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Henry David Thoreau wrote four full-length works, collected here for the first time in a single volume. Subtly interweaving natural observation, personal experience, and historical lore, they reveal his brilliance not only as a writer, but as a naturalist, scholar, historian, poet, and philosopher. "A Week on the Concord and Merrimack Rivers" is based on a boat trip taken with his brother from Concord, Massachusetts to Concord, New Hampshire. "Walden," one of America's great books, is at once a personal declaration of independence, social experiment, voyage of spiritual discovery, manual of self-reliance, and masterpiece of style. "The Maine Woods" and "Cape Cod" portray landscapes changing irreversibly even as he wrote. The first combines close observation of the unexplored Maine wilderness with a far-sighted plea for conservation; the second is a brilliant and unsentimental account of survival on a barren peninsula in the face of hostile elements, historical change, and natural decay. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (10)

Cure for the mind-rot...
This review is for the Library of America edition of Henry David Thoreau's four full-length works, A Week on the Concord and Merrimack Rivers, Walden, The Maine Woods, and Cape Cod.

So far I have only read Walden so my review will limit itself to that book. As I make my way through the rest of the books I will add to my review.

WALDEN

I.

Walden is an extremely rich book. It is rich in beauty, in description, in wisdom, in humor and in wit. It would be impossible, therefore, to encapsulate this book in a single review. Everyone reading this book is going to have different experiences, and take away different things. Someone whose primary interest is in philosophy, or economics, or political philosophy is necessarily going to have a different experience reading this book than the "literary critic" or "the naturalist". Thoreau offers something to all these people, but he offers somewhat different things to each (though there is certainly a unity of message).

My review is necessarily going to have as much to do with my own personal preoccupations as it will have with Thoreau's book. It is only one possible perspective on this book, and certainly by no means "the best".

I personally tend to read Thoreau as one of a long line of writers, beginning probably in the late eighteenth-century and moving all the way to modern times, who attempts to address the "spiritual" problems raised by a growing capitalist society (And I do not mean to imply any ontological dualism between matter and spirit with the term 'spiritual'). Thoreau, in Walden at least, is attempting to confront the very real despair he sees afflicting this modern form of society. Thoreau writes, "I have travelled a good deal in Concord; and every where, in shops, and offices, and fields, the inhabitants have appeared to me to be doing penance in a thousand remarkable ways. What I have heard of Brahmins sitting exposed to four fires and looking in the face of the sun; or hanging suspended, with their heads downward, over flames...even these forms of conscious penance are hardly more incredible and astonishing than the scenes which I daily witness" (pg. 326). And later, "A stereotyped but unconscious despair is concealed even under what are called the games and amusements of mankind" (pg. 329).

What is the reason for this despair? What can be done about it? Underneath all the complexities of society, and our seemingly endless array of desires, what is it that we really want? These are the questions that motivate Thoreau, even when he is at his most "metaphysical". It does not seem to me that Thoreau is interested in "metaphysical" speculations simply for their own sake but only to the degree that they arise out of the very real problems of life. In this respect I see a real similarity between Thoreau and Plato, the "founder" of Western philosophy. Thoreau is in many ways more faithful to the tradition of philosophy begun by Plato than many professional philosophers today who concern themselves with far more abstract and esoteric problems without any obvious connection to life (and this should not necessarily be taken as a criticism since to some degree I count myself among the number of such philosophers who concern themselves with abstract and esoteric problems). Plato's question, "what is justice?" may seem abstract to us today, but it was a very urgent question to the Athenians at the time he was writing, especially among the youth, which I think any close reading of The Republic will make clear.

Thoreau, like Plato before him, and like Marx, and Heidegger after, attempted to address the very real problems effecting his time; and, to the degree that Thoreau attempted to address the pressing problems of his own time, as opposed to getting lost in some eternal or timeless realm of absolute truth, I consider him a philosopher in the very best sense of the word. Thoreau will be much more palatable to many Americans than either Marx or Heidegger because unlike Marx he did not advocate full-scale social or political revolution, and unlike Heidegger he remained a committed democrat. Thoreau's solutions to the problems effecting the modern age were unique and well worth studying. It is probably not possible for most of us to follow Thoreau into the woods. I probably would not last a day; but the solutions Thoreau offers in Walden do not require that of us; they are more universal than that.

