A chronological narrative of Walden history explains the reasons for Thoreau's decision to build a home in the woods and recounts physical alterations made to Walden in the name of public access and safety.

... This report documents present (1997-1999) conditions and baseline data for Walden Pond that can be used to understand aquifer and lake water levels and water quality conditions; also available on the internet at: water.usgs.gov/pubs/wri/wri014137/ (or purl.access.gpo.gov/gpo/cps23685) ...

“I didn’t realize there was another ‘hermit’ of Walden Pond!” is the usual response author-historian Terry Barkley receives when he tells someone the subject of his new book. Henry David Thoreau’s experiment there from 1845-1847 is widely known and immortalized in his classic Walden; or, Life in the Woods (1854).

This lavishly illustrated volume examines the major figures of the Transcendentalist movement and explores the places that inspired them. Beginning with Transcendentalism’s birth in Boston and Cambridge, the book charts the development of a movement that revolutionized American ideas about the artistic, spiritual, and natural worlds. At the same time,

Walden's Shore explores Thoreau's understanding of the "living rock" on which life's complexity depends--not as metaphor but as physical science. Robert Thorson's subject is Thoreau the rock and mineral collector, interpreter of landscapes, and field scientist whose compass and measuring stick were as important to him as his plant press.