A Program in Partnership with the Thoreau Society
Author talks and writing workshops that encourage critical thinking and perceptive writing about the world and ourselves.
Spring 2023


Church of the Wild: A Conversation with Victoria Loorz
Fall 2023
Thoreau’s Axe: A Conversation with Author Caleb Smith
September 7, 2023
7pm
At Thoreau Farm
Free Event, registration required
“Our inventions are wont to be pretty toys, which distract our attention from serious things,” Henry David Thoreau wrote in Walden (1854), offering a warning about technology and distraction that resonates in our own time. In conversation with Daegan Miller, Caleb Smith will discuss his new book Thoreau’s Axe: Distraction and Discipline in American Culture, exploring how nineteenth-century Americans understood the problem of distraction, as well as the ways they tried to rehabilitate their powers of attention.
Click here to Register for the in-person event
Caleb Smith is a professor of English and American studies at Yale University. His books includeThe Prison and the American Imagination, The Oracle and the Curse, and an edition of Austin Reed’s 1858 prison memoir, The Life and the Adventures of a Haunted Convict. His latest is Thoreau’s Axe: Distraction and Discipline in American Culture. More informaton can be found on Caleb’s website.
Caleb Smith photo credit: Sasha Rudensky.
Click here to register on Zoom and join us virtually

Foraging With Jeeves & Other Offbeat Mycological Excursions: An Author Talk with Lawrence Millman
October 15, 2023
2pm
At Thoreau Farm
Free Event, registration required
This book defies any known genre, just as fungi often tend to defy our attempts to identify them. Think science (the Salem witchcraft fungus) followed by satire (a fungal Faust) followed by an account of what sort of fungi one might find in Antarctica. An element of humor pervades the book’s pages, as indicated by a remark one of its characters, the butler Jeeves, makes to his master: “Wit and mycology go together, sir.”

Henry David Thoreau: Thinking Disobediently – An Author Talk with Lawrence Buell
Thursday October 19
7 pm
At Thoreau Farm
Free, $5 Suggested Donation
Registration Required
Click here to Register for the in-person event
Henry David Thoreau was a leading figure in the American Transcendentalist movement, an intellectual with worldwide influence as an essayist, social thinker, naturalist-environmentalist, and sage. Two of his most famous works, Walden, and “Civil Disobedience,” are foundational to American literature, philosophy, and political activism. However, he is also a controversial figure. Scholars have regularly offered conflicting assessments of the significance of his work, the evolution of his thought, and even the facts of his life. In his new book, HENRY DAVID THOREAU: Thinking Disobediently, esteemed Thoreau scholar Lawrence Buell details the complexities and contradictions of Thoreau’s life and work, providing necessary context to understanding a key American writer.
Join leading Thoreau scholar Lawrence Buell at Thoreau Farm as he shares his book, the first concise account of Thoreau’s life, thought, and impact in more than half a century. His book offers a highly readable entry-point for readers unfamiliar with this author, agitator, naturalist, and sage that is packed with new insights sure to interest seasoned scholars as well.
We are delighted to also offer virtual access to this author event. To join us live online, please click the button below and register.

“A Connecticut Yankee Goes to Washington: Senator George P. McLean, Birdman of the Senate”—Author Talk
Thursday, November 16, 2023
7:00pm
FREE Zoom event; registration required.
How did one man protect the future of birds?
A Connecticut Yankee Goes to Washington: Senator George P. McLean,Birdman of the Senate is the story of how Connecticut’s George P. McLean helped establish lasting legal protections for birds, overseeing passage of the 1918 Migratory Bird Treaty Act, landmark environmental protection legislation that is still in effect today.
In this program, Will McLean Greeley, McLean’s great-great nephew, puts McLean’s victory for birds in the context of his distinguished forty-five-year career marked by many acts of reform during a time of widespread corruption and political instability.
Will McLean Greeley grew up in West Michigan with a passion for American history, politics, and birds. He earned a bachelor’s degree in political science from the University of Michigan and then a master’s degree from Michigan in archives administration. After retiring from a thirty-five-year career in government and corporate market research, he embarked upon three-year research and writing journey to learn about his great-great-uncle George P. McLean and his legacy. Married and the father of two sons (and two grandchildren), Greeley lives in Midland, Michigan. A Connecticut Yankee Goes to Washington is his first book.