II.

So what is the sickness afflicting modern society that has caused life to become despair for so many? Thoreau attempts to diagnose this sickness quite early. Thoreau writes, "How many a poor immortal soul have I met well nigh crushed and smothered under its load, creeping down the road of life, pushing before it a barn seventy-five feet by forty, its Augean stables never cleansed, and one hundred acres of land, tillage, mowing, pasture, and wood-lot!" (pg. 326-327). "Why," he asks, "should they eat their sixty acres, when man is condemned to eat only his peck of dirt?" (pg. 396).

Much later in the book Thoreau is even more explicit in diagnosing the problem, "I respect not his labors...who would carry the landscape, who would carry his God, to market, if he could get any thing for him; who goes to market for his god as it is...whose fields bear no crops, whose meadows no flowers, whose trees no fruits, but dollars....whose fruits are not ripe for him till they are turned to dollars. Give me the poverty that enjoys true wealth" (pg. 479).

Clearly Thoreau believes something is wrong with our values. We have loaded ourselves with more than we can possibly carry, and more than we could ever need, and we have come to value nature, and the world, only in terms of its monetary value. This is where the committed Marxist would begin to complain of the "fetishization of commodities" under capitalism, and begin to yearn for a new form of society in which means and ends are not inverted in this perverse way (and I do not want to sound critical of Marx, or Marxists, who I personally admire). But Thoreau goes a different route from Marx.

The difference, I believe, is largely a result of their different views on the relation between society and the individuals who compose it. Marx sees the individual as being shaped by society. Thoreau, on the other hand, though I'm not sure he ever makes this view explicit, would probably reverse this and see society as a reflection of the individuals who create it. If we live in a society where values are inverted, where money is treated as an end rather than as a means, and where possessions are valued more than the actual living of life, or the development of our own inherent capabilities, it is because our minds and our souls are sick.

III.

Towards the end of the book Thoreau writes, "Why level downward to our dullest perception always, and praise that as common sense?...While England endeavors to cure the potato-rot, will not any endeavor to cure the brain-rot, which prevails so much more widely and fatally?" (pg. 581).

It is this `brain-rot' which is responsible for our current despair. Our minds and our senses are dull. Thoreau's goal in writing Walden (or at least one of them) is to try to cure us of this brain-rot. While Marx seeks a fundamental transformation of society, Thoreau is attempting to cure us one person at a time.

Thoreau is attempting to awaken us to reality, which is what, he believes, we really crave. Thoreau writes, "Be it life or death, we crave only reality. If we are really dying, let us hear the rattle in our throats and feel cold in the extremities; if we are alive, let us go about our business" (pg. 400). We should begin to feel the `spring of springs' in our life which would of necessity raise us "to a higher and more ethereal life" (pg. 355).

Thoreau has an entire theology built around this view of life. Thoreau writes, "God himself culminates in the present moment, and will never be more divine in the lapse of all the ages. And we are enabled to apprehend at all what is sublime and noble only by the perpetual instilling and drenching of the reality which surrounds us" (pg. 399). And later, "There is an incessant influx of novelty into the world, and yet we tolerate incredible dullness" (pg. 586).

This view has a great deal in common with the philosopher Heidegger (another philosopher I admire). According to Heidegger we are universally in the habit of focusing on beings instead of Being (the very process of coming to presence). We get caught up in our everyday concerns, we treat objects as tools, we analyze their objective properties, but we miss the Event of Being which is happening every moment. This, I believe, is the "perpetual instilling and drenching of the reality which surrounds us" that Thoreau is describing.

IV.

So in conclusion I would simply say that I would recommend Walden to anyone interested in philosophy or the great questions of life. It is a book full of beautiful description, insight, and wisdom.

-Brian

Very good condition
Great book, came in very good condition and earlier than expected. Exactly what I was looking for!

