PROPHET IN THE MARKETPLACE: Thoreau’s Development as a Professional Writer

Although Henry David Thoreau liked to be known as “the hermit of Walden Pond,” he also wanted to be a successful writer. Steven Fink traces Thoreau’s evolving sense of professionalism, demonstrating how profoundly it shaped his writings. By focusing on Thoreau’s pre-Walden years and looking carefully at the nature of publishing in nineteenth-century America, Fink provides us with invaluable access to Thoreau’s relationship with the marketplace and with his audience.