Walden: A Fully Annotated Edition - Hardcover

"A handsome `all-things-Walden' edition, copiously annotated by Jeffrey S. Cramer, curator of collections at the Thoreau Institute at Walden Woods."-Michael Kenney, Boston Sunday Globe "Cramer's side notes are like short, illuminating conversations."-Jacqueline Blais, USA Today "Meticulous and often fascinating annotations. . . . It is the paradox of Walden, and of all great literature that seeks to represent the real world, that by rooting his narrative so firmly in actualities of his own time and place, Thoreau created a work that remains vitally relevant to our own."-Robert Finch, Los Angeles Times Winner of the 2004 National Outdoor Book Award in the Outdoor Classic category These titles, among 25 others, will be presented to librarians at the annual American Library Association meeting Co-winner of the 2005 Julia Ware Howe Special Award sponsored by the Boston Authors Club Received rating of "Outstanding" from 2005 University Press Books Committee, Association of American University Presses (AAUP) Short listed for "The Best of the Best of the University Presses: Books You Should Know About" by the Association of American University Presses "Thoreau's masterpiece-here freshly refurbished by Jeffrey S. Cramer-speaks to our material and spiritual condition as powerfully as on the day it first appeared. Now, more than ever, Walden is our indispensable American book."-Alan D. Hodder, professor of comparative religion, Hampshire College "Cramer's notes are immensely useful. His edition of Walden will be a boon to ordinary readers and scholars alike."-Denis Donoghue, author of Speaking of Beauty "Jeffrey Cramer's Walden is the most accurate and readable text of Thoreau's masterpiece. Cramer's version now replaces all other available editions of Walden as the most attractive and reliable way to approach this great American book."-Joel Porte, author of Consciousness and Culture: Emerson and Thoreau Reviewed "Anyone who reads Thoreau in editions annotated by the great Jeffrey S. Cramer . . . will know everything there is to know about Thoreau and (amazingly) have a fun time learning it."-Sarah Payne Stuart, author of Perfectly Miserable: Guilt, God, and Real Estate in a Small Town

This is the authoritative edition of an American literaru classic: Henry David Thoreau's Walden, an elegantly written record of his experiment in simple living. With this edition, Thoreau scholar Jeffrey S. Cramer has meticulously corrected errors and omissions from previous editions of Walden and here provides illuminating notes on the biographical, historical, and geographical contexts of the great nineteenth-century writer and thinker's life. Cramer's newly edited text is based on the original 1854 edition of Walden, with emendations taken from Thoreau's draft manuscripts, his own markings on the page proofs, and notes in his personal copy of the book. In the editor's notes to the volume, Cramer quotes from sources Thoreau actually read, showing how he used, interpreted, and altered these sources. Cramer also glosses Walden with references to Thoreau's essays, journals, and correspondence. With the wealth of material in this edition, readers will find an unprecedented opportunity to immerse themselves in the unique and fascinating world of Thoreau. Anyone who has read and loved Walden will want to own and treasure this gift edition. Those wishing to read Walden for the first time will not find a better guide than Jeffrey S. Cramer.