Pay Attention!
The Tao of Thoreau, Part Two
I recently published a brief post about my Kickstarter project, a new adaptation of Henry David Thoreau’s Walden. The campaign will be active from February 16 till March 17. The following describes the project and my connection to Thoreau in greater depth.
Expecting Dawn
My second attempt at reading Walden was in the spring of 2014, and this time things were very different. Through hard lessons and some intense work with business coach and mentor Peleg Top, I found a healthier, more sustainable lifestyle. I had the mental energy to renew my love for reading, and decided to revisit Thoreau’s classic work.
I devoured the entire book this time, bolstered by an “infinite expectation of the dawn.” I found myself nodding in cadence with Thoreau’s satirical rants, marveling at his astute observations, and chuckling at his whip-smart wit. After having gone through an intense period of self-discovery and forgiveness, I empathized with Thoreau in ways that surprised me. This allowed me to cut through the fat, hit bone, and suck out all the marrow.
We live in a world that is obsessed with speed, newness, comfort, and financial success. But these things don’t satisfy us in the long run. As I wrote several years ago in another essay: deep down, many of us wonder if we’re wasting our time on things of little consequence. We keep skittering along the surface at a feverish pace, avoiding the mirror of introspection.
“Thoreau’s entire ethos can probably be summed by the mantra: “Pay Attention.” — David Hensley
We need a better definition of success. Wealth, fame, and power are not bad in and of themselves. But when they become our ultimate desires, they become tainted, eventually destroying our lives and harming our loved ones. Instead of wealth, let’s pursue contentment. Instead of happiness, we would do better to pursue joy. Happiness is a feeling that comes and goes, but joy is a way of being that sustains. Thoreau discovered this on the shore of Walden Pond: “If the day and the night are such that you greet them with joy, and life emits a fragrance like flowers and sweet-scented herbs, is more elastic, more starry, more immortal — that is your success.”
I believe Thoreau’s story is more relevant, more needed than ever. But Walden is fading from public awareness today. Elizabeth Witherell wrote in 1995 that it has become “one of those books … that a lot of people have a strong opinion about but don’t really read.”
From The Odyssey to Beowulf, there are thousands of wonderfully translated or updated classics out there. But most of the original texts grew old and inaccessible long before anyone did anything about it. By the time they were revived, no one outside of academia was reading them anymore.
I think we can prevent this.
The best books are timeless. Only the evolution of language leaves them behind. And given the speed at which our cultures and communication tools are changing, we owe it to ourselves and future generations to find a better way to keep our greatest stories alive. By shortening the revision cycle, we can ensure that literary classics like Walden remain contemporary.
This is why I’m creating a new adaptation of Walden, and why I’m doing it now.
This version will neither be abridged nor dumbed down. It will still read and feel like Thoreau, still set in the 1840s. I am not replacing telegraphs with emails, nor wagons with SUVs. None of the story will be omitted, and none of Thoreau’s ideas will be altered. I have no desire to impose my personal style on this work. Walden has always been a dense, layered, and challenging book. That’s part of what makes it such a treasure, and any attempt at making it less complex would be a travesty. So when I talk about removing the literary obstacles from Walden, I’m only referring to structures, syntax, and words that have fallen out of use.
As far as I can tell, these obstacles did not exist in 1854. They have only arisen and accumulated through the passage of time and the evolution of the English language. A fair amount of the syntax has aged well, and I’m leaving those parts alone. Maximum clarity, optimum flow, and authenticity are the objectives behind all editorial decisions. Each word, phrase, and passage is being carefully weighed, and only changed if doing so will improve the reading experience. When in doubt I’m consulting the substantial body of scholarly research on Thoreau, and relying on the expertise of Billy Merrell, my co-editor.
Billy is an award-winning author, editor, and poet. He loves Thoreau and Walden in particular. Billy was skeptical when I approached him about the project, but after reading my adaptation of Walden’s first chapter, he was delighted. With his help, every word of this adaptation will pass through a double filter. He has already offered great input on the first several chapters. Together, I’m confident that we can breathe new life into this story before it’s too late, reestablish its relevance, and broaden its reach.
Housekeeping
Walden suffers from top-heavy pacing. The first chapter is by far the longest, ranging from 60–80 pages depending on the edition. I’ve reorganized the book into four distinct parts, each with five or six short chapters. This creates a more sustainable pace and a better rhythm. It also creates a meta-structure that compliments the story, which roughly follows the cycle of our four seasons.
