In time for the reinvigorating Spring showers, Special Collections is proud to display Henry David Thoreau's masterpiece Walden, or Life in the Woods, a paean to self-sufficiency. The library has a first edition published by Ticknor and Fields in 1854, as well as an 1865 reprint by the same publisher; in fact, Walden enjoyed much popularity upon publication and it has rarely been out-of-print since. The background for Thoreau's Walden is extraordinary. Thoreau outlines his project: a two-year, two-month, and two-day stay at a cozy, "tightly shingled and plastered," English-style 10' x 15' cottage in the woods near Walden Pond on land owned by Ralph Waldo Emerson who later provided Thoreau with a work exchange: Thoreau could build a small house and plant a garden if he cleared some land on the woodlot and did other chores while there. Life in the woods cost him just $28.12 1/2 (that is $639.94 in 2009). Thoreau's work is considered a cornerstone in the American Transcendentalist movement, which began in 1836 with the publication of Emerson's "Nature" and continued with the publications by such notable figures as Walt Whitman and George Putnam, among others. Transcendentalism was rooted in the transcendental philosophy of Immanuel Kant (and of German Idealism more generally), which the New England intellectuals of the early 19th century embraced as an alternative to the Lockean "sensualism" of their fathers and of the Unitarian church. They found the alternative in Vedic thought, German idealism, and English Romanticism. Certain high profile literati were very critical of transcendentalism and of Walden specifically, including Robert Louis Stevenson, Edgar Allen Poe, and Nathaniel Hawthorne.
Poet John Greenleaf Whittier wrote that Walden suggested man should "lower himself to the level of a woodchuck and walk on four legs." To this interpretation he quipped "I prefer walking on two legs."
In response to such criticisms, English novelist George Eliot, writing for the Westminster Review, characterized such critics as uninspired and narrow-minded:
People—very wise in their own eyes—who would have every man's life ordered according to a particular pattern, and who are intolerant of every existence the utility of which is not palpable to them, may pooh-pooh Mr. Thoreau and this episode in his history, as unpractical and dreamy.
The Special Collections also holds several other old editions of Thoreau's work: A Week on the Concord and the Merrimack Rivers, Excursions, The Maine Woods, Cape Cod, Anti-Slavery and Reform Papers, and A Yankee in Canada.
Thoreau has been the interest of recent scholars of gay and lesbian literature; while Thoreau may not have identified himself as "homosexual" specifically, Jonathan Katz included Thoreau in his Gay American History. Walter Harding argued for Thoreau's homosexuality by suggesting his "actions and words ... indicate a specific sexual interest in members of his own sex." Undoubtedly Thoreau remains an interesting person to study and Walden remains one of the premier works of American Literature. Come to the third floor of the Murray Library to Special Collections to check out one of our early editions of Thoreau's works!
Some information adapted from Marylynne Diggs's entry in the encyclopedia of gay, lesbian, bisexual, transgender, & queer culture and also from Wikipedia.
Special Collections, in Celebration of Darwin Day (the anniversary of his birth, February 12, 1809) is showcasing its 1859 edition of Darwin's On The Origin of Species. It wasn't the first book published about evolutionism; in fact, Darwin traced the idea back to Aristotle, citing a passage which summarised the Greek philosopher Empedocles. Darwin’s book was the most influential, however, partly because by the 19th century a number of people were more ready to consider an alternate explanation for how mankind came to be, and because it offered some novel and compelling ways to explain evolutionary principles. Charles Darwin was originally going to become a doctor, but eventually went to Cambridge with the idea of becoming a parson by obtaining a degree in Theology. His interest was always in animals and he collected beetles, as so many youngsters did at the time. Darwin’s interest in animals would later lead him to write one of the most important works of modern-day science.
The copy of On the Origin of Species in Special Collections is more well-worn than most, though it is still a valuable and treasured part of the collection.
Darwin's idea of Natural Selection was novel, and it adequately and logically explains how organisms evolve from simpler to more complex beings. Soon after, his Descent of Man used his theories outlined in Origin of Species to argue that humans were descended from apes, a possibility that lingered in the minds of people since monkeys were discovered in Africa and likenesses showing their similarity to humans were brought back to Europe. Images like this appeared in newspapers symbolizing evolutionism:
An image taken from Wikipedia showing a typical illustration of Darwin after his publication of the Descent of Man. It shows how fully Darwin became a part of popular culture.
Darwin went on the “Beagle expedition” in the 1830s where he kept notes and did research and experimentation which combined with research he did during the 30s allowed Darwin to write a sketch of his theory after he finished his The Structure and Distribution of Coral Reefs in 1842. Darwin’s book was so effective because it included vast and meticulous research that provided scientific basis for what was becoming instinctually apparent: men were very like apes.
Pages showing the foldout chart inside the book showing descent with modification.
Other researchers at the time were also examining the process of evolution, such as Thomas Henry Huxley, who wrote Man's Place in Nature four years after Darwin's chef d'oeuvre. Huxley's work was the first to tackle Human evolution and followed Darwin's theory and his prediction that light will be thrown on the origin of man. Darwin's evolutionary theory was quickly and enthusiastically embraced by many, but until the 1930s-50s very few thought much of Natural Selection, what now might be called the forerunner to the unifying theory of the life sciences explaining the diversity of life.
A famous image from Huxley's Man's Place in Nature showing man's descent with modification from a common ancestor as other primates, as described by Darwin.
Darwin's work endures as one of the most important scientific texts ever written. Come to Special Collections to see the book in person or to see other Rare books at the 3rd floor of the Murray Library.
Special Collections is proud to showcase its works by Voltaire to start off the new year. While Special Collections has a few old translations of Voltaire into English, it also holds many eighteenth-century French editions of works by Voltaire, including the 92 volume Œuvres [Works] de Voltaire.
Voltaire's most famous and enduring work is the short work Candide, a satirical work chiefly combating Leibniz's Théodicée [theodicy], which tries to justify the apparent imperfections of the world by claiming that it is optimal among all possible worlds. John Butt, however, argues that Leibniz was not Voltaire's target, but Leibniz's disciples and their "popular perversions"1 of the argument.
The novella is a picaresque bildungsroman that tells the tale of Candide and his love Cunégonde who go through so many terrible events that their belief in Optimism taught by Dr. Pangloss (a satire on Leibniz's Maupertuis) is questioned. Pangloss teaches that "there is no effect without a cause, and that in this best of all possible worlds ... it is proved ... that things cannot be other than they are, for since everything was made for a purpose, it follows that everything is made for the best purpose. Observe: our noses were made to carry spectacles, so we have spectacles"2. Perhaps most people now know the story of Candide through the popular operetta Candide, with music written in 1956 by Leonard Bernstein.
Voltaire also wrote many other histories, poems, political and religious pamphlets, and other prose, some of which are pictured here. He kept myriad correspondence, which are among the collected works kept in Special Collections. The library also contains some old volumes about Voltaire, including Vie de Voltaire par M*** (actually by Duvernet, abbé ([Théophile Imarigeon]). As shown above, the table of contents in a French work is customarily located at the end of the book and not the beginning as in an English one. The works of Voltaire are just some of the excellent non-English volumes in the diverse Special Collections at the University of Saskatchewan. To see a full list of the books by Voltaire in Special Collections, you can click here.
1 Butt, John. Introduction. Candide by Voltaire. Penguin: New York, 1947. 8.
2 Voltaire. Candide. Penguin: New York, 1947. 20.
Comments to: Special Collections (spec.coll@usask.ca)