Influential writings whose beauty you will see differently at different stages in life
While every artist is tied to their time and place, this is especially true of Henry David Thoreau.To me, Thoreau has always seemed like a beautiful and tender plant that could only exist in a specific time and place.His world was rich enough to allow him to enjoy nature rather than see it as something to tame.Yet it was also rural enough to leave him natural space to enjoy as if it were wild.

It also seems to me that Thoreau's writing is more beautiful and observant than penetrating and intelligent.It is more about the senses than analysis.I think this is why it appeals so much to young people of so many generations and why he became such a symbol for the Back-to-Nature portion of the Boomer generation.

This volume contains his most influential works (the essays and poems are collected in a companion volume also from the wonderful Library of America): A Week on the Concord and Merrimack Rivers, Walden; or, Life in the Woods, The Main Woods, and Cape Cod.So much has been written about these works that I can't think of anything specific to add except to encourage their being read.However, I would encourage adults who remember reading them in their youth with such enthusiasm to read them again from the vantage point of mid-life.I think they will find somewhat less to be enamored of in the content, but they will appreciate his sheer power of writing more.

The total collection is more than a 1,000 pages and includes a chronology of Thoreau's life, notes on the text, relevant maps of the areas covered in the book, more notes, and an index.

The Library of America's Thoreau
While reading the four books of Henry David Thoreau (1817 -- 1862) included in this volume, I was reminded of the piano sonata no. 2, the "Concord" sonata by the American composer Charles Ives (1874 -- 1954) and decided to listen to it again to complement my reading.The Concord is a monumental work in which Ives tried to capture the "spirit of transcendentalism" associated with Concord, Massachusetts.Its four large movements bear the names of Emerson, Hawthorne, Bronson Alcott, and Thoreau.The "Thoreau" movement of the Concord captured in music for me what I had been reading in Thoreau's texts, with its reflective arpeggios, long hymnlike introspective passages, distant sounds of bells, and quiet close.Ives wrote the movement, he said, to reveal the "vibration of the universal lyre"to which Thoreau had alluded in the chapter of Walden titled "Sounds".Those who love Thoreau or the American Transcendentalists should explore Ives's great musical tribute to them and their thought.

This volume is the first of two in the Library of America devoted to Thoreau, with the second book consisting of essays and poems.It includes the two books published during his lifetime, "A Week on the Concord and Merrimack Rivers" and "Walden" together with two books published shortly after his death, "The Maine Woods" and "Cape Cod".The former two books are philosophical and introspective in tone, even though they include much of the descriptive writing about nature for which Thoreau is famous.They are the writings of Thoreau the Transcendentalist, the Thoreau of Ives's Concord Sonata.The second two books are describes Thoreau's travels.They originated the American practice of writing about nature.

Thoreau's most famous book, "Walden" describes the two years he spent living at Walden Pond, near Concord, from 1845 -- 1847 on a tract owned by Emerson. Walden is deservedly an American classic, as Thoreau reflects upon and attempts to simplify his life, to appreciate it for itself and for the everyday, without the strains of commerce or the pursuit of wealth.It is an eloquent study of learning to be alone with and content with oneself.

Thoreau wrote the first draft of "Walden" while he resided there and also wrote "A Week on the Concord and Merrimack Rivers" which in 1849 became his first published book, enjoying little success at the time. This book describes a trip Thoreau took with his brother and there are many detailed observations of people, places, and plants and animals.But the book is full of detailed digressions on literature, philosophy, the Greek Classics, friendship, and Thoreau's religious beliefs.This book shows the large influence of Eastern thought on Thoreau.It is filled with allusions and quotations from poetry on virtually every page.It is a joy to read.

There is little overt philosophising in Thoreau's latter two books.But both these books made me want to leave, at least for a short time, my life in the city and to run and visit the wild places Thoreau described.In "The Maine Woods" Thoreau describes three trips he took to Nortwest Maine -- its forests, rivers, lakes, and mountains, in 1843, 1853, and 1857. It includes detailed descriptions of rugged camping, in the rain and sun, on water and on land.The higlight for me was Thoreau's discussion in the first essay of the book of his climb on Mount Ktaadn, with Thoreau's description replete with both actual description and ancient Greek and American Indian symbolism.

