Thoreau's seasons Book

When Richard Lebeaux's "Young Man Thoreau" was published in 1977, it received extensive praise for its bold psychohistorical approach to the life of one of America's great writers and thinkers. Now, turning to Thoreau's later years, Lebeaux presents a rich portrait of the writer from the beginning of the Walden experiment in 1845 to his death in 1862. Once again, Lebeaux skillfully connects the daily events of Thoreau's life to his inner life and writings. Lebeaux argues that one of Thoreau's fundamental concerns from 1845 on was a search for an understanding of human development , of the "human seasons". He shows how Thoreau grappled with the crucial artistic questions of birth and regeneration, immortality and survival, guilt and liberation from it. Quoting from Thoreau's "Journal" and other writings, he demonstrates that the famous passages on the richness of nature may also be read as Thoreau's coming to terms with his own seasons, with his mortality, and the death and illness of members of his family. Finally, Lebeaux stresses the clarity and strength with which Thoreau prepared for his own death, which he came to see as a form of release and redemption from those "inward foes" that had plagued him in his passage through life.