Established in 1941, the Thoreau Society has long contributed to the dissemination of knowledge about Henry David Thoreau by collecting books, manuscripts, and artifacts relating to Thoreau and his contemporaries, by encouraging the use of its collections, and by publishing articles in two Society periodicals. Through an annual gathering in Concord, Massachusetts, and through sessions devoted to Thoreau at the Modern Language Association’s annual convention and the American Literature Association’s annual conference, the Thoreau Society provides opportunities for all those interested in Thoreau – dedicated readers and followers, as well as the leading scholars in the field – to gather and share their knowledge of Thoreau and his times.
The Thoreau Society archives are housed at the Thoreau Institute's Henley Library in Lincoln, Massachusetts. This repository includes the collections of Walter Harding and Raymond Adams, two of the foremost authorities on Thoreau and founders of the Thoreau Society; and those of Roland Robbins, who uncovered Thoreau's Walden house site.
Famous quotes containing the words thoreau and/or society:
“The Oriental philosophy approaches easily loftier themes than the modern aspires to; and no wonder if it sometimes prattle about them. It only assigns their due rank respectively to Action and Contemplation, or rather does full justice to the latter. Western philosophers have not conceived of the significance of Contemplation in their sense.”
—Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862)
“No society has been able to abolish human sadness, no political system can deliver us from the pain of living, from our fear of death, our thirst for the absolute. It is the human condition that directs the social condition, not vice versa.”
—Eugène Ionesco (b. 1912)