:
The Essential Margaret Fuller — edited by Jeffrey Steele (my review)
American Transcendentalism: A History — Philip F. Gura (my review)
The Days of Henry Thoreau: A Biography — Walter Harding
The Winged Life: The Poetic Voice of Henry David Thoreau — edited by Robert Bly
Emerson: The Mind on Fire — Robert D. Richardson Jr.
Emerson: Essays and Lectures — Ralph Waldo Emerson
Specific essays: “Walking” (Thoreau), “Nature,” “Self-Reliance,” “Experience,” and “Fate” (all by Emerson)
“The Celestial Railroad” — Nathaniel Hawthorne (anti-transcendentalism)
“Transcendental Wild Oats” — Louisa May Alcott (anti-transcendentalism)
I also have a paper written by one of my former college professors who had the opportunity to spend time on Walden Pond over the summer for the Annual Gathering of the Thoreau Society, where he presented the paper. I’ve been looking forward to reading it for months now, but I’ve saved it so I could read it for this read-along.
I have chosen not to read Walden because it is the one book that I read every year and I just read it this past spring.
If you’re interested in joining us, you can click on the badge above (also featured in my sidebar) to read the original post on Jill’s blog which announces the read-along and provides more information. We’d love to have you read along with us!
UPDATE: The badge at the beginning of this post and the one in the sidebar now point to the opening post of Transcendentalist Month on Jill’s blog where there is more information about how to participate, along with some very good references and thoughts on Transcendentalism. Thanks, Jill!
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[...] and Whitman; Fuller, too. (You can see a post listing Heather’s picks for the month here. It just went up yesterday. She ended up deciding not to read Walden because she already reads it [...]