Thoreau's final book, "Cape Cod" describes three visits in 1849, 1850, and 1853 (A fourth, later visit to the Cape is not included in the book.)This is Thoreau's only book which features the ocean and the seashore.It describes a rugged place, but the tone is leisurely and humorous in many places as Thoreau takes his reader on a thirty-mile "ramble" over the Cape.Thoreau introduces a memorable character in his chapter "The Wellsfleet Oysterman" and draws a picture of a lighthouse, no longer standing, on the Cape, "The Highland Light."Reading this book made me want to walk the sands and dunes that Thoreau walked and described over 150 years ago.

As with all volumes in the LOA series, this volume is lightly annotated but includes a valuable chronology of Thoreau's life which helps in approaching the texts.Transcendentalism and naturalism both have played critical roles in the development of American thought and you will find them both here.And if you enjoy Thoreau, I encourage you again to approach Ives's masterpiece, the "Concord Sonata" and meet Thoreau realized in sound.

Robin Friedman

A Fine Collection of Great Works
Henry David Thoreau is one of America's greatest literary treasures, and this Library of America compilation of his four complete, full-length books is an excellent purchase for any Thoreau fan.It includes possibly Thoreau's most famous work, Walden, as well as lesser-known (but still immensely inspired and entertaining)works.I would highly recommend this purchase to any interested Thoreau reader, as I am yet to find a comparable compilation for nearly as good a deal as this. ... Read more

Product Description
With Abnaki guides, Thoreau climbed Mt. Katahdin and hiked deep into the Maine woods to places where one "might live and die and never hear of the United States." His accurate, evocative descriptions still reflect his belief that man himself is a part of the natural world. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (10)

Thoreau's Three Ambitious Adventures in Maine
"The Maine Woods" relates three separate trips Henry Thoreau made to the Mount Katahdin and Allagash Wilderness Waterway region of MaineAt 29 years old in 1846, at 36 years old in 1853, and at 40 years old in 1857.In each of the stories he travels with a friend by rail, steamboat, and coach to the starting point, hires a guide, and embarks on his adventure.Even for a reader familiar with the region, it is essential to keep a map handy to follow the author in his travels.In the first trip he hires a local outfitter as a guide, and poles up the West Branch of the Penobscot River, across lakes and up streams, as close to Mt. Katahdin as he can get, then climbs to the summit of what the Indians called Ktaadn, or "highest land," and now called Mt. Katahdin.His route up the mountain approximated what we now know as the Abol trail, though with no trail to follow, his experience was very different from today's Abol daypacker.He summited on a cloudy day, and missed out on the breathtaking views, though he did get infected with the spiritual bug, and he waxes philosophical as he makes his way back down.Thoreau's enduring memory of the region is "the continuousness of the forest."Thanks to the generous 209,501 acre gift of one of Maine's Governors, Percival Baxter, that memory of Thoreau's is also likely to be yours.

By contrast, the second story is less adventurous, being a canoe-camping trip on Chesuncook and surrounding lakes.Thoreau ends the story reflecting on man's vulnerability in the wilderness, and prays that man will not become "civilized off the face of the earth."I take this trip to be fundamentally a reconnaissance for the third and most ambitious of his trips, titled "The Allagash and East Branch."He went to Maine this time intending to make the standard Allagash Wilderness Waterway trip that many of us plan and few ever make.He lets himself get talked out of it and into a considerably more difficult trip.He starts as with the Chesuncook trip, but carries on northward into Chamberlain, Eagle, Telos, and Webster Lakes, and through Webster Stream to Second Lake and Great Lake Matagamon.From there it's flat water down the East Branch of the Penobscot.The Webster Stream segment was basically a ten mile portage.Fortunately he had hired a most remarkable Indian Guide, Joe Polis.Polis took his homemade birch bark canoe down through the Webster Stream rapids alone, and Thoreau and his companion (whom he unaccountably never names), fought their way through the thick underbrush and the jumble of trees along the riverbank.In summary, he takes the West Branch upstream as far as it goes, traverses the high elevation lakes over to the headwaters of the East Branch, and completely circles the Katahdin massif in the process.

