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About
Us
Mission
| Staff |
Board of Directors
| Office
History
| Presidents |
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The Thoreau Society
office is located at the Burke House within the Minute Man National
Historical Park, across the street from Meriam's Corner. Concord
is the birthplace of the American Revolution and the War for Independence
as well as the home of the New England Transcendentalist writers,
and the "second American revolution," which took place
in thought and in action. Central among these great American writers
and thinkers of the time were Ralph Waldo Emerson, Bronson Alcott,
Nathaniel Hawthorne, and Henry D. Thoreau among others.
Established in 1941, the Thoreau Society is the
largest and longest running organization devoted to an American
author. The Society has long contributed to the dissemination
of knowledge about 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.
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.
Thoreau
Society members represent a wide range of professions, interests,
and hometowns across the United States and around the world. They
are connected by the conviction that Henry Thoreau had important
things to say and crucial questions to ask that are just as significant
in our time as in his. Our list
of past Society presidents is a sampling of the kinds of people
who have been attracted to Thoreau's writings and philosophies.
Through its programs, publications and projects, the Thoreau Society
is committed to exploring Thoreau's observations on living with
self, society and nature, and encouraging people to think about
how they live their own lives. |
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Our
Mission:
- To stimulate interest in and foster education
about Thoreau's life, works, and philosophy and his place in
his world and ours,
- To encourage research on Thoreau's life and
writings,
- To act as a repository for Thoreauviana and
material relevant to Thoreau,
- And to advocate for the preservation of Thoreau
Country.
Click here
to read the Thoreau Society By-Laws. Click here
to read the amendment to the By-Laws that was passed by the membership
in June 2005. |
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Staff
Michael Frederick,
Executive Director
Mike has a background in financial services, history, and educational
technology. He has served on two special events committees for
the city of Melrose and on the Board of the Friends of the Middlesex
Fells Reservation. He holds a BS in Finance (Suffolk University)
and an ALM in History (Harvard University Extension School), where
he completed graduate work on Thoreau's social philosophy and
ethics.
Margaret Gram, Accountant
After raising a family
of six children, Margaret returned to college and earned a B.A.
in English and Accounting from Northeastern University, graduating
with highest honors. She spent five years as the business
manager of the Society for the Preservation of New England Antiquities.
For fourteen years, she worked at Harvard University, as the budget
manager for Radcliffe College and as the financial coordinator
of the Radcliffe Institute for Advanced Study. She joined
the office of the Thoreau Society after retiring from Harvard.
Wouldn't Henry be proud?
John Chateauneuf, Education Outreach Coordinator
After teaching at both high school and college levels with 20
years experience as an educator, Chateauneuf joined the staff
in 2004 and now helps to create and coordinate TTS educational
programs. He did his undergraduate work at the University of Massachusetts,
where he majored in English. Turning his focus to nineteenth century
American Literature, he went on to do his graduate work at Harvard
and Middlebury's Bread Loaf School of English. As a member of
Boston's English Lunch Club for twelve years, he has served as
its president for the last two. He is also the founder and director
of Beyond Twilight Walks of Concord and Boston.
Richard Smith; Shop at Walden Pond Associate, Historic Interpretor
Richard is originally from
Cleveland, Ohio, and has a background in history and education,
with 20 years of experience in museum studies. He has lived in
the Concord area for almost a decade, working at various historic
sites as an historian and research assistant. This is his second
stint with the Thoreau Society. Along with his writing and
research, Richard is also involved in Living History and is best
known around the area as "Henry Thoreau." He has been
portraying the Transcendentalist since 1999. Richard, as "Henry,"
appears regularly at Walden Pond and has also traveled a great
deal in Concord and elsewhere on Thoreau's behalf.
Jon Fadiman, Shop at Walden Pond Associate
Jon has worked at the Shop for more than 11 years, starting in
1995, six months after it opened. He has an educational background
in physics, electrical engineering, and marketing. He graduated
from Amherst College; then took his Masters at Harvard, plus additional
post-graduate work. Jon is fluent in French and speaks German
and some other languages. He was Director of International Sales
for several computer companies. Jon lived for a time with his
family in France and worked as a director of two companies there.
