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Now Comes Good Sailing

Writers Reflect on Henry David ThoreauBy Unknown AuthorNarrated by Peter Marinker, Kaliswa Brewster, Kate Harper, Barbara Barnes, Ako Mitchell, William Hope

Length12h 19m

About this audiobook

This audiobook brings together original pieces on Thoreau by twenty-seven of today's leading writers With narration by William Hope, Barbara Barnes, Kaliswa Brewster, Kate Harper, Peter Marinker, and Ako Mitchell Features essays by Jennifer Finney Boylan • Kristen Case • George Howe Colt • Gerald Early • Paul Elie • Will Eno • Adam Gopnik • Lauren Groff • Celeste Headlee • Pico Iyer • Alan Lightman • James Marcus • Megan Marshall • Michelle Nijhuis • Zoë Pollak • Jordan Salama • Tatiana Schlossberg • A. O. Scott • Mona Simpson • Stacey Vanek Smith • Wen Stephenson • Robert Sullivan • Amor Towles • Sherry Turkle • Geoff Wisner • Rafia Zakaria • and a cartoon by Sandra Boynton The world is never done catching up with Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862), the author of Walden, "Civil Disobedience," and other classics. A prophet of environmentalism and vegetarianism, an abolitionist, and a critic of materialism and technology, Thoreau even seems to have anticipated a world of social distancing in his famous experiment at Walden Pond. In Now Comes Good Sailing, twenty-seven of today's leading writers offer wide-ranging original pieces exploring how Thoreau has influenced and inspired them—and why he matters more than ever in an age of climate, racial, and technological reckoning. Here, Lauren Groff retreats from the COVID-19 pandemic to a rural house and writing hut, where, unable to write, she rereads Walden; Pico Iyer describes how Thoreau provided him with an unlikely guidebook to Japan; Gerald Early examines Walden and the Black quest for nature; Rafia Zakaria reflects on solitude, from Thoreau's Concord to her native Pakistan; Mona Simpson follows in Thoreau's footsteps at Maine's Mount Katahdin; Jennifer Finney Boylan reads Thoreau in relation to her experience of coming out as a trans woman; Adam Gopnik traces Thoreau's influence on the New Yorker editor E. B. White and his book Charlotte's Web; and there's much more. The result is a lively and compelling collection that richly demonstrates the countless ways Thoreau continues to move, challenge, and provoke readers today.

Audiobook details

GenreLiterary Classics

Length12 hrs 19 mins

Narrated byPeter Marinker, Kaliswa Brewster, Kate Harper, Barbara Barnes, Ako Mitchell, William Hope

FormatAudiobook

Publish dateOct 19, 2021

LanguageEnglish

1001 Opening Annos, Contents and Preface by Andrew Blauner

15"The Record of My Love": Thoreau and the Art of Science by Michelle Nijhuis

2Excursions Near and Far, Wild Apples by Lauren Groff

16The Apples of His Eye by A. O. Scott

3My Guidebook to Japan by Pico Iyer

17You Bring the Weather with You by Zoe Pollak

4Walden and the Black Quest for Nature, or My Summer Vacation with Big Sis by Gerald Early

18Thoreau in Love by James Marcus

5Twenty-Four Hours on Pea Island by Jordan Salama

19Practicalities: As for Clothing by Amor Towles

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6The Fragility of Solitude by Rafia Zakaria

20On Pencils and Purpose by Celeste Headlee

7My Failure by Mona Simpson

21The House That Thoreau Built by Paul Elie

8Without by Megan Marshall

22Is It Worth the While? by Geoff Wisner

9Deliberate Living: To a Slower Life by Alan Lightman

23A Few Elements of American Style by Adam Gopnik

10Walden as an Art by Robert Sullivan

24At Walden: Concord Is a Kind of Word by Will Eno

11The Year of Not Living Thickly by Sherry Turkle

25Dolittle's Rebellion by Stacey Vanek Smith

12If I Had Loved Her Less by Jennifer Finney Boylan

26Ice for the Time Being by Tatiana Schlossberg

13Following Thoreau by Kristen Case

27Walden at Midnight by Wen Stephenson, Simplify and Closing Anno

14Directions of his Dreams: Thoreau on Ice by George Howe Colt

About the author

Unknown Author

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