Thoreau does not consistently delight the reader with is craft; his creative spirit is intermittent.But when inspired, he rises to the task:

Referring to the logs which get hung up along the shore, waiting for a freshet to carry them down to the sawmill, he writes, "Methinks that must be where all my property lies, cast up on the rocks along some distant and unexplored stream, and waiting for an unheard of freshet to fetch it down."

And about the noises he hears at night, "When camping in such a wilderness as this, you are prepared to hear sounds from some of its inhabitants which give voice to its wildness."

And his boatmen: "...so cool, so collected, so fertile in resources are they."

And anyone who has trod through the dark, damp woods between those lakes will recognize this: "It was impossible for us to discern the Indian's trail in the elastic moss, which like a thick carpet, covered every rock and fallen tree, as well as the earth.

And while experiencing one of the Allagash's classic thunderstorms: "I thought it must be a place where the thunder loved, where the lightning practiced to keep its hand in, and it would do no harm to shatter a few pines.

Helps understand why Maine's wildlife and forest is the way it is.
These trips taken before the Civil War, Thoreau makes the journey that people dream of today. He had to be one of the first conservationists, noting that killing animals indiscrimenatly andover-harvesting the forest was a bad thing. Yet even back then he recounts seeing these practices being done. It was fun to follow his trail on the Gazetteer, and find the names of the rivers and lakes that the Indians had given them.

North Country Meander
What a shame most people will never get beyond Walden...

This title is a joy and stands on its own. First up is a short piece about an early ascent of Ktaadn, followed by a longer one on the Allegash & East Branch. If you read nothing else, open it to the middle of pg 22 (& ends on 23). It will take 1 minute and enthrall you with observations and the call of the Wild Boreal North Woods as they were long before roads or even trails and certainly before the great northern paper companies cut their unending swaths through virgin lands. His reflections on the ponds and natives (the Brookies) are as intimate and priceless as the jewels themselves. His opine references to the Greeks are as relevant today as they were then or 4,000 years ago. I first came across a copy in the White House Library (at a dinner reception i could not resist seeing what comforted our leaders during long & troubled nights). It took me several years to track down a copy but it was worth the process.

Do not read this and compare it to Walden or as a some window into Thoreau, but for sheer joy of kicking off the canoe at Telos and the wonder of the north country.

Not just another travelogue
Published posthumously, this volume lacks some cohesiveness as it is divided into 3 separate trips. Thoreau is a master of blending materials from different experiences into one single cohesive and consistent volume -- he did that in Walden (which gives one the feel of one year even though he lived there for about two years) and Cape Code (which gives one the feel of one long walk, even though the material is from several trips), so it makes me wonder what he could have done had he been able to finish this book in his lifetime?

That being said, it is still a great book. Thoreau's observations of nature and of Native American people are vivid, his cry for conservation profound and still resonating. There are also sparks of the dry New England humor here and there, making it a very enjoyable read. One only wishes that he had lived longer and given us more -- what if he had been to the Rockies, the desert southwest? It gives me chills just thinking about it.

In a sense this is a travelogue, but I don't think we should be too critical in judging it -- not every book has to be Walden, and there can only be one Walden after all. It is a travelogue with authentic Thoreau flavor. I would gladly take 10 more travelogues like this one if only I could.

Live Like a Philosopher
This screed from Thoreau is obviously not as classic as his work on Walden, but here we may be seeing the beginning of the travelogue business. Thoreau is often misrepresented (by those who haven't read his works, or have read them too many times) as a hardcore back-to-nature hermit who lived off the land and rejected civilization. One read of his Walden story disproves that stereotype, and in this work about three trips to Maine's wild country, we can surely see Thoreau's social side all the more. At the time, the Maine Woods were surely a thrilling landscape ripe for exploration and adventure, and Thoreau gives us an enjoyable travelogue of his ramblings and recreations. A bonus is great coverage of the Indians of the area, especially Thoreau's longtime traveling colleague Joe Polis. The only problem here is that Thoreau's introspective naturalist philosophy is mostly missing at this stage of his career, and he pretty much accidentally invents descriptive travel writing instead. This is still a worthy exploration if you're interested in the Maine Woods either as they were then or if you wish to explore them today. But Thoreau's classic naturalism is better found in his other works. [~doomsdayer520~] ... Read more

