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25 October 1837. Concord, Mass.

Thoreau writes in his journal: 

  She appears [Spring], and we are once more children; we commence again our course with the new year. Let the maiden no more return, and men will become poets for very grief. No sooner has winter left us time to regret her smiles, than we yield to the advances of poetic frenzy (Journal, 1:4).
25 October 1843. Concord, Mass.

Ralph Waldo Emerson writes to Thoreau:

Dear Henry,—

  I have your letter this evening by the advent of Mrs [Timothy] Fuller to [William] Ellery C[hanning] and am heartily glad of the robust greeting. Ellery brought it to me & as it was opened wondered whether he had not some right to expect a letter. So I read him what belonged to him. He is usually in good spirits & always in good wit, forms stricter ties with George Minott, and is always merry with the dulness of a world which will not support him. I am sorry you will dodge my hunters, T[appan] & W[aldo]. T. is a very satisfactory person only I could be very willing he should read a little more. he speaks seldom but easily & strongly, & moves like a deer. H James too has gone to England—I am the more sorry because you liked him so well. In Concord no events. We have had the new Hazlitt’s Montaigne which contained the “Journey into Italy”—new to me, & the narrative of the death of the renowned friend Etienne de la Boétie. Then I have had Saadis’ Gulistan Ross’s translation; and Marot; & Roman de la Rose; and Robert of Gloucester’s rhymed chronicle. Where are my translations of Pindar for the Dial? Fail not to send me something good & strong. They send us the “Revista Ligure,” a respectable magazine from Genoa; “la Democratie Pacifique,” a bright daily paper from Paris; the Deutsche Schnellpost,—German New York paper; and Phalanx from London; the New Englander from New Haven, which angrily affirms that the Dial is not as good as the Bible. By all these signs we infer that we make some figure in the literary world though we are not yet encouraged by a swollen publication list. Lidian says she will write you a note herself. If as we have heard, you will come home to Thanksgiving, you must bring something that will serve for Lyceum lecture—the craving thankless town!

Yours affectionately,
Waldo Emerson—

(The Correspondence of Henry David Thoreau, 148-149; MS, Ralph Waldo Emerson collection of papers (Series III). Henry W. and Albert A. Berg Collection of English and American Literature, New York Public Library)
25 October 1848.

James Russell Lowell’s A Fable for Critics is published in which he refers to Thoreau:

There comes—, for instance; to see him’s a rare sport,
Tread in Emerson’s tracks with legs painfully short;
How he jumps, how he strains, and gets red in the face,
To keep step with the mystagogue’s natural pace!
He follows as close as a stick to a rocket,
His fingers exploring the prophet’s each pocket.
Fie, for shame, brother bard; with good fruit of your own,
Can’t you let neighbor Emerson’s orchards alone?
Besides, ’tis no use, you’ll not find e’en a core,—
—has picked up all the windfalls before.
They might strip every tree, and E. never would catch ’em,
His Hesperides have no rude dragon to watch ’em;
When they send him a dishfull, and ask him to try ’em,
He never suspects how the sly rogues came by ’em;
He wonders why ’tis there are none such his trees on,
And thinks ’em best he has tasted this season.
(A Fable for Critics, 32)
25 October 1851. Concord, Mass.

Thoreau writes in his journal on 26 October:

  Last evening I was reading Laing’s account of the Northmen, and though I did not write in my Journal, I remember feeling a fertile regret, and deriving even an inexpressible satisfaction, as it were, from my ability to feel regret, which made that evening richer than those which had preceded it.
(Journal, 3:82)

Concord, Mass. Ralph Waldo Emerson records in his account book:

  Paid H. D. Thoreau for surveys 1.00 (Ralph Waldo Emerson’s account books, 1836-72. Houghton Library, Harvard University, Cambridge, Mass.).
25 October 1852. Concord, Mass.

