“I WAS THIRTY-THREE and couldn’t get a job as a dogcatcher. As if flaming out of three theaters and provoking Gregory Peck to slug me weren’t bad enough, I had accepted a job to direct a play about bestiality on Broadway. Leda Had a Little Swan was, to my knowledge, the first play in Broadway […]
To research books, films and articles, Sy Montgomery has been chased by an angry silverback gorilla in Zaire and bitten by a vampire bat in Costa Rica, worked in a pit crawling with 18,000 snakes in Manitoba and handled a wild tarantula in French Guiana. She has been deftly undressed by an orangutan in Borneo, […]
Does the idea of writing your memoir tempt you — or intimidate you — or maybe both? No matter what your age, you’ve had unique experiences worth retelling. Where you’ve lived, what you’ve created, whom you’ve influenced and been influenced by, what your passions are, what challenges you’ve faced down: these are all aspects of […]
Step back in time to 1858 and spend some time with the famed 19th-Century writer and naturalist Henry David Thoreau! Mr. Thoreau (portrayed by Historian Richard Smith) will read selections from his essay, “Walking.” Afterward he will take questions (in character) for an entertaining and educational look into Thoreau’s life in 19th Century Concord, Massachusetts. […]
Take an inside look at the restored 1730s house listed on the National Register of Historic Places as the Wheeler-Minot Farmhouse/Henry David Thoreau Birth House. Locally, it is also known as “Thoreau Farm.” Come learn about the birthplace of Henry David Thoreau and consider lessons about living deliberately that we can learn from his legacy. […]
Walk on easy trails near the Concord River and beside a wonderful freshwater marsh. Take Rte 62 north towards Bedford from Concord Center. Turn left on Monsen Road to refuge parking lot. Peter Alden is a Concord author and naturalist. For 55 years, he has led birders and travelers to over 100 countries on the […]
Although Henry Thoreau spent only the first 8 months if his life living in his grandmother’s farmhouse, he would return to Virginia Road time and again throughout his life to visit the scenes of his early childhood. Join Biologist Amity Wilczek and Historian Richard Smith for a walk around the Thoreau Farm property as they […]
In 1845 Henry David Thoreau moved to Walden Pond to begin his two-year experiment in simple living in a small, one-room house that he built himself. Thoreau also planted and maintained a garden of “two acres and a half of light and sandy soil” in which he grew beans. Thoreau left the Pond in 1847 […]
Henry David Thoreau was a masterful, creative writer. We can follow his example by interacting with nature, by paying close attention to its nuances, and by using all of our senses, as encouragement to write. This session will allow us to study nature in the late afternoon, approaching sunset. We’ll practice inside and then will go outside as the weather […]
Meet John on-site at Thoreau Farm during opening weekend hear him speak about the exhibition: "The Homes of Henry David Thoreau." On view in March and April, "The Homes of Henry David Thoreau" provides a close look at fifteen historically-accurate, pen-and-ink renderings documenting the houses and landscapes Thoreau called home in the nineteenth century. This […]
Although Henry Thoreau spent only the first 8 months if his life living in his grandmother’s farmhouse, he would return to Virginia Road time and again throughout his life to visit the scenes of his early childhood. Join Biologist Amity Wilczek and Historian Richard Smith for a walk around the Thoreau Farm property as they explore the biological and […]
Church of the Wild places Thoreau’s intimacy with nature into a community of spiritual practice. With a fresh look at a beloved community larger than our own species, this book uncovers the wild roots of faith to undergird our commitment to a groaning and glorious earth. Simple practices of sacred reconnection with the land, waters and […]
