Walking Towards Walden: A Pilgrimage in Search of Place

This book chronicles a day-long walk Mitchell took with a pair of friends back in the early 1990s from Westford to Concord, MA. The starting point for the ramble was the burial site of Henry Sinclair, who, according to legend, carved an armorial in stone near the site some 100 years before the arrival of Columbus. The small group of travelers wanted to experience, as much as possible the kind of terrain and sights Sinclair might have encountered, so they chose a route that avoided roads and settlements as much as possible. On the map, it was 16 miles of woods, thickets, swamps and old fields. As it turned out, they ended up hiking considerably more than 16 miles as they got lost a few times and had to make some detours to cross rivers and streams. The journey brought them at last to the Colonial Inn in Concord for a fine meal and conversation before their return home. Throughout the journey, Mitchell ponders the meaning of pilgrimage, and how this jaunt might be construed as a spiritual journey. As they meander through points of interest, Mitchell considers variously how this walk traces the path of the Colonial forces heading to Lexington that fateful day in 1775, how his relationship with his friends has developed through shared journeys over the years, and how the people presently living along the route relate to their environment. Is it a book about Walden? About Thoreau, or Emerson? Well, not exactly. On the other hand, in form, the book could be compared somewhat to Thoreau's "A Week on the Concord and Merrimack Rivers," with its wandering thoughts and erudite references.

Of all Mitchell's works, all uniformly very good and engaging, this one has always had a personal resonance for me. In the spirit of Thoreau himself (Himself?), Mitchell and chums saunter along on their pilgrimage to make sense of place, filled with far-ranging thoughts and comments about their neighbours and civilization in general. Walden Pond continues to draw us in, both for it beauty and historical importance to environmental thought. This book also draws us in as participants on that internal and external journey. For these reasons, the publisher Green Frigate Books recently solicited a front-end blurb from Mitchell for my recently published "Profitably Soaked: Thoreau's Engagment with Water."

These 300 pages describe both a physical journey, lasting but a day, overlaid with historical, architectural, artistic, anthropological, and literary musings of a richly cultivated mind. He writes, for example, upon viewing a stark landscape, "...I made the connection...This hollow...looks very much like the fourteenth-century Tuscan forest as envisioned by nineteenth-century French illustrator Gustave Dore."Making connections is Mitchell's forte. The narrative of a tramp through woods and sloughs brings to Mitchell's fertile imagination scenes enacted in the places they pass. He seamlessly inter-weaves the fascinating story of King Philip's War, described as "one of the first anti-imperialist efforts ... the first American revolution" alongside the war between the colonists and British regulars, "essentially a civil war." Rather than re-hash Thoreau's meditations in "Walden," Mitchell shares his own stream-of-consciousness, touching on "The Epic of Gilgamesh" and "The Wizard of Oz," "The Inferno" and some of Melville's "chief harpooners." Additionally, he offers an in-depth account of the way that nineteenth-century landscape painters changed the view of society toward their environment, suggesting that "It is doubtful that the preservation of a wilderness park would even have been considered if the painters hadn't been there first." Indeed, his descriptions are painterly, but he also succeeds in carefully bringing his companions and those they meet on the way to believable life.The book is divided into 18 chapters, fifteen of them given names of places traversed in each of the miles walked. These names, such as "Nonset Brook" and "Nagog" are less likely to register with the reader than the connections these places evoke in the mind of the author. Who can recall, for instance, that the etymology of "Key West" is to be found in "Mile 10: Thoreau Country?" Hopefully, an index in a later edition will make it easier for the reader to re-discover favorite passages.

The readers join Mitchell and his friends as they walk through an historical and artistic region of our nation. We discuss the history, nature, the people and the sights as we meet others along the walk. We walk along with Thoreau as well as Mitchell's fascinating friends. There are few books that I've enjoyed as much as this friendly hike. Mitchell is one of best of the current nature writers because he becomes a participant with the reader in enjoying nature and history.

Mr Mitchell combines a critical analysis of our history, nature and our American culture in a very insightful and entertaining way. This book is a quick read and well worth the full cover price.