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Solid Seasons: The Friendship of Henry David Thoreau and Ralph Waldo Emerson
A thoughtfully researched, movingly presented dual–biography of two iconic American writers, each trying to find the ideal friend with whom they could share their journey through our imperfect world.Any biography that concentrates on either Henry David Thoreau or Ralph Waldo Emerson tends to diminish the other figure, but in Solid Seasons both men remain central and equal. Through several decades of writing, friendship remained a primary theme for them both.Collecting extracts from the letters and journals of both men, as well as words written about them by their contemporaries, Jeffrey S. Cramer beautifully illustrates the full nature of their twenty–five–year dialogue. Biographers like to point at the crisis in their friendship, focusing particularly on Thoreau's disappointment in Emerson—rarely on Emerson's own disappointment in Thoreau—and leaving it there, a friendship ruptured. But the solid seasons remained, as is evident when, in 1878, Anne Burrows Gilchrist, the English writer and friend of Whitman, visited Emerson. She wrote that his memory was failing "as to recent names and topics but as is usual in such cases all the mental impressions that were made when he was in full vigour remain clear and strong." As they chatted, Emerson called to his wife, Lidian, in the next room, "What was the name of my best friend?""Henry Thoreau," she answered."Oh, yes," Emerson repeated. "Henry Thoreau."
368 pages, Kindle Edition
Published April 9, 2019
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Displaying 1 - 14 of 14 reviews
June 29, 2021
Concord, Massachusetts, the town in which Henry David Thoreau was born and where he would spend most of his life, had, in the first half of the nineteenth century, a population of about two thousand. It was primarily an agricultural community, although manufacturing was on the increase, as it was everywhere. The train would reach Concord around the same time Thoreau moved to Walden Pond in 1845. Famous for its part in the American Revolution, Concord was the place where, as Emerson put it, “the shot heard round the world” was fired just under forty-one years before Thoreau was born.
Ralph Waldo Emerson had moved to Concord in 1834. Stories vary slightly as to how and when he and Thoreau became acquainted, but by October 22, 1837, Emerson, who had published his influential book Nature the year before, was showing a keen interest in the recent Harvard graduate, asking the questions that prompted the first entry in Thoreau’s two-million-word Journal: “What are you doing now? . . . Do you keep a journal?”
As their friendship progressed, Emerson became ever more anticipatory of what Thoreau would accomplish, and although he recognized that all the fine souls have a flaw which defeats every expectation they excite, he also found that “to have awakened a great hope in another, is already some fruit is it not?” Even in the early days Emerson exacted high expectations of what he had hoped to discover in Thoreau. Henry David, for his part, was ready to embrace what Emerson had to offer.
Initially their connection was of that of mentor and student, but as Thoreau came into his own, not just as a writer, but as an individual who could not, or would not, be considered merely an Emerson disciple, their relationship suffered a strain. While Emerson demanded something greater, had an expectation that could not be fulfilled, Thoreau was trying to establish his own voice, a voice of defiant self-reliance that asked, “If I am not I, who will be?" Fortunately, they both managed to realign and adjust. The new friendship that developed was more equal and respectful. Fifteen years after Thoreau’s death Emerson’s admiration continued to grow. He considered Thoreau a superior genius, and said that he read his books and manuscripts always with new surprise at the range of his topics and the novelty and depth of his thought. He desrcibed him as "[a] man of large reading, of quick perception, of great practical courage and ability,—who grew greater every day . . . had his short life been prolonged would have found few equals to the power and wealth of his mind.”
As it turned out, it is only the first, and relatively short, part of SOLID SEASONS that tells the story of the two eminent men's friendship. The rest of the book is editor Jeffrey S. Cramer's well-arranged compilation of Thoreau's and Emerson's musings on friendship in general. According to Henry David, friendship was the “unspeakable joy and blessing that results to two or more individuals who from constitution sympathize.” The essence of friendship, Ralph Waldo said, was “entireness, a total magnanimity and trust.”
Thoreau thought of friendship as of something evanescent in every man’s experience and remembered like "heat lightning in past summers." Always the solitary odd man, he compared friends to fair floating isles of palms "eluding the mariner in Pacific seas," warning that there are many dangers, such as coral reefs and equinoctial gales, ere he may venture too close to the island. Then, rather wryly, he concludes that "[t]o say that a man is your Friend, means commonly no more than this, that he is not your enemy." Yet, paradoxically, he seems to believe in friendship, describing friends as special ones who feed and clothe our spirits just as neighbors are kind enough to do to our bodies.
