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Ralph Waldo Emerson writes in his journal:

As Linnaeus delighted in finding that seven stamened flower which alone gave him a seventh class, or filled a gap in his system, so I know a man who served as intermediate between two notable acquaintances of mine, not else to be approximated: & W. E. C. [William Ellery Channing] served as a companion of H.D.T; & T. of C . . .

It is curious that Thoreau goes to a house to say with little preface what he has just read or observed, delivers it in lump, is quite inattentive to any comment or thought which any of the company offer on the matter, nay, is merely interrupted by it, &, when he has finished his report, departs with precipitation.

(The Journals and Miscellaneous Notebooks of Ralph Waldo Emerson, 14:74, 76)

late December 1838. Concord, Mass.

Thoreau writes his essay “Sound and Silence” in his journal:

Silence is the universal refuge, the sequel of all day discourses and all foolish acts, as balm to our every chagrin, as welcome after satiety as [after] disappointment; that background which the painter may not daub, be he master or bungler, and which, however awkward a figure be may have made in the foreground, remains ever our inviolable asylum.

(Journal, 1:64-69).

late July 1842. Concord, Mass.

Thoreau meets William Ellery Channing (Studies in the American Renaissance 1989, 132).

Late June or Early July 1853. Concord, Mass.

Ralph Waldo Emerson writes in his journal:

Sylvan could go wherever woods & waters were & no man was asked for leave. Once or twice the farmer withstood, but it was to no purpose,—he could as easily prevent the sparrows or tortoises. It was their land before it was his, & their title was precedent. S. knew what was on their land, & they did not; & he sometimes brought them ostentatiously gifts of flowers or fruits or shrubs which they would gladly have paid great prices for, & did not tell them that he took them from their own woods.

Moreover the very time at which he used their land & water (for his boat glided like a trout every where unseen,) was in hours when they were sound asleep. Long before they were awake he went up & down to survey like a sovereign his possessions, & he passed onward, & left them before the farmer came out of doors. Indeed it was the common opinion of the boys that Mr T. made Concord.

(The Journals and Miscellaneous Notebooks of Ralph Waldo Emerson, 13:187)

Late March 1845. Concord, Mass.

Thoreau writes in Walden:

Near the end of March, 1845, I borrowed an axe and went down to the woods by Walden Pond, nearest to where I intended to build my house, and began to cut down some tall arrowy white pines, still in their youth, for timber. It is difficult to begin without borrowing, but perhaps it is the most generous course thus to permit your fellow-men to have an interest in your enterprise. The owner of the axe, as he released his hold on it, said that it was the apple of his eye; but I returned it sharper than I received it. It was a pleasant hillside where I worked, covered with pine woods through which I looked upon the pond, and a small open field in the woods where the pines and hickories were springing up. The ice in the pond was not yet dissolved, though there were some open spaces, and it was all dark colored and saturated with water. There were some slight flurries of snow during the days that I worked there; but for the most part when I came out on to the railroad, on my way home, its yellow sand heap stretched away gleaming in the hazy atmosphere, and the rails shone in the spring sun, and I heard the lark and pewee and other birds already come to commence another year with us. They were pleasant spring days, in which the winter of man’s discontent was thawing as well as the earth, and the life that had lain torpid began to stretch itself.

(Walden, 45)

late May 1862. Cambridge, Mass.

Harvard Magazine prints a eulogy of Thoreau written by Storrow Higginson (Harvard Magazine, vol. 8, no. 74 (May 1862):313-318).

Late November 1849. Concord, Mass.

Ralph Waldo Emerson includes Thoreau in a list of people to whom he sends his Representative Men (The Journals and Miscellaneous Notebooks of Ralph Waldo Emerson, 11:188-9).

late October 1842. Concord, Mass.

Ralph Waldo Emerson writes in his journal:

H. T. made, last night, the fine remark that, as long as a man stands in his own way, every thing seems to be in his way, governments, society, and even the sun & moon & stars, as astrology may testify (The Journals and Miscellaneous Notebooks of Ralph Waldo Emerson, 8:307).

Late September 1846. Concord, Mass.

Ralph Waldo Emerson writes to Thoreau:

Will Mr Thoreau please bear in mind that when there is good mortar in readiness, Mr [James] Dean must be summoned to fit the air-tight stove to the chimney in the schoolroom; unless Mr T. can do it with convenience himself (The Correspondence (Princeton, 2013), 1:282).

Late Summer 1848.

Thoreau and William Ellery Channing go on a walking trip through the southern New Hampshire area. The four day trip takes them to Tyngsborough, Dunstable, Moore’s Falls, Mount Uncanoonuc, Goffstown, and Hooksett before they stay one night at Caleb Harriman’s tavern in Hampstead and go through Plaistow and Haverhill on their way back to Concord, Mass.

(The Days of Henry Thoreau, 233-234)

Channing writes about their trek:

Once walking in old Dunstable, he much desired the town history by C[harles]. J[ames]. Fox of Nashua [History of the old township of Dunstable: including Nashua, Nashville, Hollis, Hudson, Litchfield, and Merrimac, N.H.; Dunstable and Tyngsborough, Mass.]; and, knocking, as usual, at the best house, he went in and asked a young lady who made her appearance whether she had the book in question. She had,—it was produced. After consulting it, Thoreau in his sincere way inquired very modestly whether she “would not sell it to him.” I think the plan surprised her, and have heard that she smiled; but he produced his wallet, gave her the pistareen, and went his way rejoicing with the book, which remained in his small library.

(Thoreau the Poet-Naturalist, 34-35)

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