Table Of ContentThe Writings of
Henry D. Thoreau
Cape Cod
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HENRY D. THOREAU
Cape Cod
EDITED BY JOSEPH J. MOLDENHAUER
WITH AN INTRODUCTION BY ROBERT PINSKY
PRINCETON UNIVERSITY PRESS
PRINCETON AND OXFORD
The Committee emblem, means that one of a panel of textual experts serving
the Committee has reviewed the text and textual apparatus of
the original volume by thorough and scrupulous sampling, and has
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and maximum accuracy attained. The accuracy of the text has been
guarded by careful and repeated proofreading of printer's copy according
to standards set by the Committee.
The editorial preparation of this volume, and costs associated with its
publication, were supported by grants from the Editing and Publication
Programs of the National Endowment for the Humanities, an
independent federal agency. During the early stages of editing, support
was provided through the Center for Editions of American Authors of the
Modern Language Association.
Copyright © 1988, 2004 by Princeton University Press Published by
Princeton University Press, 41 William Street, Princeton,
New Jersey 08540
In the United Kingdom: Princeton University Press,
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All rights reserved
First edition, 1988
First Princeton Classic Edition, 2004
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data has been applied for
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Editorial Board
Editor-in-Chief, Elizabeth Hall Witherell
Executive Committee
William L. Howarth
Robert N. Hudspeth
Joseph J. Moldenhauer, Textual Editor
William Rossi
Nancy Craig Simmons
The Writings
Walden, ]. Lyndon Shanley (1971)
The Maine Woods, Joseph J. Moldenhauer (1972)
Reform Papers, Wendell Click (1973)
Early Essays and Miscellanies,
Joseph J. Moldenhauer et al. (1975)
A Week on the Concord and Merrimack Rivers,
Carl F. Hovde et al. (1980)
Journal I: 1837-1844, Elizabeth Hall Witherell et al.
(1981)
Journal 2: 1842-1848, Robert Sattelmeyer (1984)
Translations, K. P. Van Anglen (1986)
Cape Cod, Joseph J. Moldenhauer (1988)
Journal 3: 1848-1851, Robert Sattelmeyer,
Mark R. Patterson, and William Rossi (1990)
Journal 4: 1851-1852, Leonard N. Neufeldt and
Nancy Craig Simmons (1992)
Journal 5: 1852-1853, Patrick F. O'Connell (1997)
Journal 6: 1853, William Rossi and Heather
Kirk Thomas (2000)
Journal 8: 1854, Sandra Harbert Petrulionis (2002)
The Higher Law: Thoreau on Civil Disobedience and
Reform, Wendell Click (2004)
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Contents
Introduction by Robert Pinsky ix
I. The Shipwreck. 3
II. Stage-Coach Views. 15
III. The Plains of Nauset. 24
IV. The Beach. 44
V. The Wellfleet Oysterman. 62
VI. The Beach Again. 80
VII. Across the Cape. 101
VIII. The Highland Light. 118
IX. The Sea and the Desert. 139
X. Provincetown. 167
Index 217
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Introduction
LAUNCHING into an opening spectacle of death,
but full of startling jokes; ambling yet dramatic; shift-
ing rapidly among whimsy, natural history, polemic,
diary, research paper, parody, sermon, history and
wisecrack—Thoreau's Cape Cod can amaze modern
readers with its peculiar freshness. Contemporary
books about places have their own excellences, but they
don't attain this unpredictable movement or this
immediacy. Thoreau's vividness of mind illuminates
the Cape in what remains the place's best portrait.
Cape Cod's diverting manner—quirky, anecdotal,
scholarly, casual, barbed —comes partly from the cir-
cumstances of its composition: it was written for per-
formance, and in chronological sequence. That is,
Thoreau wrote many parts of the book for lectures he
would deliver to audiences; and his organization of its
parts often relies on the order in which events—a
storm, a visit to a lighthouse keeper or to the library—
actually occurred. The mercurial texture reflects that
structure (and Thoreau's mind); but it also reflects a
public speaker's relation to a hall full of listeners, dif-
ferent from a writer's relation to readers. Thoreau's
electric style combines the two related modes of writ-
ing and lecturing, with their distinct varieties of
authority and intimacy.
The audience at Thoreau's Cape Cod lectures for
the Concord Lyceum "laughed till they cried." Those
are the words of Ralph Waldo Emerson, working on the
Secretary of the South Danvers Lyceum, to whom
Emerson is recommending his friend for a speaking
engagement. The prose of both Thoreau and Emerson
should be understood in relation to the lecture
form. A secular pulpit, an uplifting theater, and an