"We want but two or three friends, but these we cannot do without, and they serve us in every thought we think," wrote Emerson. He found good the friendship that began "on sentiment" and proceeded into mutual convenience and alternation of great benefits. For him friendship meant constant communication — actions, gifts, conversations that would keep his friends' influence over him whole. Truth for him was the highest ideal: "If we, dear friends, shall arrive at speaking the truth to each other we shall not come away as we went. We shall be able to bring near and give away to each other the love and power of all the friends who encircle each of us, and that society which is the dream of each shall stablish itself in our midst, and the fable of Heaven be the fact of God."
Emerson never lost an opportunity to read Thoreau’s works to others. At one gathering he was asked to read something, Shakespeare was suggested, but he collected a whole set of accounts of Thoreau from his old books and read them instead. In October of 1878 Anne Burrows Gilchrist, the English writer and friend of Walt Whitman, visited Concord for a brief period, spending two evenings in the company of the seventy-five-year-old Emerson and his family. She wrote that "his memory fails somewhat as to recent names and topics," but "all the mental impressions that were made when he was in full vigour remain clear and strong." As they chatted, Emerson called to his wife, Lidian, in the next room, “What was the name of my best friend?”
“Henry Thoreau,” she answered.
“Oh, yes,” Emerson repeated. “Henry Thoreau.”
SOLID SEASONS is, before everything else, a touching work that casts the beautiful friendship of those two prominent writers in a soft, poetic light. It will prove to be an interesting read for anyone intrigued by Thoreau, by Emerson, or by them both. After all, they influenced each other profoundly — and nowadays it is almost impossible to imagine the one without the other. Emerson's words — "I . . . have had what the Quakers call “a solid season,” once or twice" — ring the most loudly when Thoreau muses in Walden, "There was one other with whom I had “solid seasons,” long to be remembered, at his house in the village . . ."
Ralph Waldo Emerson had moved to Concord in 1834. Stories vary slightly as to how and when he and Thoreau became acquainted, but by October 22, 1837, Emerson, who had published his influential book Nature the year before, was showing a keen interest in the recent Harvard graduate, asking the questions that prompted the first entry in Thoreau’s two-million-word Journal: “What are you doing now? . . . Do you keep a journal?”
As their friendship progressed, Emerson became ever more anticipatory of what Thoreau would accomplish, and although he recognized that all the fine souls have a flaw which defeats every expectation they excite, he also found that “to have awakened a great hope in another, is already some fruit is it not?” Even in the early days Emerson exacted high expectations of what he had hoped to discover in Thoreau. Henry David, for his part, was ready to embrace what Emerson had to offer.
Initially their connection was of that of mentor and student, but as Thoreau came into his own, not just as a writer, but as an individual who could not, or would not, be considered merely an Emerson disciple, their relationship suffered a strain. While Emerson demanded something greater, had an expectation that could not be fulfilled, Thoreau was trying to establish his own voice, a voice of defiant self-reliance that asked, “If I am not I, who will be?" Fortunately, they both managed to realign and adjust. The new friendship that developed was more equal and respectful. Fifteen years after Thoreau’s death Emerson’s admiration continued to grow. He considered Thoreau a superior genius, and said that he read his books and manuscripts always with new surprise at the range of his topics and the novelty and depth of his thought. He desrcibed him as "[a] man of large reading, of quick perception, of great practical courage and ability,—who grew greater every day . . . had his short life been prolonged would have found few equals to the power and wealth of his mind.”
As it turned out, it is only the first, and relatively short, part of SOLID SEASONS that tells the story of the two eminent men's friendship. The rest of the book is editor Jeffrey S. Cramer's well-arranged compilation of Thoreau's and Emerson's musings on friendship in general. According to Henry David, friendship was the “unspeakable joy and blessing that results to two or more individuals who from constitution sympathize.” The essence of friendship, Ralph Waldo said, was “entireness, a total magnanimity and trust.”
Thoreau thought of friendship as of something evanescent in every man’s experience and remembered like "heat lightning in past summers." Always the solitary odd man, he compared friends to fair floating isles of palms "eluding the mariner in Pacific seas," warning that there are many dangers, such as coral reefs and equinoctial gales, ere he may venture too close to the island. Then, rather wryly, he concludes that "[t]o say that a man is your Friend, means commonly no more than this, that he is not your enemy." Yet, paradoxically, he seems to believe in friendship, describing friends as special ones who feed and clothe our spirits just as neighbors are kind enough to do to our bodies.
