Thoreau's late career and The dispersion of seeds : the saunterer's synoptic vision / Michael Benjamin Berger.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Berger, Michael Benjamin, 1956-

Contributor:

Thoreau, Henry David, 1817-1862.

Series:

Studies in American literature, linguistics, and culture

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Thoreau, Henry David, 1817-1862. Dispersion of seeds.

Thoreau, Henry David.

Seeds--Dispersal.

Seeds.

Natural history--New England.

Natural history.

New England.

Physical Description:

xiii, 153 pages : illustrations ; 24 cm.

Place of Publication:

Rochester, NY ; Woodbridge, UK : Camden House, 2000.

Summary:

Until very recently no one knew of the existence of The Dispersion of Seeds, an ecological treatise written during the last years of Thoreau's life, which was reconstructed and edited and published for the first time in 1993. Thoreau's Late Career and the Dispersion of Seeds, the first full-length study of this important late work by Thoreau, analyzes literary Features of 'The Dispersion of Seeds' that make it an accomplished work of the imagination, and applies interdisciplinary scholarship in order to relate Thoreau's prescient ecology to scientific issues of his day and ours. It demonstrates that in his late career Thoreau was working as scientist and poet simultaneously. It also explores how Thoreau managed the philosophical and rhetorical tensions involved in bridging the supposed gap between science and poetry, and how, in his later career, he embraced the empirical method of scientific discovery while challenging the reductive assumptions of scientific materialism. In these specific ways this study advances new understandings of Thoreau's purposes and accomplishments during his post-Walden career.

Notes:

Includes bibliographical references (pages [133]-141) and index.

ISBN:

157113168X

OCLC:

43616064