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Presents the history, geography, people, government, economy, social life and customs, and state events and attractions of Maine. ... Read more

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This book explores both the origin and development of the public library in Maine and the history of the architecture that houses it.It also includes a catalogue -- illustrated principally with historic photographs -- that draws upon a diverse body of primary sources to document the history of more than one hundred architecturally distinguished historic library buildings throughout Maine.Issues relating to the preservation and continued ue of these historic facilities are examined through a series of case studies. ... Read more

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Relates the history of one of the oldest breeds of cats to develop in the United States and describes its physical and other characteristics. ... Read more

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A portrait in photos and words of the realities of life in a small Maine fishing village. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (1)

UP RIVER opens one's eyes to examine the working poor.
Olive Pierce and Carolyn Chute have teamed up to tell it like it is on the coast of Maine, in this home-spun fishing family community.

Olive with her keen eye for catching glimpses of light in phenomenal settings with her camera, and her obviously very relentless effort to live with these folks and document their spirits, has got to stand out as an American best-work The black and white photography is moving to the heart.She qualifies her perspective in the forward to the book, sharing a moment to lead the reader to look and listen to only one's unbiased emotions.

Carolyn Chute is, as always, bold and cutting to the point.She is poetically harmonizing with words and the photography, bringing an explanation to a perspective from deep within the soul--that place sometimes ignored by the demands of our fast-paced material world.

And the people in the book, there just some of the best folks you'd ever want to know. Why?I've not only read the book, I know them.They're real; and UP RIVER proves that low-income people are to be respected for their place in the spectrum of human experience. ... Read more

Product Description
Publisher: Augusta, Maine Farmers' Almanac PressPublication date: 1897Subjects: Augusta, Maine -- LibrariesNotes: This is an OCR reprint. There may be typos or missing text. There are no illustrations or indexes.When you buy the General Books edition of this book you get free trial access to Million-Books.com where you can select from more than a million books for free. You can also preview the book there. ... Read more

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The fascinating story of Joshua Chamberlain and his volunteer regiment, the Twentieth Maine, is reprinted with a new foreword by Civil War historian and UCLA professor Joan Waugh. Pullen's classic and highly acclaimed book tells how Chamberlain and his men fought at Antietam, Fredericksburg, and Chancellorsville on their way to the pivotal battle of Gettysburg. There, on July 2, 1863, at Little Round Top, they heroically saved the left flank of the Union battle line. The Twentieth Maine's remarkable story ends with the surrender of Lee's troops at Appomattox.

Considered by Civil War historians to be one of the best regimental histories ever written, this beloved standard of American history is now available in a new Stackpole edition. Includes maps, photographs, and drawings from the original edition. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (9)

Factual, informative, entertaining
I'm an avid student of the Civil War and this was a very enjoyable read. It mixes just enough of the non-military, playful elements in with the historical facts to keep it from getting too dry and it adds enough background so the significance of each action can be appreciated.
I was afraid this was going to be too centered on the justifiably famous Joshua Lawrence Chamberlain but that isn't the case -it discusses in detail the actions taken when Chamberlain was away wounded, serving on a Court Marshall in D.C, and when he was promoted to command other units [but requested command the 20th Maine at the very end!].
If you've seen the movie Gettysburg and some others, the book also clears up a number of glossed-over events, like who the "Colonel Rice" was who asked Chamberlain for a handshake after the charge down Little Round Top and why he was there.

Excellent Read
This is a wonderfully readable and informative book on one of the truly unique heros in our Nation's History, Joshua Lawrence Chamberlain.I had long intended to get a book on him, and was very pleased with The Twentieth Maine.I highly recommend it.

