Wild Fruits: Thoreau's Rediscovered Last Manuscript

I received Wild Fruits from my parents for Christmas, read it last spring, and finally have gotten around to writing a small, informal review. First of all, I'd like to thank Dr. Dean for bringing this last Thoreau manuscript to light-- he has done a great service to Thoreau enthusiasts, lovers of literature and nature, and posterity with this work (I'd tell him personally but I seem to have misplaced his e-mail address).There isn't a great deal I feel need to add, as previous reviewers have done a good job already. Over the past year, Thoreau's words on these wild fruits have been steeped in my consciousness. Henry's loving, beautiful depictions of these various gifts of nature were with me as I worked this summer at a garden center, realizing that Henry's "shad bush" and our "serviceberry" were one and the same. After reading this book, I was much more aware of the fruits of my own native Michigan fields and woods-- blackberries, rose hips, elderberries, wild grapes, and viburnums were all there this summer, more numerous and beautiful than ever before. I found myself collecting and tasting plants I never would have thought to try before, Henry's words openened a whole new world to me. Then, in August, I made a pilgrimage to Massachusetts, looking for and tasting the fruits of New England, even the fabled huckleberries, on Cape Cod National Seashore and in the Walden Woods, as I sauntered along the railroad tracks into Concord from the pond. Even this fall, when I came back to my university in Colorado, I discovered and gathered the fruits of the prickly pear cactus, and have saved the seeds, hoping to possibly propagate them.Read these last sweet words from our friend Henry-- let him teach you to love the simple natural joy that can be found nestled among the shrub-oaks and pitch pines: our free, wild American fruits.

At this time of the year, I am off to the local forests, parks, etc. with my dogs, to walk along and fill my lungs with hopefully clean air. The dogs and I like to kick up the leaves, and they sniff about a great deal, undoubtedly detecting one animal or another. As I look up, I see the walnuts clinging to their mother branches, standing out against the sky as Thoreau said they would. Many nuts fall long after the leaves. This is a lovely book, and the next best experience you can have to a long walk in the woods. Bradley Dean, the Editor, could have called it "A Walk in the Woods with Henry David Thoreau." Thoreau sniffs, he tastes, he feels, he draws what he sees. And he invites the reader to do the same. Walden Forest and the surrounding countryside Thoreau knew are threatened, but some are trying to conserve what remains. Among other bits of information the reader can find in this book is how to join the crusade to save Waldon Forest. Sadly, the American countryside Thoreau describes has been disappearing. Even 50 years ago, small farms were the norm, and hedgerows and creeks between farms harbored all sorts of wild things. Although DDT introduced after WWII had done a bit of damage to some of the wildlife, herbicides, pesticides, and huge commercial farms had not yet driven everything except a monocrop out of existence. One could walk along the country lane and find blackberries, chokeberries, cranberries, gooseberries, and blueberries in their many forms. Wild cherries and crabapples were abundant. Have you found crabapple jelly at the supermarket lately? I had to send off to a mail order company to buy it. Crabapples are native species, but they are in decline. Wild fruits we took for granted have been driven to the brink of extinction. When I was in fourth grade, our teacher Mrs. Bryant took us to visit a brook that ran through our neighborhood. The brook was lined with a small forest, even though it backed up onto housing. There we found wild Trilliums and Mandrakes, signs of the Ovenbird, and a creek filled with Crawfish who scurried away when you moved the rocks that hid them. The creek was clear as glass, and we did not hesitate to drink the water--the thought we might become sick never entered our minds. A creek runs through my grandchildren's neighborhood, and it's lined with concrete where it doesn't run through a culvert--flood control to protect housing built where it ought not be built. Thoreau writes beautifully, as everyone who ever read him knows. In "Wild Fruits" -- his last known work -- he describes the excursions he made into the woods, thickets, swamps, and fields during the last years of his short life (d. age 44). The journal entries/essays cover the seasons of the year, and are arranged by type of fruit--for the most part. Thoreau is humorous, thoughful, and instructive. In the section on autumn fruits, Thoreau describes his friend who suggested they wear the stick-tights acquired on their pantaloons on an

Legendary nineteenth-century environmentalist, philosopher, and writer Henry David Thoreau has had a profound effect on American literature and ecology. His honest and poetic, down-to-earth writing style has inspired millions, influencing how we think about the natural resources around us. Wild Fruits, the recently published rediscovered text, is a collection of final notes from three years of writing and research (Thoreau died in 1862 just before completing the book). The pages were in storage at the Berg Collection in the New York Public Library until Thoreau specialist, Bradley P. Dean chanced upon them, and began decoding Thoreau's notoriously difficult handwriting. The actual text of Thoreau's Wild Fruits takes up only a fraction of the book-239 of its 409 pages. Dean then includes a chronology of Thoreau's life, other notes Thoreau took during the writing of Wild Fruits, a glossary of botanical terms, and notes on the original manuscript. The elegantly composed chapters catalog the berries and fruits of New England, with beautiful pen and ink illustrations and botanicals. Thoreau's observations leave nothing untouched. His talent for finding beauty in the smallest things is well represented in his descriptions of the flowering of black spruce, the arrivals of thimble berry, and fall bayberry-to name just a few. Thoreau's ability to find the sacred in commonplace is replete throughout Wild Fruits. A favorite passage celebrates seasonal flora and fauna: "Live in each season as it passes; breathe the air, drink the drink, taste the fruit...be blown by all the winds. Open all your pores and bathe in all the tides of Nature, in all her streams and oceans, at all seasons." In a time when we spend more and more hours in front of computer screens and on commutes rather then resting beneath birches or walking along river banks, Thoreau provides the inspiration to rediscover nature, and lose oneself in forest, prairie, and mountains. His words to fellow townspeople a century ago are still appropriate to today's populous: "It is my own way of living that I complain of as well as yours, and therefore I trust my remarks will come home to you...we have behaved like oxen in a flower garden. The true fruit of Nature can only be plucked with a fluttering heart and a delicate hand, not bribed by any earthly reward." -Heather K. Scott

Having read a good portion of Thoreau's diaries, I expected to find little else in this new manuscript. I was wrong. I found more and better observations on nature - specifics on white pine cone seed disbursement is hardly water cooler talk and not for everyone - written in a manner that is interesting and relevant. Intertwined with the topic of wild fruit and seed information is more of Thoreau's philosophy, that which has driven me to read him for all these years.If you like Thoreau, you simply cannot fail to read this piece of his puzzle. I can't wait for someone to tackle and publish what remains of his unpublished work. Finally, I must say that while closing the final page I was struck with a deep appreciation for the immense effort involved in publishing this book, given the quality of his handwriting and the poor organization of the manuscript. It is indeed appreciated.

I finally tried to read On Walden Pond a few Summers ago and I just couldn't force my way through it. I got sick of the way the author kept slamming farmers while suggesting a life of berry picking in the woods as the real way to go. Even the editor that put "Wild Fruits" together says "...in the popular mind..a querulous hermit... ." But then, "Recently the popular mind has had to expand itself to include...a third of his life: the one spent closely observing and eloquently reporting on natural phenomena-Thoreau the protoecologist."It's enough to be a Prophet but really you need to write that Testament too, "Wild Fruit" is Thoreau's and it is wonderful. More poetic than Walden and less insular this book contains great wisdom and it's fun to read. I'm only 1/3rd through the book but even the 22 page essay on Black Huckleberry alone is justification for reading the whole book.Emerson said at Thoreau's funeral that "The country knows not yet, or in the least part, how great a son it has lost." I didn't until I started reading "Wild Fruits" and now it's very obvious he's one of the most important Americans to have ever lived.