{"id":136226,"date":"2018-04-05T08:10:46","date_gmt":"2018-04-05T12:10:46","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/?p=136226"},"modified":"2023-06-27T12:18:17","modified_gmt":"2023-06-27T16:18:17","slug":"thorsons-guide-walden-pond","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/2018\/04\/thorsons-guide-walden-pond\/","title":{"rendered":"Thorson’s Guide to Walden Pond"},"content":{"rendered":"

When geologist Robert Thorson re-read Henry David Thoreau\u2019s Walden Pond<\/em> several years ago to prepare for co-teaching a class titled \u201cWalden and the American Landscape\u201d in an American Studies honors program,\u00a0he found himself drawn to Thoreau\u2019s prose and began, quite literally, to explore the landscape of Walden Woods.<\/p>\n

Immersing himself in Thoreau\u2019s journals, he got to know the scientist who recorded observations of the land and its environment.<\/p>\n

In 2014, Thorson published the first book in his re-assessment of Thoreau\u2019s legacy, titled Walden\u2019s Shore.<\/em>\u00a0Last year, he completed this re-assessment with The Boatman: Henry David Thoreau’s River Years<\/em> (2017).<\/p>\n

When he discovered there was no guidebook to one of America\u2019s most iconic places, he suggested writing a visitor\u2019s guide to Walden Pond, which is visited each year by half a million people.<\/p>\n

\"WaldenPond_ScotMillerCopyright\"<\/a>
WaldenPond_ScotMillerCopyright<\/div>
An aerial view of Walden Pond. (Copyright Scot Miller, reproduced with permission)<\/div><\/div>\"A<\/a>
A view of Thoreau\u2019s Cove from the western side at Stop 10. Two people on the beach provide scale for the cover and the sandbar. (Robert Thorson\/UConn Photo)<\/div>
IMGp94Thoreau'sCoveAcrossHighRescopy_cropped<\/div>
A view of Thoreau\u2019s Cove from the western side at Stop 10. Two people on the beach provide scale for the cover and the sandbar. (Robert Thorson\/UConn Photo)<\/div><\/div>\"The<\/a>
The eastern side of Thoreau\u2019s Cove at low water, with a southwesterly view over the sandbar at its mouth. (Robert Thorson\/UConn Photo)<\/div>
IMGp84ThoreausCoveDarkBar copy<\/div>
The eastern side of Thoreau\u2019s Cove at low water, with a southwesterly view over the sandbar at its mouth. (Robert Thorson\/UConn Photo)<\/div><\/div>\"The<\/a>
The title page photo from Robert Thorson's new guide book to Walden Pond. (Robert Thorson\/UConn Photo)<\/div>
WaldenBlue copy_cropped<\/div>
The title page photo from Robert Thorson's new guide book to Walden Pond. (Robert Thorson\/UConn Photo)<\/div><\/div>\"Looking<\/a>
Looking back across the central basin to Deep Cover over a layer of thin ice. (Robert Thorson\/UConn Photo)<\/div>
72IceCircleDeepCoveBESTcopy_cropped<\/div>
Looking back across the central basin to Deep Cover over a layer of thin ice. (Robert Thorson\/UConn Photo)<\/div><\/div><\/div><\/div>\n

Working in collaboration with the Walden Woods Project, the organization founded in 1990 by musician Don Henley, Thorson has just published the first guide to Walden Pond:\u00a0The Guide to Walden Pond: An Exploration of the History, Nature, Landscape, and Literature of One of America’s Most Iconic Places<\/em> (2018).<\/p>\n

He spoke with UConn 360 about the book, which he admits has an unusual approach. He discusses what he wrote, why Walden Pond is a special place, the return of Thoreau\u2019s journal to his writing desk, and what he learned from writing The Guide to Walden Pond. \u00a0<\/em><\/p>\n

Listen to the interview here:<\/em><\/p>\nhttps:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/04\/GUIDE-TO-WALDEN-POND-EDITED-MIX-2.mp3<\/a><\/audio>\n

For the full podcast and other episodes, go to the\u00a0UConn 360 website<\/a>.\u00a0<\/em><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

When UConn geologist Robert Thorson discovered there was no guidebook to one of America’s most iconic places, he set out to write one himself.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":18,"featured_media":136231,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_crdt_document":"","wds_primary_category":0,"wds_primary_series":0,"wds_primary_attribution":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[2226,2141,2076,2387,2225,2234],"tags":[],"magazine-issues":[],"coauthors":[1918],"class_list":["post-136226","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-clas","category-podcast","category-research","category-sustainability","category-uconn-storrs","category-university-life"],"pp_statuses_selecting_workflow":false,"pp_workflow_action":"current","pp_status_selection":"publish","acf":[],"publishpress_future_action":{"enabled":false,"date":"2026-04-25 23:46:22","action":"change-status","newStatus":"draft","terms":[],"taxonomy":"category","extraData":[]},"publishpress_future_workflow_manual_trigger":{"enabledWorkflows":[]},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/posts\/136226","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/users\/18"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=136226"}],"version-history":[{"count":7,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/posts\/136226\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":136557,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/posts\/136226\/revisions\/136557"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/media\/136231"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=136226"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=136226"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=136226"},{"taxonomy":"magazine-issue","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/magazine-issues?post=136226"},{"taxonomy":"author","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/coauthors?post=136226"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}