Multispecies Walden Woods: Reevaluating Thoreau’s Religion

Abstract

Walden Woods has been rendered as a kind of wilderness, and Henry David Thoreau is often taken to be an icon of individualism. However, recent work in environmental history suggests that even familiar evidence may look different when viewed through the lens of multispecies studies. We can find a more relational vision of Thoreau’s religion if we are willing to admit the other members of Walden Woods society into the frame.