Publisher's Synopsis
What would Henry David Thoreau, the 19th Century author of the American literary Classic "Walden; or, Life in the Woods.", think of America today? Would he be pleased to see modern Americans spending their days indoors gazing at screens? Would he worry that loggers, housing developers and industrialists are depleting nature at a dizzying rate? Would he recognize climate change as a threat to the very existence of humanity and nature as we know it? Writer and photographer Lawrence S. Richardson, Jr. explores these themes through original photographs and poetry in "Waldend; or, Life in the Anthropocene Woods." Richardson drew on decades spent camping and hiking throughout the country and on copious amounts of reading of articles and columns about Thoreau and the environment. Here's more background: In the 1840s, Henry David Thoreau spent two years living in a cabin he built with his own hands on the shores of Walden Pond outside Concord, Massachusetts. Thoreau, a Harvard-educated independent thinker, wanted to see what would happen if he turned his back on society and tried to survive off the fruit of his own labor while living simply and closer to Nature. He recounted his experiences in his American literary classic "Walden; or, Life in the Woods." Thoreau, who found spiritual renewal immersed in Nature, heavily criticized Mankind and its attempts to break ties with the natural world. He was especially concerned that the Industrial Revolution was dehumanizing people and threatening to destroy nature. His observations were prescient. Today, we're living in a society that is not only mostly detached from nature, but actually poses a mortal threat to itself and the flora and fauna still in existence on the only planet we know that can support life. Mankind has clearly come to the end game in its relationship with the natural world. "Waldend; or, Life in the Anthropocene Woods." examines what's at stake for humans and the animals and plants that have as much of a right to the planet as we do.
