I got the biography by Laura Dassow Walls back from the library. It's a long book and I have a big pile of books I mostly ignore, but I hope to finish it.
He's just published his first book, and he assumed the risk of publishing and his first book ended up costin him $290 in a time when the square hut he built on Walden Pond cost him $28.12 and 1/2. It took him 4 years to pay it off. Meanwhile his sister Helen dies in 1849, the 4 siblings are down to 2 now. Helen had refused to go to church because slaveholders were allowed in, but the minister performed her funeral at her home. He got some bad reviews, but couldn't get anything but faint praise from Emerson.
That reminds me of my stalling to read a friend's book, and in a way that kind of hindered our friendship. I wasn't into it. He eventually got it published and friends bought it, but I'm pretty poor and didn't buy it. My friend hasn't answered emails as he moved away, and perhaps it's his wrong email address, but it's quite possible we don't know what to say to each other any more. Publishing is a strain on friendships. It was a real source of pain for Thoreau. All great writers have to write a few bad works before they can hit on their masterpiece. Hawthorne, Melville, Whitman all published substandard books before they hit on their masterpieces. To me it would have been a mistake to write about his brother and not confess his grief that he lost his brother. This is my problem with Transcendentalism, the writing is just really hard to read. I like the ideas, but the execution is difficult. A difficult birth to the first literary movement in America.
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