A perfect hero to the hippie culture. Tongue in cheek.
SJR
On Tue, Jul 12, 2011 at 4:22 PM, Harry Glasgow <harry.glasgow@xxxxxxxxx> wrote:
In April of 1844, Henry David Thoreau and a
friend accidently set fire to 300 acres of forest belonging to three of his
fellow townsmen. This incident only
added to the reputation held by many of the citizens of Concord, Massachusetts
where he was born on this date in 1817, that he was an irresponsible, somewhat
lazy oaf. The local newspaper estimated
the loss to the three owners at $2000, which Thoreau never paid. (The
friend’s father, a local judge, eventually
paid the cost). I use this not so
complimentary occurrence to mark the anniversary of Thoreau’s birth to point
out that while he occupies a central place in the pantheon of the heroes of
American Nature writers, Thoreau was human, and like all of us, made
mistakes. But it doesn’t matter too much – Thoreau gave
us so much in his thinking, writing, and focus on the natural world that his
humanity simply enriches the image. In
an attempt to maintain the theme of birds, we use his birth date to commend
the
volume entitled “Thoreau on Birds”, first published in 1910. This is an
anthology of Thoreau’s Journal
entries about birds that appeals to all of us who love birds as he did.
Harry Glasgow
Friends of Huntley Meadows
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