If you never read anything else about the Civil War....
Please do not let this book pass you by! You are WITH the soldiers from the time they form the regiment in Maine, up until they board the train in Washington, headed North at the end of the war. This book is so vivid, you feel like you are a member of the 20th Maine, minus the marching and hunger and other discomforts. I would recommend this book to anyone who is or is not interested in the American Civil War, as it deals with hardship, courage, not giving up. Values anyone would do well to emulate. These young soldiers---I look up to them even now, as fine examples of principles, of values, of doing one's duty. This unit exemplifies what the fight for the Union was all about.
I am extremely impressed with this book. I read it more than 10 years ago and just finished reading it tonight, Dec 21, 2009.

Excellent
This is a superbly readable look at one of the most storied units from the U.S. Civil War.Author John Pullen (1913?-2003) recounts the 20th Maine from its volunteer beginnings and famous defense at Gettysburg, to its many frightful battles in the last months of that horrid conflict.Readers get a feel for everyday life in the regiment, including tents, campfires, guard duty, lice, etc. We also learn of forced marches through woods, clearings, and swamplands, and the occasional horrific battles.The book focuses heavily on officer Joshua Chamberlain (hero of Little Round Top), but never strays far from the existence of ordinary enlisted men.The author's readable style is remarkably similar to that of Bruce Catton - who's superb Civil War histories (STILLNESS AT APPAMATOX, etc.) are also well worth your time.I'd have liked a couple more pages on home-front families, the unit's pre-1863 activities, maybe even the postwar lives of its veterans.Still, this book (published in 1961) provides a gripping look at one of the most storied units in U.S. military history.

Very Good.
A regimental history that really reflects the combat history of the Army of the Potomac from Antietam to Appomattox, this piece of Civil War literature is well worth your time.

Pullen puts you in the action so effectively that you really begin to wonder how regiments like the Twentieth Maine were able to perform so heroically for so long. Credited with single handedly saving the Union flank the second day at Gettysburg, the 20th Maine produces one of the finest battle field commanders of the war: Joshua Lawrence Chamberlain.

With a combat record second to none, these boys from Maine just may have saved the Union. It is because of their efforts that the United States owes such a deep sense of gratitude to the entire State of Maine. ... Read more

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This work introduces the importance of information literacy and high technology resource-based learning to library media specialists, teachers and college professors. Curriculum and learning theory are linked to the research of using technology in the library media centre. ... Read more

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FOR USE IN SCHOOLS AND LIBRARIES ONLY. It's a big day for a little girl when she discovers her first loose tooth and makes a trip to the grocery store on the mainland. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (32)

A girl finds her way in Maine
"One Morning in Maine" is the sweet story of a girl with a loose tooth and her morning adventures in a coastal town in Maine.She wants to share the news of her loose tooth with everyone - the loon on the lake, the hawk in his next, and the seal at the water's edge.

She realizes she is becoming a big girl with this loose tooth, but most of all, she has lots of questions about animals with teeth.Something happens to the tooth, but she acts brave, especially now that she knows losing a tooth is a sign of being a big girl.

When she helps her sister, accompanies her father, and chats with the men in town, she is sure of her grown up status and even consoles her sister at the end with the idea of clam chowder for lunch.

A Perfect Book
My 4 year old son really loves this book, and truly I do too. It's long and so sometimes when he picks it off the shelf for me to read to him I think "oh boy" but I am never sorry that we read it.It's graceful, simple, beautiful.The story is simple and yet it feels meaningful.And it evokes the Maine coast like many of McCloskey's books in such real terms that you can almost taste the salt water.Highly recommended.

Wonderful story!
This is one of my three year old son's favorite stories and I love it too! This story is not action packed but instead takes a stroll through a little girls morning.

A Time of Innocence and Wonder
This book, along with Robert McCloskey's other books, were some of my childhood favorites. This one is a companion piece for Blueberries for Sal. It is a book filled with the wonder and innocence of childhood. It is also beautifully illustrated.

It paints a lovely picture of the beautiful state of Maine. It also paints a picture of a simpler time when worries seemed far away. Sal is the quintessential girl who is going through the rite of passage through childhood. There is a delightful scene when she loses one of her teeth while mucking for clams.