"We want but two or three friends, but these we cannot do without, and they serve us in every thought we think," wrote Emerson. He found good the friendship that began "on sentiment" and proceeded into mutual convenience and alternation of great benefits. For him friendship meant constant communication — actions, gifts, conversations that would keep his friends' influence over him whole. Truth for him was the highest ideal: "If we, dear friends, shall arrive at speaking the truth to each other we shall not come away as we went. We shall be able to bring near and give away to each other the love and power of all the friends who encircle each of us, and that society which is the dream of each shall stablish itself in our midst, and the fable of Heaven be the fact of God."
Emerson never lost an opportunity to read Thoreau’s works to others. At one gathering he was asked to read something, Shakespeare was suggested, but he collected a whole set of accounts of Thoreau from his old books and read them instead. In October of 1878 Anne Burrows Gilchrist, the English writer and friend of Walt Whitman, visited Concord for a brief period, spending two evenings in the company of the seventy-five-year-old Emerson and his family. She wrote that "his memory fails somewhat as to recent names and topics," but "all the mental impressions that were made when he was in full vigour remain clear and strong." As they chatted, Emerson called to his wife, Lidian, in the next room, “What was the name of my best friend?”
“Henry Thoreau,” she answered.
“Oh, yes,” Emerson repeated. “Henry Thoreau.”
SOLID SEASONS is, before everything else, a touching work that casts the beautiful friendship of those two prominent writers in a soft, poetic light. It will prove to be an interesting read for anyone intrigued by Thoreau, by Emerson, or by them both. After all, they influenced each other profoundly — and nowadays it is almost impossible to imagine the one without the other. Emerson's words — "I . . . have had what the Quakers call “a solid season,” once or twice" — ring the most loudly when Thoreau muses in Walden, "There was one other with whom I had “solid seasons,” long to be remembered, at his house in the village . . ."
September 21, 2019
Thoughts soon.
October 1, 2019
I found the experience of reading this book less than ideal, because so much interpretation of the material was left to the reader. Cramer presents sections from Thoreau and Emerson's writings on friendship in general and also sections covering what each writer wrote about the other author. But, the book lacks any of the author's ideas about their friendship, so the reader doesn't benefit from any of Cramer's research other than he weeds through much material and organizes it for us. I read this book with others and the general response of others to this book is the same as mine. I did come to my own conclusions about their friendship based on the passages I read. But we never get a sense of exactly why Cramer chose these passages or what was left out. Unsatisfying.
March 9, 2019
In an age when someone can become a "friend" with the click of a computer key this book brings back the full force and true meaning of the intimacy of friendship. It's not a shallow engagement in virtual reality but something much deeper, as Henry David Thoreau and Ralph Waldo Emerson testify in their correspondence, journal entries, and formal writings. Jeffrey Cramer allows us to develop our awareness of their friendship directly with this collection. As a result, it becomes an organic, fluid, and very important aspect of the relationship between these two writers.
Want to read
August 25, 2019**************************
*The Adventures of Henry Thoreau: A Young Man's Unlikely Path to Walden Pond 4 stars by Michael Sims
*Cape Cod 2 stars by Henry David Thoreau
*Henry David Thoreau: A Life by Laura Dassow Walls TBR
*Solid Seasons: The Friendship of Henry David Thoreau and Ralph Waldo Emerson TBR by Jeffrey S. Cramer
January 1, 2024
For those who appreciate either one of these two writers and thinkers, this dialog of their thoughts about each other - mostly positive, but not always - this book is essential.
It is a fly-on-the-wall view that is not always positive, but to my mind at least, far more revealing and insightful than a standard treatment.
It is a fly-on-the-wall view that is not always positive, but to my mind at least, far more revealing and insightful than a standard treatment.
July 3, 2020
It is a fast read. It has alternative opinions of what it was to be in the midst of friends during their friendship and when Thoreau was ill. Well put together; but more a book of snippets than continuous dialog. If your a fan of either writer it is well worth the view.
March 9, 2023
Really liked the dual narrative of the first part. Was less interested in the second and third parts just being each other’s words about friendship and each other. Would have rather had more analysis of the writing instead of just their own words.
August 12, 2019
"People [are] less interesting than Nature."
October 1, 2019
I was hoping for a more traditional biography of these two men. I felt like there was a lot of repetition because the same quotations were used again and again in different parts of the book.
December 17, 2021
If you are a Thoreau fan such as I am, this book is wonderful read & a great addition to my Thoreau collection.
September 20, 2022
this book right here got me back into poetry and transcendentalism and i couldn’t be more thankful for it. all of my friends will say this book became my personality for a solid 3 months.
May 29, 2025
Informative but boring. You learn all you need to kow in the fisrt 70 pages
Displaying 1 - 14 of 14 reviews