Thoreau writes in his journal:

  Monday. P.M.—Down river to Ball’s Hill in boat.

  Another perfect Indian-summer day. One of my oars makes a creaking sound like a block in a harbor, such a sound as would bring tears into an old sailor’s eyes. It suggests to me adventure and seeking one’s fortune . . .

  The autumnal tints grow gradually darker and duller, but not less rich to my eye. And now a hillside near the river exhibits the darkest, crispy reds and browns of every hue, all agreeably blended. At the foot, next the meadow, stands a front rank of smoke-like maples bare of leaves, intermixed with yellow birches . . .

(Journal, 4:399-400)
25 October 1853. Concord, Mass.

Thoreau writes in his journal:

  7 A.M.—To Hubbard’s Grove . . .

  P.M.—Sailed down river to the pitch pine hill behind Abner Buttrick’s, with a strong northwest wind, and cold. Saw a telltale on Cheney’s shore, close to the water’s edge . . .

(Journal, 5:451-453).

Thoreau writes to Ticknor & Fields on 24 February 1862:

  Oct. 25th 1853 I received from Munroe & Co. the following note; “We send by express this day a box & bundle containing 250 copies of Concord River, & also 450. in sheets. All of which we trust you will find correct.”
(The Correspondence of Henry David Thoreau, 637)
25 October 1854. Concord, Mass.

Thoreau writes in his journal:

  On Assabet.

  The maples being bare, the great hornet nests are exposed . . . (Journal, 7:66).

Cambridge, Mass. Thoreau checks out The Vishnu puráńa, a system of Hindu mythology and tradition from Harvard College Library (Companion to Thoreau’s Correspondence, 290).

25 October 1855. Concord, Mass.

Thoreau writes in his journal:

  P.M.—I row up the river, which has risen eight or nine inches . . . (Journal, 7:517).
25 October 1856. Perth Amboy, N.J.

Thoreau writes in his journal:

  Saw, at Barnum’s Museum, the stuffed slain of a cougar that was found floating dead in the, Hudson many years ago. The stuffed jaguar there looks rather the largest. Had seen a clergyman in Worcester the previous afternoon (at Higginson’s) who told me of one killed near the head of the Delaware, in New York State, by an acquaintance of his . . .  Arrived at Eagleswood, Perth Amboy, Saturday, 5 P.M., October 25th.

(Journal, 9:133-134)

On 1 November, Thoreau writes to his sister Sophia:

  I arrived here about 30 miles from N.Y. about 5 pm Saturday, in company with Miss E[lizabeth]. Peabody, who was returning in the same covered Wagon from the Landing to Eagleswood, which last place she has just left for the winter. This is a queer place—There is one large long stone building, which cost some $40000, in which I do not know exactly who or how many work—(one or two familiar faces, & more familiar names have turned up )—a few shops & offices, an old farm house and Mr [Marcus] Spring’s perfectly private residence within 20 rods of the main building. “The City of Perth Amboy” is about as big as Concord, and Eagleswood is 1 1/4 miles S W of it, on the bay side. The central fact here is evidently Mr [Theodore] Weld’s school—recently established—around which various other things revolve. Saturday evening I went to the school room, hall, or what not, to see the children & their teachers & patrons dance. Mr Weld, a kind looking man with a long white beard, danced with them, & Mr [E. J.] Cutler his assistant, lately from Cambridge, who is acquainted [with F. B.] Sanborn, Mr Spring—and others. This Sat. eve-dance is a regular thing, & it is thought something strange if you dont attend. They take it for granted that you want Society!
(The Correspondence of Henry David Thoreau, 438-440)
25 October 1857. Concord, Mass.

Thoreau writes in his journal:

  A rainy day and easterly wind,—an easterly storm. I see flying very high over the meadow, from the east, eleven large birds, leisurely circling a little by the way, surveying the bare meadow. I think they must be fish hawks . . .
(Journal, 10:125-126)

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