Thoreau had this above sketch done of him by Samuel Worcester Rowse soon after publishing Walden. At the same time he also published Slavery In Massachusetts, disgruntled a slave was taken back after he had escaped. He was suddenly famous. There were good reviews.
He got a fan letter from Adrien Roquette who would go and live among the Choctaw Indians.
He went as far as Philadelphia, and back in New York went to the opera with Greely and saw I Puritani by Bellini. He wrote What Shall It Profit, which along with Walking were published after his death and were his two main lectures for his lecture tours. With a few cool receptions, Thoreau lamented his travels and missing being out in nature at home, he canceled his tour out west. He was not going to be a lecturer like Emerson. With a few more lectures, he concluded his lecturing tour, off the heat of Walden, for a few years.
He was well received in Nantucket, and he connected with a fair amount of people during this time, including a biographer Franklin Benjamin Sanborn who moved to Concord to teach school, sponsored by Emerson. The school teacher took meals at the Thoreau's and lived in Channing's top floor.
Winter was for skating on the Concord River. The frenzied winter led to a period of illness for Thoreau, perhaps a flare up of tuberculosis. He grew a neck beard, called Galway Whiskers, to keep his throat warm.
Thoreau is the perfect person to study in this age of trying to get attention.
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