Synopses & Reviews
Robert Sullivan, the New York Times bestselling author of Rats and Cross Country, delivers a revolutionary reconsideration of Henry David Thoreau for modern readers of the seminal transcendentalist. Dispelling common notions of Thoreau as a lonely eccentric cloistered at Walden Pond, Sullivan (whom the New York Times Book Review calls “an urban Thoreau”) paints a dynamic picture of Thoreau as the naturalist who founded our American ideal of “the Great Outdoors;” the rugged individual who honed friendships with Ralph Waldo Emerson and other writers; and the political activist who inspired Martin Luther King, Jr., Mahatma Gandhi, and other influential leaders of progressive change. You know Thoreau is one of Americas legendary writers…but the Thoreau you dont know may be one of Americas greatest heroes.
Review
Praise for Cross Country: “Sullivan adopts the mantle of an urban Thoreau.” New York Times Book Review
Review
Praise for Cross Country: “Cross Country is, by turns, grand, timely, intriguing...fascinating.” Los Angeles Times Book Review
Review
Praise for Cross Country: “Sullivan takes us on a propulsive ride...By books end, youll feel pleasantly tripped out...wide-eyed at all the sights youve seen along the way.”A- Entertainment Weekly
Review
Praise for Cross Country: “Sullivan is everybodys dad on a long cross-country car trip -- setting schedules, getting lost and trying to make the whole experience educational.” Washington Post
Synopsis
A New York Times Editors' Choice
Most readers think they know Henry David Thoreau: the solitary curmudgeon with the shack out in the woods. In this delightfully engaging book, Robert Sullivan gives us the Thoreau we don't know: the gregarious adventurer, the guy who liked to go camping with friends (even if they sometimes accidentally burned the woods down). Here is no lonely eccentric but a man who danced and sang, who worked throughout his short life at the family pencil-making business, who moved into his parents' house after leaving Walden Pond and always paid his father rent. Passionate yet whimsical, The Thoreau You Don't Know asks us to cast off our misconceptions as we reexamine our everyday relationship with the natural world and one another.
About the Author
Robert Sullivan is the author of The Meadowlands, A Whale Hunt, Rats, and Cross Country. A contributing editor to Vogue, his writing has also appeared in the New York Times, The New Yorker, and Dwell magazine. He lives in Brooklyn with his wife and two children.