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Thoreau writes to Louis A. Surette:

Mr Surette

Dear Sir

I am very sorry to say that the illness of my mother, who is confined to her bed, will prevent her showing to Mr Phillips the attention which she desired to. The prospect is also that I shall be kept at home Wednesday evening by an influenza—My mother wishes me to say, however, that Mrs Brooks will be happy to entertain Mr Phillips at her home.

Yrs truly

Henry D. Thoreau

(The Correspondence of Henry David Thoreau, 602-603)

17 February 1835. Cambridge, Mass.

Thoreau checks out The dignity of human nature. Or, A brief account of the certain and established means for attaining the true end of our existence, volume 2 by James Burgh from Harvard College Library (Companion to Thoreau’s Correspondence, 287).

17 February 1837. Cambridge, Mass.

Thoreau submits an essay on the prompt “Speak of the characteristics which, whether humorously or reproachfully, we are in the habit of ascribing to the people of different sections of our own country,” for an assignment given him on 3 February (Thoreau’s Harvard Years, part 2:13; Early Essays and Miscellanies, 83-86; MS, Abernethy Collection of American Literature. Middlebury College Special Collections, Middlebury, Vt.).

17 February 1838. Concord, Mass.

Ralph Waldo Emerson writes in his journal:

My good Henry Thoreau made this else solitary afternoon sunny with his simplicity and clear perception. How comic is simplicity in this double-dealing, quacking world. Everything that boy says makes merry with society, though nothing can be graver than his meaning. I told him he should write out the history of his college life as Carlyle has his tutoring. We agreed that seeing the stars through a telescope would be worth all the astronomical lectures. Then he described Mr. Quimby’s electrical lecture here, and the experiment of the shock, and added that “College Corporations are very blind to the fact that that twinge in the elbow is worth all the lecturing.”

(The Journals and Miscellaneous Notebooks of Ralph Waldo Emerson, 5:453-4)

17 February 1841. Concord, Mass.

Thoreau writes in his journal:

Our work should be fitted to and lead on the time, as bud, flower, and fruit lead the circle of the seasons. (Journal, 1:215).

17 February 1843. Concord, Mass.

Lidian Jackson Emerson writes to her husband Ralph Waldo, sending it 22 February:

Did I tell you that Bradbury & Soden have refused to pay Henry more than two thirds of the money they promised for his “Walk to W[achusett],” and that they postpone the payment even for that? Will it not do for you to call on your return through Boston and demand it for him?

(The Selected Letters of Lidian Jackson Emerson, 130)

17 February 1846. New York, N.Y.

Charles Lane writes to Thoreau:

Dear Friend

The books you were so kind as to deposite about two years and a half ago with Messers Wiley and Putnam have all been sold, but as they were left in your name it is needful in strict business that you should send an order to them to pay to me the amount due. I will therefore thank you to enclose me such an order at your earliest convenience in a letter addressed to your admiring friend,

Charles Lane

Post Office New York City

(The Correspondence of Henry David Thoreau, 168)

17 February 1847. Concord, Mass.

Thoreau lectures on “A History of Myself” at the Unitarian Church for the Concord Lyceum (Studies in the American Renaissance 1995, 151-152; MS, Concord Lyceum records. Concord (Mass.) Free Public Library).

17 February 1851. Concord, Mass.

Thoreau surveys White Pond (Journal, 2:165; A Catalog of Thoreau’s Surveys in the Concord Free Public Library, 12; Henry David Thoreau papers. Special Collections, Concord (Mass.) Free Public Library).

Thoreau writes in his journal on 18 February:

Yesterday the river was over the road by Hubbard’s Bridge. Surveyed White Pond yesterday, February 17th (Journal, 2:164).

17 February 1852. Concord, Mass.

Thoreau writes in his journal:

I see on the Walden road that the wind through the wall is cutting through the drifts, leaving a portion adhering to the stones . . . I saw Patrick Riordan carrying home an armful of fagots from the woods to his shanty, on his shoulder.

(Journal, 3:307-309)

Thoreau also writes to Marston Watson in reply to his letter of 15 February:

I have not yet seen Mr. [William Ellery] Channing, though I believe he is in town,—having decided to come to Plymouth myself,—but I will let him know that he is expected. Mr. [Daniel] Foster wishes me to say that he accepts your invitation, and that he would like to come Sunday after next; also that he would like to know before next Sunday whether you will expect him. I will take the Saturday afternoon train. I shall be glad to get a winter view of Plymouth Harbor, and to see where your garden lies under snow.

(The Correspondence of Henry David Thoreau, 276; A. Bronson Alcott: His Life and Philosophy, 1:483 note)

Concord, Mass. William Ellery Channing writes to Ralph Waldo Emerson:

Thoreau tells me that Frank Brown is going to Clarke’s Island near Plymouth to pass a year at farming (Studies in the American Renaissance, 1990, 197).

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