Page:Thoreau - His Home, Friends and Books (1902).djvu/15



ORTY years have now passed since the death of Thoreau; his recognition as naturalist and litterateur had gained incipient expression during the last few years of his life and his memory has won cumulative interest with each decade. During the last five years the enthusiastic study of nature, exampled both in schools and home-circles, has extended knowledge of Thoreau's writings and interest in his unique character beyond the special class of readers who represented, for many years, his clientèle. As evidence of this widening influence are the frequent sketches and reminiscences that have appeared in journals of varied scope. Since the two American biographies by his friends, Channing and Sanborn, there have been issued two volumes of Thoreau's letters, three volumes of his journal extracts, and sundry minor material which affords new, corrective light upon his character and genius. The biography by the English critic, Mr. Salt, in the Great Writers Series, is more recent and interesting yet it lacks certain important view-points. Mr. Sanborn's latest study of the personality of Thoreau expands or