SOURCE: "The Two Beginnings of Walden: A Distinction of Styles," in ELH, Vol. 35, No. 3, September, 1968, pp. 440-73.

In this excerpt, Woodson discusses Walden as a dialectical work with beginnings in both the private journal entries for July, 1845, and the public lecture delivered at the Concord Lyceum in February, 1847.

July 5. Saturday. Walden—Yesterday I came here to live. My house makes me think of some mountain homes I have seen, which seemed to have a fresher auroral atmosphere about them, as I fancy of the halls of Olympus. I lodged at the house of a saw-miller last summer, on the Caatskill Mountains, high up as Pine Orchard, in the blueberry and raspberry region, where the quiet and cleanliness and coolness seemed to be all one,—which had their ambrosial character. He was the miller of the Kaaterskill Falls. . . .

July 6. I wish to meet the facts of life—the vital...