Mindprints

“‘I have travelled a good deal in Concord,’ Thoreau wrote in Walden, famously mocking the notion that travel takes place beyond the borders of one’s hometown. Devotees of the transcendentalist philosopher will be grateful that, nearly two centuries later, Gaskell took up residence in the adjacent town of Lexington and fixed his uncommon powers of perception on his erstwhile neighbor’s life and writing, traveling imaginatively with Thoreau to yield this extraordinary book. Gaskell unsettles and expands our understanding of Thoreau by homing in on the sensory particulars of his surroundings, cherished revelations of worlds past, present, and still to come.” -- Megan Marshall, Pulitzer Prize-winning author of 'Margaret Fuller: A New American Life'
“By situating Thoreau’s wide-ranging writings in their cultural, historical, and biographical contexts, Gaskell brilliantly illuminates the critical role that perceptual acuity and aesthetic sensibility played in his management of daily life, ethical commitments, and philosophical thinking. Gaskell’s meticulously crafted account makes Thoreau come alive as someone who practiced and lived his philosophy. The book is timely and pertinent today as we face global challenges posed by environmental crises and consumerism.” -- Yuriko Saito, Rhode Island School of Design
“Louisa May Alcott’s observation that Thoreau ‘made one small spot a continent’ could apply as well to this book. Gaskell’s study moves outward from the physical spot on earth that Thoreau inhabited to the virtual continents he embraced through mindprints, common things and experiences that ‘projected human presence across the ages.’ In the process of unpacking Thoreau’s contributions, Gaskell also pushes the study of aesthetics from a narrow focus on ‘the arts’ to an embrace of sensory engagement of all sorts. This is a magical book on an enduring topic.” -- Laurel Thatcher Ulrich, Harvard University
“I’ve often wondered what a properly transcendental history of material culture might look like, and thanks to Gaskell’s Mindprints, I now know. Through carefully chosen examples of Thoreau’s distinctively subjective empiricism, Gaskell gives the reader profound means to consider Thoreau’s perpetual, heartfelt question: why do just these things make a world?” -- David Wood, curator of the Concord Museum