Events

Meditative reflections on the great spiritual seeker’s deeply felt experience of the divine. Henry David Thoreau’s spiritual life is a riddle. Thoreau’s passionate critique of formal religion is matched only by his rapturous descriptions of encounters with the divine in nature. He fled the church only to pursue a deeper communion with a presence he…

Even when we leave them, our cities never leave us. After her Dutch mother’s death, Sorayya Khan confronts her grief by revisiting their relationship, her parents’ lives, and her own Pakistani-Dutch heritage in a multicultural memoir that unfolds over seven cities and three continents. We Take Our Cities with Us ushers us from Khan’s childhood independence forged at her grandparents’ home in…

Join a magical evening of poignancy and lift in performance arts at Thoreau Farm with resident inspiration Dr. Barbara Mossberg. The presentations are followed by a reception. PERFORMANCE “(P)raising the Dead:” Mossberg’s Poet in Residence one-act lyric tragicomedy on the transforming role of memoir writing in our own lives, read by audience participants. READING “I Saw…

The 2024 Henry David Thoreau Prize for Literary Excellence in Nature Writing, known as the Thoreau Prize, will be awarded to J. Drew Lanham.  The Thoreau Prize was established in 2010 by nature writer Dale Peterson. In 2020, the Thoreau Society began administering the award. The Thoreau Prize is a literary award granted annually to…

Inspired by the life, letters, and diaries of Henry David Thoreau, Followed by the Lark shows how strikingly similar the concerns of the early nineteenth century are to our own, and reminds us to listen for news of change: the song of spring’s first bluebird, reports from those who have heard it, and all the sounds…

Radically simple experimental tools to help anyone tap into a high-energy brain state to fire up innovative potential and shape their lives with intention—by the founder of a Harvard biomedical engineering innovation lab. In an age of convenience and information overload, it’s easy to go through the motions, pressured, distracted, and seeking instant gratification rather than harnessing our potential for meaningful and impactful…

Register on Zoom How did one man protect the future of birds? A Connecticut Yankee Goes to Washington: Senator George P. McLean, Birdman of the Senate is the story of how Connecticut’s George P. McLean helped establish lasting legal protections for birds, overseeing passage of the 1918 Migratory Bird Treaty Act, landmark environmental protection legislation that…

The Thoreau Society received a Mass Humanities Staffing Recovery Grant (2023-25) in support of our Membership and Program Coordinator. Funding from Mass Humanities has been provided through the Massachusetts Cultural Council.