This book can be easily read by young children, though I loved it when my mother read it to me before I could read. I have such a warm memory of those days when my mom was such a nurturing presence in my life. Perhaps you will be able to create such a memory for your own child.

Davis Aujourd'hui, author of the humorous "The Misadventures of Sister Mary Olga Fortitude"

Love this book
This is one of my childhood favorites; I had this book growing up but lost it somewhere and when I found it here I bought it. ... Read more

Product Description
The works of Henry David Thoreau contain some of the most beautifully written and inspiring observations of nature, yet most of his readers are familiar with only one of his books,Walden.Two other gems,The Maine Woods andCape Cod, are travelogues containing some of his finest writing.Presented here are selections from the best of these two works, including Thoreau's record of his climb up Mount Katahdin, his arduous river journey by canoe down the Allegash River, the deadly shipwreck he encountered on his first trip to Cape Cod, as well as his wonderfully colorful and humorous portrait of the Wellfleet oysterman. These writings offer a vision of Thoreau struggling with the harsh realities of wild nature and how people might live in harmony with the natural world. ... Read more

Product Description
The book has no illustrations or index. It may have numerous typos or missing text. However, purchasers can download a free scanned copy of the original rare book from the publisher's website (GeneralBooksClub.com). You can also preview excerpts of the book there. Purchasers are also entitled to a free trial membership in the General Books Club where they can select from more than a million books without charge. Original Publisher: Printed for the author; Publication date: 1900; Subjects: Private libraries; Libraries, Private; Antiques ... Read more

Product Description
A comprehensive look at one of the most popular breeds of cat. Every aspect of Maine Coon Cat care, from feeding to health to exhibiting is presented within the pages of this colorful book. In addition, special sections cover the history and character of the breed and presentation of the standard. 52 full-color photos. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (6)

The beautiful Maine Coon Cat book
Of the three books that I purchased on the subject of owning a Maine Coon Cat. This book has the most spectular pictures of these breathtaking animals. The photographer did an outstandling job to catching the image and personality of each animals.

A good 38 page start that doesn't make it to the finish line
"Guide to Owning a Maine Coon Cat" starts out strong with a detailed exposition of the various Maine Coon origin theories:the 'Marie Antoinette'; the 'Viking'; the 'Racoon cross'; the 'Lynx cross', among others (I favor the 'Viking' since Maine Coons and Norwegian Forest Cats look an awful lot alike).

The author then spends a good deal of print on the Maine Coon personality and the breed standard and colors.The photographs are beautiful, professional and in color.

It's when we get to the chapters on care, grooming, and feeding that this book strays away from Maine Coons and becomes generic and uninteresting.The photographs deteriorate into advertisements for various grooming and food products.Some show the covers of other books from the same firm that published this book, i.e. T.F.H. Publications, Inc.

Go ahead and buy this book, but buy it for the first 38 pages.

Very glitzy pictures of the many faces of Maine Coon cats.
The basic content of this book is generic to all cats, but what sets it apart from others is the very high quality of its pictures.

The reader can get a very good idea of all the background, behavioral characteristicsas well as colors and patterns without a lot of further research.Easyreading for the new MC owner but not as complete as "That YankeeCat," or "This is the Maine Coon Cat."

Very glitzy pictures of the many faces of Maine Coon cats.
The basic content of this book is generic to all cats, but what sets it apart from others is the very high quality of its pictures.

The reader can get a very good idea of all the background, behavioral characteristicsas well as colors and patterns without a lot of further research.Easyreading for the new MC owner but not as complete as "That YankeeCat," or "This is the Maine Coon Cat."

Half-baked Book
The first half of this book is very good detailing the Maine Coon breed, history and standards. Wonderful photos. The second half fails miserably. It is too generic. It does not go into specific details about thisparticular breed. It just gives the general feeding and caring patternswhich are similar to other cats and other books that I have read. It doesnot tell you what the ideal weight should be, etc. Another area that itfails is to tell you about a specific hereditary trait which I found outabout on the internet: hip dysplasia. So only two stars for this book. ... Read more

Product Description
Discusses the history, development, habits and care of Maine coon cats. Includes photo diagram and general facts about cats. ... Read more