He authored many technical and travel articles. Jon was brought
up in a family of authors, and publishing was always part of his
life. This explains his delight in working for the Thoreau Society. |
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Publications
Editor
- Thoreau Society Bulletin
Bob N. Hudspeth, PhD
Dr.
Hudspeth is professor of English at Claremont Graduate University
and is a specialist in 19th century American literature, particularly
the literature of the Transcendentalists. Among his scholarly
publications is a 6-volume set of Margaret Fuller’s writings.
Currently Dr. Hudspeth is editing The Correspondence of Henry
D. Thoreau, 3 vols., The Writings of Henry D. Thoreau
(Princeton University Press).
Editor
- The Concord Saunterer: A Journal of Thoreau Studies
Laura Dassow Walls, PhD.
Dr.
Walls is John H. Bennett Jr. Chair of Southern Letters at the
University of South Carolina. She specializes in American Transcendentalism,
Cross-Atlantic Romanticism, Literature and Science, and Alexander
von Humboldt. Her publications include:
- More
Day to Dawn: Thoreau’s “Walden" for a New Century,
(with "Afterword"). Ed. with Sandra Petrulionis. Amherst:
University of Massachusetts Press, 2006.
- Emerson's
Life in Science: The Culture of Truth. Ithaca, N.Y.: Cornell
University Press, 2003. Pp. viii + 280; bibliography, index,
illustrations.
- The
Oxford Guide to Transcendentalism. Ed. with Joel Myerson
and Sandra Petrulionis. New York: Oxford University Press, forthcoming
2009. 600+ pp.
- The
Journal of Henry David Thoreau, Vol. 9. Co-editor with
Wesley T. Mott. Princeton University Press; publication scheduled
for 2008.
- Material
Faith: Thoreau on Science. Editor and author of "Introduction:
The Man Most Alive" (ix-xviii). NY: Houghton Mifflin, 1999.
Pp. xviii + 120.
- Seeing
New Worlds: Henry David Thoreau and Nineteenth-Century Natural
Science. Madison: University of Wisconsin Press, 1995.
Pp. xiii + 300; bibliography, index.
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Thoreau
Society Collections at the Thoreau Institute
Nicole
Bell-Hathaway, Thoreau Society, Collections Intern
Donna
Maturi, Thoreau Society, Collections Intern |
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Board
of Directors
President: Tom
Potter, Martinsville, Indiana
Treasurer:
Michael Schleifer, Brooklyn, New York
Secretary:
Robert D. Habich, Muncie, Indiana
Directors:
Kurt Aschermann, Falls Church, Virginia
J. Walter Brain, Lincoln, Massachusetts
Robert Clarke, Woodbury, Connecticut (Membership Director)
Wayne T. Dilts, Stewartsville, New Jersey
Laryssa Duncan, Lawrenceville, New Jersey
Dave Ganoe, Salisbury, Maryland
Robert N. Hudspeth, Ontario, California
Lorna Mack, Concord, Massachusetts
Gayle Moore, Martinsville, Indiana
Wes Mott, Vineyard Haven, Massachusetts
Christine O’Connor, Lowell, Massachusetts
Paula Peinovich, Glenmont, New York
Charles T. Phillips, Concord, Massachusetts
Dale Schwie, Minneapolis, Minnesota
Corinne H. Smith, Athol, Massachusetts
Kevin Van Anglen, Bedford, New Hampshire
Joseph Wheeler, Concord, Massachusetts (Assistant Treasurer)
Committees: Development
(Paula Peinovich, chair)
Finance (J. Walter Brain, chair)
Nominations and Elections (Kevin Van Anglen, chair)
Publications (Wesley T. Mott, chair)
Standing (Robert N. Hudspeth, chair)
Office
55 Old Bedford
Road
Concord,
Massachusetts 01742
(978) 369-5310
(just beyond the
historic intersection of Meriam's Corner) |
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