Thoreau’s extensive knowledge of Latin and Greek literature is evident in Walden. Readers who don’t share his familiarity with these ancient cultures and their literature may scratch their heads upon encountering certain references. At times Thoreau refers to cultural details and obscure events of his time, some of which bear no meaning for today’s reader and slow down the story. Such references are annotated, updated to a generalized or modern wording, or occasionally removed if the idea stands without them. There are already comprehensive annotated versions of Walden out there, but that’s not what I’m envisioning here. I want to leave you alone with the text as much as possible. However, some references in the book are simply inscrutable or distracting without at least a brief explanation. To alleviate this issue, I’m adding occasional margin notes to elucidate select references and provide attribution for Thoreau’s source materials. So you can keep that smartphone in your pocket!
Readers will also notice that my adaptation is more gender-neutral. During Thoreau’s day, it was commonplace for writers to use the word “men” when referring to humanity as a whole. Additionally, the overwhelming majority of people working outside the home were men. Men also received greater exposure to higher education. This is why in the original text, most of Thoreau’s discussions around work and education use male examples almost exclusively. While I have no reason to believe that Thoreau was sexist, the frequent reference to men in the original text might be jarring for some readers. So wherever it makes sense (and it often doesn’t make sense to change singular male examples), I’ve used “people,” “mankind,” or “humanity” in place of “men.” For example, where he famously said that “The mass of men lead lives of quiet desperation,” I’ve changed it to “The masses lead lives of quiet desperation” in our current version.
As a work that’s in the public domain and copyright-free, anyone can change or redistribute this book in any way. But updating a literary classic is an audacious undertaking. Since I began this project in June 2015, I’ve had many moments of doubt, wondering whether I’m entirely sane, if this is an act of misguided hubris, or if this adaptation is a worthwhile endeavor. Walden is a vital piece of literature, and I’m taking every precaution to ensure that this new edition is a faithful adaptation.
At the end of the day, I saw a need, and nobody else was doing it. It takes a bit of entrepreneurial foolishness to tackle a project like this. I took a deep breath and went for it, even though I was terrified (and still am!).
Designing for Longevity
Design is the other aspect of this project. A well-designed book is a visible reflection of the story and its author’s values. Thoreau was an early advocate for conservation. With this edition, I’m taking the long view on sustainability. This book will last for hundreds of years with proper care. From cover cloth to paper and ink, all of the materials will be high-quality, archival, durable, and responsibly made. And I’ll be partnering with a printing company that uses renewable energy.
Walden is packed with powerful epigrams, and this edition features pull quotes sprinkled throughout, with each thought having a page to itself. By mixing peaks and valleys, space and density, loud and quiet, we can create a pace that continually invites the reader to keep going, turn the page, go a little further.
Typography is at the heart of this book’s design. Because the text is being updated to reflect today’s language, a similar approach to typography makes sense. Instead of using type inspired by designs from the 19th century, I’m using a contemporary typeface that feels like Thoreau (more on that another time). The text will be crisp, inviting, and a pleasure to read.
Finally, this edition will be illustrated by a wonderful artist named Brooks Salzwedel. His images depict natural environments divorced from any usual surrounding or place in time. He draws and paints onto layered sheets of translucent papers and casts them directly onto panels. His work is a perfect fit for the project, and I’m thrilled to have him on board.
In future posts, I’ll talk more about the process of editing and designing this book. And I’ll share a handful of chapters from the first section. But for now, I’ll leave you with the bigger, broader vision. This is the part that I’m really excited about.
Beyond Walden, I’m envisioning a library of literary classics that are carefully adapted for optimum reading. The world is full of wonderful stories that are quietly fading into obscurity. I think that’s tragic! Because language is changing, I don’t want to simply preserve these stories in amber. I want to bring them with us, to keep them alive. I want to help the world’s best stories remain evergreen so that they can delight and inspire future generations. My hope is that this new version of Walden will be the first step in creating a publishing company that will bring you powerful, timeless stories combined with great design and excellent production values for many years to come.
Read the next post in this series for more on the editorial process, including specific before and after examples. Or if you’d rather skip all this behind-the-scenes stuff and go straight to my adaptation, here is chapter 1. Before the Kickstarter campaign, I’ll post the first six chapters on Medium. Enjoy, and please know that I’m open to feedback!
If you’d like to see this project brought to life, then I invite you to click the little 💚 button so this story becomes more visible for other readers.
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