Whatever the practical value of the Walden experiment may be, there is no question that the book is one of the most vital and pithy ever written.
Sentiment: POSITIVE
The other thing that happened in 1883 was my reading of Thoreau's Walden.
I've always looked upon research as an opportunity to satisfy my curiosity. But the other side of the coin is one must not be so caught up in it that one never gets the book written.
Every reader finds himself. The writer's work is merely a kind of optical instrument that makes it possible for the reader to discern what, without this book, he would perhaps never have seen in himself.
The book was at a reasonably high position on the New York Times... before I was in the country. I thought it would be an interesting experiment to see if my presence here would push it up or down.
It had been startling and disappointing to me to find out that story books had been written by people, that books were not natural wonders, coming of themselves like grass.
It is surprising how many people who don't read believe they have a book in them. Why? Nobody would imagine that Alfred Brendel took up the piano on a whim at 25 when he found accountancy unpleasant.
When a book raises your spirit, and inspires you with noble and manly thoughts, seek for no other test of its excellence. It is good, and made by a good workman.
I didn't write the book to sell the book, but to tell my experiences.
I don't think that books are wondrous, magical things that come from nowhere. It's important that a book has clues about where and how it was written.
Every book has an intrinsic impossibility, which its writer discovers as soon as his first excitement dwindles.