Louisa May Alcott’s grave and U.S. veteran marker honoring her service
TOP TEN Tall Tales Told on Tours (PART II)
See our winter issue for Tales 1-5...
6 | Thoreau-ly Misrepresented Perhaps none of Concord’s authors has been judged and characterized to the extent that Henry David Thoreau has, and interestingly, the claims about him span a complete spectrum. Upon their first visit to Walden, visitors are often surprised that Thoreau wasn’t the absolute mad-haired, isolated hermit they often assumed him to be, whereas those more familiar with Thoreau will often take the other extreme view, that since Henry would walk into Concord and go “home” to mom’s cooking and laundering skills his whole living in the woods experiment was actually a fraud. The truth lies somewhere in the middle; Thoreau wasn’t isolated, but he WAS often alone, and while he did grow his own crops and cook them, he sometimes enjoyed meals at home with his family. 48
Discover CONCORD
| Spring 2021
©Richard Smith
A COLLABORATIVE WORK BY ALIDA V. ORZECHOWSKI, BETH VAN DUZER, AND RICHARD SMITH OF CONCORD TOUR COMPANY
And what of the notion that Thoreau was “squatting” on the land near Walden Pond on which he built his cabin? While he does make light of this in a pun (“I put no manure whatever on this land, not being the owner, but merely a squatter…”) the truth is that Ralph Waldo Emerson was perfectly aware of and even encouraging of his odd tenant that took up residence — with permission — on the Emerson family wood lot. Thoreau paid no rent, but he was expected to clear brush and brambles, which he did so he could grow his beans. 7 | That Time Thoreau Went to Jail and Emerson Didn’t Visit The story is well known: in July of 1846, while walking into Concord from his Walden
Pond house to have a shoe repaired, Henry Thoreau was stopped by constable Sam Staples and asked to pay his poll tax for the year. When Thoreau refused, as a protest against the Mexican War, Staples arrested Thoreau and put him in the Concord jail. Thoreau would spend one night in the Concord jail. He would be released the next morning because the tax was paid — not by him, but by someone else, probably his aunt, Maria Thoreau. There is a story that claims that Ralph Waldo Emerson visited Thoreau while he was in jail. When he saw his young friend behind bars he asked, “Henry why are you in jail?” Thoreau cheekily replied, “Waldo, why are you NOT in jail?” A great story — but it NEVER happened. In fact, Emerson knew
