Walking Towards Walden: A Pilgrimage in Search of Place [Paperback]

Walking Towards Walden is an exploration of the sense of place, what it means, how it developed, and why it matters. Based on an eighteenth-century literary device in which a group of friends undertake a walking tour and discuss a certain subject, this wide-ranging story emerges from the authors fifteen-mile bushwhack through woods, backyards, and marshesfrom a hilltop in Westford, Massachusetts, to the town of Concord, Massachusettstrespassing all along the way. A mock epic, complete with encounters with armed mercenaries and vicious dogs, the book covers all the aspects of placeart, literature, myth, and even music.

JOHN HANSON MITCHELL is the author of five books based on a single square mile known as Scratch Flat, as well as two travel books and the biography of the early African American landscape photographer Robert A. Gilbert. A winner of the John Burroughs Award for his nature essays, Mitchell was founder and editor of Sanctuary magazine, published by the Massachusetts Audubon Society. In 2000 he won the New England Book Award in nonfiction for his Scratch Flat series. He lives in Littleton, Massachusetts, the location of Scratch Flat.

Preface to the New Edition Place Pilgrimage Prospect Hill Vine Brook Nonset Brook Nashoba Brook Nagog Castle Rock Spencer Brook Marsh Thoreau Country Estabrook Mink Pond Punkatasset The Bridge Shambhala Epilogue