the Thoreau Log.
6 May 1862. Concord, Mass.

Thoreau dies. Early in the morning, he asks his sister Sophia to read aloud some of A Week on the Concord and Merrimack Rivers. After she reads from the last chapter, he says, “Now comes good Sailing” (Concord Saunterer, vol. 11, no. 4 (Winter 1976):16-17). His last words were “moose” and “Indian” (Thoreau: The Poet-Naturalist, 336).

Ralph Waldo Emerson writes to H.G.O. Blake:

  Henry Thoreau died this morning about 9 o’clock. The funeral will be on Friday P.M. at 3 o’clock (American Book-Prices Current 20 (1914):678).

A. Bronson Alcott writes in his journal:

  Oversee some hired men about work on my grounds, taking out pipergrass and preparing ground for ploughing. Channing [William Ellery Channing] comes in the afternoon and informs me of Thoreau’s decease this morning at 9, peacefully. Emerson calls also (The Journals of Bronson Alcott, 347).

Sarah Alden Ripley, living in the Old Manse, writes to Sophia Thayer:

  This fine morning is sad for those of us who sympathize with the friends of Henry Thoreau, the philosopher and the woodman. He had his reason to the last, and talked with his friends pleasantly and arranged his affairs; and at last passed in quiet sleep from this state of duty and responsibility to that which is behind the veil. His funeral service is to be at the church, and Mr. Emerson is to make an address.
(Recollections of Seventy Years, 2:368)

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