Now Comes Good Sailing Writers Reflect on Henry David Thoreau

From twenty-seven of today's leading writers, an anthology of original pieces on the author of WaldenFeatures essays by Jennifer Finney Boylan  Kristen Case  George Howe Colt  Gerald Early  Paul Elie  Will Eno  Adam Gopnik  Lauren Groff  Celeste Headlee  Pico Iyer  Alan Lightman  James Marcus  Megan Marshall  Michelle Nijhuis  Zoë Pollak  Jordan Salama  Tatiana Schlossberg  A. O. Scott  Mona Simpson  Stacey Vanek Smith  Wen Stephenson  Robert Sullivan  Amor Towles  Sherry Turkle  Geoff Wisner  Rafia Zakaria  and a cartoon by Sandra BoyntonThe world is never done catching up with Henry David Thoreau (1817-1862), the author of Walden, "Civil Disobedience," and other classics. A prophet of environmentalism and vegetarianism, an abolitionist, and a critic of materialism and technology, Thoreau even seems to have anticipated a world of social distancing in his famous experiment at Walden Pond. In Now Comes Good Sailing, twenty-seven of today's leading writers offer wide-ranging original pieces exploring how Thoreau has influenced and inspired them-and why he matters more than ever in an age of climate, racial, and technological reckoning.Here, Lauren Groff retreats from the COVID-19 pandemic to a rural house and writing hut, where, unable to write, she rereads Walden; Pico Iyer describes how Thoreau provided him with an unlikely guidebook to Japan; Gerald Early examines Walden and the Black quest for nature; Rafia Zakaria reflects on solitude, from Thoreau's Concord to her native Pakistan; Mona Simpson follows in Thoreau's footsteps at Maine's Mount Katahdin; Jennifer Finney Boylan reads Thoreau in relation to her experience of coming out as a trans woman; Adam Gopnik traces Thoreau's influence on the New Yorker editor E. B. White and his book Charlotte's Web; and there's much more.The result is a lively and compelling collection that richly demonstrates the countless ways Thoreau continues to move, challenge, and provoke readers today.

ISBN:	9780691215228
Publisher:	Princeton University Press
Imprint:	Princeton University Press
Published date:	19 Oct 2021
DEWEY:	818.309
DEWEY edition:	23
Language:	English
Number of pages:	368
Weight:	626g
Height:	152mm
Width:	223mm
Spine width:	34mm

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