Thumbing Through Thoreau by Kenny Luck

Pages: Hardcover, 320 pages
Publisher: Tribute Books (April 19, 2010)

On July 4, 1845, when Henry David Thoreau moved into his cabin on the shores of Walden Pond, he was probably unaware that his abode in the woods, and the impact and influence of that endeavor, would forever echo through time.

Thoreau was an uncompromising idealist; an ardent maverick who criticized his fellow man. He urged that men and women ought to live more simply, and more deliberately. “The mass of men,” he famously wrote, “lead lives of quite desperation.”

Yet the scope of Thoreau’s message is much wider than social criticism. He speaks of spiritual transcendence in Nature and the unbounded potential of the individual. Thoreau is a dreamer and he speaks to dreamers. In a word, shun dogmatism and demagoguery; see beyond the immediate conventional religious explanations to reap a higher understanding.

In our commodified contemporary American society, with the rise of religious intolerance and fundamentalism, materialism and mass consumerism, Thoreau’s message is needed now more than ever.

Author Kenny Luck has thumbed through Thoreau’s voluminous journals, correspondences and other publications to make this the most comprehensive collection of Thoreau aphorisms available.

Illustrators Jay Luke and Ren Adams lend their talents to artistically interpret Thoreau's vision. Each quote is accompanied by an original drawing.

A collaboration of three individuals breathes new life into the immortal words of Henry David Thoreau.

I love quotes and have one on my board every day for my students. This book was full of some of Thoreau's greatest quotes and had beautiful illustrations throughout. The collaborations within this book portray the beauty of words as well as the simplicity of nature at its best. This book will make a wonderful addition to a coffee table, classroom, bookshelf, or bedside table because it is one that you want to thumb through and take your time pondering what Thoreau had to say. Beautifully done!

Some samples can be viewed here.

Happy reading everyone!