A Timeless Place

150 Years After Henry David Thoreau Introduced 'Walden,' Readers Still Follow Him Into the Woods

It took five years to sell out the first printing of 2,000 copies. For students told to read it, "it can be a tough sell," one scholar says. And any number of readers, angry with the author's perceived preachiness, toss the book away half-read.

And yet "Walden," by Henry David Thoreau, is a universally acknowledged classic of American literature with yearly sales that most American authors today would bleed for.

"Walden," celebrating its sesquicentennial this month, is doing just fine. Indeed, it is a far bigger bookstore blockbuster today than when it was first published Aug. 9, 1854.

For every one of those readers who scorn the book, it seems, there are countless others who regard it as the great guide to a life lived well, if not a virtual bible.

"Walden," of course, is Thoreau's iconoclastic account of his 26 months living beside Walden Pond in Concord, Mass., beginning in July 1845, in a small cabin he built himself, a mile from any neighbor.

In scholarly circles, the "Walden" sesquicentennial has been an event for months. The Thoreau Society during July built its annual meeting in Concord around the book, including a tag-team public reading of the entire text. Many bookstores and libraries around the country are holding special readings or "Walden"-related events.

In the pantheon of American literature, "Walden" competes with enduring titans such as "Moby-Dick" or "Leaves of Grass." But, outdoing many other classics, "Walden" has been translated into scores of foreign languages -- and, in its many editions, is thought to sell in the six figures every year.

It doesn't hurt that "Walden" is chockablock with catchy quotes that show up on calendars and chapter headings all the time, all the better to keep its embers aglow. For example:

"The mass of men live lives of quiet desperation."

"Beware of all enterprises that require new clothes."

"Simplicity, Simplicity, Simplicity."

"If a man does not keep pace with his companions, perhaps it is because he hears a different drummer. Let him step to the music which he hears, however measured or far away."

You've seen them.

But "Walden" is much more. Its deepest appeal, scholars say, is its insistence that the reader ponder his or her life and ask whether it is the life the reader actually wants to live.