The writing of Henry David Thoreau is as full of life today as it was when he pu
blished Walden one hundred years ago. In seeking to understand nature, Thoreau s
ought to "lead a fresh, simple life with God." In 1848 a seeker named Harrison B
lake, yearning for a spiritual life of his own, asked the then-fledgling writer
for guidance. The fifty letters that ensued, collected here for the first time i
n their own volume by Thoreau specialist Bradley P. Dean, are by turns earnest,
oracular, witty, playful, practical and deeply insightful and inspiring, as one
would expect from America's best prose stylist and great moral philosopher."
