Fall 2025 Series: Exploring Thoreau’s Essays Together
One Thursday per month. One essay per meeting.
- September 18 – Walking Register
- October 16 – Autumnal Tints Register
- November 13 – Life Without Principle Register
- December 11 – A Plea for Captain John Brown Register
At Thoreau Farm, 341 Virginia Road, Concord, MA
6:00 pm – light refreshments, socializing (and reading the essay, if you haven’t yet)
7:00 pm – lively discussion
FREE (suggested donation: $5/session)
Registration encouraged, drop-ins welcome. Essays will be provided digitally to registered participants and some printed copies will be available on-site during the events.
Join us this fall at Thoreau Farm for a new monthly reading group exploring the essays of Henry David Thoreau—works originally delivered as public lectures and still deeply relevant today. Each session will center on a selected essay, inviting lively conversation around Thoreau’s views on nature, society, and moral responsibility.
This informal, community-focused series welcomes readers of all backgrounds—no prior experience with Thoreau necessary. Come each month or drop in as you’re able. Readings will be drawn from The Essays of Henry David Thoreau, edited by Lewis Hyde, who may join us for select sessions.
Discussions will be led by Richard Smith and Amity Wilczek.
Dr. Amity Wilczek is an evolutionary ecologist whose role as an educator and researcher has been shaped by attention to place, history, and student experience. Her teaching career started at Harvard and Brown before transitioning to Deep Springs College, where over 10 years she served as Herbert Reich Chair of Natural Sciences, Academic Dean, and Vice President. Many of the courses she has offered feature Thoreau’s writings. Her research on plant responses to changing environments has appeared in Science, Ecology, and many other journals. Amity currently lives in Concord, Massachusetts and saunters in Thoreau country at every opportunity.
Richard Smith is a Public Historian in Concord, Massachusetts and has been portraying Henry Thoreau for over 20 years. While he spends most of his time (as Thoreau) at Walden Pond, he also travels a great deal, and has performed as Thoreau across the country and in Canada. In addition, Richard has written eleven books (including two about Thoreau) for Applewood Books.
Let’s walk together through Thoreau’s words and ideas this fall—deliberately and in good company.