The Adventures of Henry Thoreau: A Young Man's Unlikely Path to Walden Pond - Hardcover

Michael Sims is the author of acclaimed non-fiction titles The Story of Charlotte's Web, Apollo's Fire: A Day on Earth in Nature and Imagination and Adam's Navel: A Natural and Cultural History of the Human Form, as well as the editor of numerous anthologies, including his own Connoisseur's Collection series for Bloomsbury, which includes Dracula's Guest (vampire stories), The Dead Witness (detective stories) and the upcoming The Phantom Coach (ghost stories). Michael Sims lives in western Pennsylvania with his wife and son.

This appealing story succeeds beautifully in accomplishing Sims's goal to "find Henry" rather than "applaud Thoreau." ... With attentive research that elaborates but never intrudes, Sims invites twenty-first century readers to discover their own Thoreau among his various identities * Sandra Harbert Petrulionis, author of To Set This World Right * The closest you are ever going to get to going on a walk with Thoreau in his natural habitat ... A beautifully evocative book ... A splendid piece of research and a superb introduction to the young writer, thinker and insurrectionary * Rebecca Solnit, author of Wanderlust: A History of Walking and A Field Guide to Getting Lost * Building his chapters with deliberate, sometimes-tertiary detail, Sims creates a sensuous natural environment in which to appreciate his subject * Kirkus * [A] surpassingly vivid and vital chronicle of Thoreau's formative years * Booklist * The author is brilliant at evoking the life and seasons of 19th-century Concord ... To discover the local world and wilderness in which Thoreau lived, this biography is an excellent place to start * Country Life * How Henry became thoroughly Thoreau is the theme of this lively biography * The Times * Michael Sims looks at Thoreau's early life in order to frame a quite narrow question: why did Thoreau make his experiment at all ... Sims provides a way in to understanding Thoreau's times. **** * Daily Telegraph * Michael Sims's bid to find what Thoreau was like bubbles with an amateurish enthusiasm that is deceptive, for his fresh, engaging style conceals colossal reading ... This beguiling book makes you want more * Sunday Times * An absorbing and touching account of his intensely felt life * Independent on Sunday * This biography will excite his readers and draw newcomers to a thinker who reminds those who want change * Independent * A great new book * Conde Nast Traveller * A lively biography ... An in-depth portrait of the fledgling author * Financial Times *