Page:Thoreau - His Home, Friends and Books (1902).djvu/343

Rh life or soon after his death. In addition to his contributions to The Dial, his only noteworthy essays were the study of Carlyle in Graham's, in 1847, a portion of "The Yankee in Canada" in Putnam's in 1853, and the article on "The Maine Woods" in the Atlantic which caused the strained relations with Lowell, already mentioned. He also contributed to the Democratic Review, and some other organs of anti-slavery trend. The year before Thoreau's death, Mr. James T. Fields succeeded to the editorship of the Atlantic. He had visited Thoreau at Walden and at Concord, was deeply interested in him as man and writer, and invited him to become a contributor to his magazine. The lectures on "Walking" and "Autumnal Tints," with the study of "Wild Apples," which have been mentioned, appeared a few months before his death, prepared and revised in that cheery sitting-room that refused to accept any suggestion of gloom or idleness. These essays are among the best work which bears Thoreau's name. They are breezy and cogent, fitting sequels to the active, nature-enshrined life of their author.

The papers on slavery themes are included in the volume of his essays. Here also is that fine study of Carlyle, so well conceived and executed that the reader regrets Thoreau's failure to act upon Greeley's