Morganmobile: Telling Fragments
While taking long daily walks around Concord, Massachusetts, Henry D. Thoreau carried scraps of paper in his pocket. He would use a pencil to jot down some of the things he saw. In May 1852, he observed “birches at a distance as in a thin green veil. . . . Swallows that flie low over barren fields & sit on mulleins. . . . currants & gooseberries in bloom . . . .” He would let his thoughts and observations mature, then sit down at his desk later to write in his journal and turn fragmentary field notes into prose. The last few words on this scrap read “rain but not toads?” In his journal, Thoreau wrote “Hear the peepers in the rain to-night but not the dream toads.”
Henry D. Thoreau, field notes for May 1852, inserted in his journal notebook for 31 August 1852–7 January 1853. MA 1302.19. Purchased by Pierpont Morgan, 1909.