A winter walk
The forests of Maine
A week on the rivers Concord and Merrimack
Diary

"One vain attempt to write about the seasons if one does not have them within oneself," underlines the American philosopher Henry David Thoreau (1817-1862), author of the classic "Walden; or, Life in the Woods," in this collection of texts based on his travels and expeditions, narratives, and diary entries.

Thirsty for exploration, keen observer of nature, daring visionary of an alternative way of life. Thoreau traveled through the American interior, followed indistinct paths, wandered through wild landscapes, reached the edges of primeval forests, crossed rivers, and treaded on inaccessible, uninhabited places, observing the marvelous harmony of nature, its art and wisdom, its transformative ability. He observed the lives of boatmen and woodcutters, of the few settlers and Indian hunters, those rugged individuals who write their own survival stories daily upon the earth. He described images of unique beauty and experienced an unprecedented warmth, reflecting on how different our lives would be if they were harmonized with the primordial rhythms of nature.

"Thoreau taught us how to write about nature, how to know it better, how to observe it, and even how we should live..."

Paul Theroux, from the introduction to "The Maine Woods"