The Other "Hermit" of Thoreau's Walden Pond

The Sojourn of Edmond Stuart Hotham

Terry Barkley

• Publisher: Savas Publishing
• Year: 2019
• Print ISBN:
  9781611214819
• eBook ISBN:
  9781940669953
• Topic: History
• Subtopic: Historical Biographies
• Index: History

"Barkley's biography brings Hotham back to life and paints a picture of a complex and fascinating man." —Richard Smith, acclaimed Living History interpreter of Henry David Thoreau
 
Nearly seven years after Henry Thoreau died in 1862 of tuberculosis in Concord, Massachusetts, a young theological student from New York City arrived in Concord in November 1868. Edmond Hotham had never been there, but he immediately began preparations to pursue the "wild life." He met transcendentalist poet (William) Ellery Channing, a former close friend of Thoreau's who had suggested to Thoreau that he build his cabin at Walden Pond. It was Channing who likely introduced Hotham to transcendentalist leader Ralph Waldo Emerson (the "Sage of Concord"), and Emerson who gave Hotham permission, like Thoreau before him, to build his "Earth-cabin" on the poet's property at Walden Pond. Hotham built his shanty on the pond's shore about 100 yards in front of Thoreau's, where he attempted to out-economize and out-simplify Thoreau. Hotham's sojourn as the second "hermit" at Walden Pond exemplified the growing adulation of Henry David Thoreau and his literary work.
 
Author Terry Barkley has gleaned archival sources, vital records, period newspaper accounts, and census rolls for everything that is known about Edmond Hotham. The Other "Hermit" of Thoreau's Walden Pond is the first book-length treatise on Hotham, half of which is wholly new material. It far supersedes the late Kenneth Walter Cameron's 1962 article on Hotham, which until now was the most complete study of the man.
 
Barkley's groundbreaking study book is an important addition to the Concord-Walden Pond story and a fascinating read. To quote Thoreau, "What is once well done is done forever."

Table of contents

• Cover
• Title
• Copyright
• Dedication
• Contents
• Foreword by Richard Smith
• Introduction
• Chronology: Edmond Stuart Hotham (1835-1908)
• Prologue: “The New Hermit Will Grind
• Chapter One: Paddle Your Own Canoe
• Chapter Two: “The Only True Food for Man”
• Chapter Three: The First “Hermit” of Walden Pond
• Chapter Four: “A Family of Invalids”
• Chapter Five: Navy Seaman
• Chapter Six: Setting the Stage
• Chapter Seven: American Mecca
• Chapter Eight: Hotham’s Concord Intimates
• Chapter Nine: “The Wanderer”
• Chapter Ten: “Several More Lives to Live. . .”
• Chapter Eleven: Living in the Material World
• Chapter Twelve: Illness, Death, and Burial
• Epilogue: Return to Walden Pond
• Bibliography
• Acknowledgments
• About the Author