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Community Corner

Lexington Community Education presents: Thoreau's Quest for the Transcendental Life: On the Trail of a Hound, a Bay Horse and a Turtle Dove - A Talk by Thoreau Scholar Tom Blanding

The hound, bay horse, and turtle-dove are metaphors Thoreau scholars are still musing over.  What is the meaning of life to Thoreau?  What is he seeking in his seemingly eccentric pursuits?  Strange as it may seem, Thoreau is our philosopher of balance, and, if he seems extreme in his position, it is because we have become so extreme in ours. Come and discover what Thoreau means when he writes:  "Happy the man who observes the heavenly and the terrestrial laws in just proportion; whose every faculty, from the soles of his feet to the crown of his head, obeys the law of its level; who neither stoops nor goes on tiptoe, but lives a balanced life, acceptable to nature and to God."

Tom Blanding is an Independent Scholar of New England Transcendentalism, specializing in the life and writings of Henry D. Thoreau. He is a popular and entertaining speaker, having given hundreds of talks at colleges, clubs, and other organizations, including Harvard University, the Modern Language Association, and the National Trust for Historic Preservation. Since his undergraduate days in the 1960s Blanding has been a celebrated literary detective, tracking down many previously unknown manuscripts, diaries, letters, and other documents relating to Thoreau, Concord, and the Transcendentalists. (For example, he discovered Louisa May Alcott’s lost Fruitlands diary in a New Hampshire farmhouse.) Blanding has published countless articles in his field and is the author of Historic Walden Woods and the co-author of A Thoreau Iconography. 

The cost of this evening's event is $10.00.  Pre-registration, using a VISA or MasterCard is strongly recommended by contacting Lexington Community Education at 781 862 8043.

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