A thoughtfully researched, movingly presented dual-biography of two iconic American writers, each trying to find the ideal friend with whom they could share their journey through our imperfect world.
Any biography that concentrates on either Henry David Thoreau or Ralph Waldo Emerson tends to diminish the other figure, but in Solid Seasons both men remain central and equal. Through several decades of writing, friendship remained a primary theme for them both.
Collecting extracts from the letters and journals of both men, as well as words written about them by their contemporaries, Jeffrey S. Cramer beautifully illustrates the full nature of their twenty-five-year dialogue. Biographers like to point at the crisis in their friendship, focusing particularly on Thoreau's disappointment in Emerson-rarely on Emerson's own disappointment in Thoreau-and leaving it there, a friendship ruptured. But the solid seasons remained, as is evident when, in 1878, Anne Burrows Gilchrist, the English writer and friend of Whitman, visited Emerson. She wrote that his memory was failing "as to recent names and topics but as is usual in such cases all the mental impressions that were made when he was in full vigour remain clear and strong." As they chatted, Emerson called to his wife, Lidian, in the next room, "What was the name of my best friend?"
"Henry Thoreau," she answered.
"Oh, yes," Emerson repeated. "Henry Thoreau."
Praise for I to Myself: An Annotated Selection from the Journal of Henry D. Thoreau
"The Journal, even more than Walden or the essays 'Civil Disobedience' and 'A Life Without Principle,' has come to look like [Thoreau's] most significant contribution to American literature. Thanks to the judicious editing of Jeffrey S. Cramer, who has whittled down the 39 manuscript volumes to 500 pages, we now have the first broadly representative selection from the Journal to appear in 40 years." -The Guardian
Praise for Essays by Henry D. Thoreau: A Fully Annotated Edition
"The cross-references that Cramer includes among his annotations are particularly valuable? For anyone who wants to trace Thoreau's references to phenomena or the evolution of his ideas, these sorts of annotations are not only invaluable but relatively difficult to find in Thoreau studies. All readers of Thoreau are thus well served by Cramer." -Review 19
Praise for Walden: A Fully Annotated Edition
"A handsome, 'all-things-Walden' edition" -Boston Globe
"Cramer's side notes are like short, illuminating conversations." -USA Today
"Cramer's notes are immensely useful. His edition of Walden will be a boon to ordinary readers and scholars alike."-Denis Donoghue, author of Speaking of Beauty
"Thoreau's masterpiece-here freshly refurbished by Jeffrey S. Cramer-speaks to our material and spiritual condition as powerfully as on the day it first appeared. Now, more than ever, Walden is our indispensable American book."-Alan D. Hodder, Professor of Comparative Religion, Hampshire College
"Jeffrey Cramer's Walden is the most accurate and readable text of Thoreau's masterpiece. Cramer's version now replaces all other available editions of Walden as the most attractive and reliable way to approach this great American book."-Joel Porte, author of Consciousness and Culture: Emerson and Thoreau Reviewed
Praise for Robert Frost Among His Poems
"Indispensable for Frost studies." -Choice
"In the past seven years-indeed in this decade-we have seen the appearance of major critical studies on Frost? ground-breaking studies by? Jeffrey Cramer." -Earl J. Wilcox, The Robert Frost Review
"Cramer's hugely helpful book meticulously describes the literary and biographical context in which individual poems were written." -Diane Rehm Blog
