Click above to view before you buy our Coffee Table Book, Escape to Walden, with all of its beautiful pictures and formatting. The text has been abridged and updated from the original Walden text by Henry David Thoreau. 

Is this the best Walden Pond Picture Book?

Yes, but I haven’t read them all. I did purchase one at the visitors center in Concord and I quite liked it, though it lacked detail from the book, Walden. It was a children’s book. This book, Escape to Walden, is for adult readers. 

How did I decide what to cut from the original Walden?

I’ve read Walden multiple times. During the process of abridging, I first re-read the full text, when I find my eyes glazing over or being tempted to skip, I circle the text and come back to it on a second reading. Usually these are omitted from the abridged text.

Have I ever been to Walden?

Yes, I write about it in the intro and conclusion to “Escape to Walden”:

I have been to Walden Pond. Once, in person, and many times since in my mind, as a retreat from the cares of my world. 

It was my first and only time in Boston, visiting my Brother, on a rainy day, with a plan to briefly stop at the pond, see the sights, visit the welcoming center and move on to the next adventure. 

However, when we got there, I found that I couldn’t leave without trekking around the entire pond. Most of the party waited in the van at the shore, anxious I assume, to move on.

Yet, I walked and sensed and felt. 

Walden describes the location as “earth’s eye; looking into which the beholder measures the depth of his own nature.”

I have seen prettier ponds. I have hiked more scenic trails. Yet, I have never left a place of nature so touched by its serenity, history and meaning. 

Walden may not be reverential to every visitor on every day, but on that day I was filled and I hope  can sense some of what Thoreau meant when he said: “Live in each season as it passes; breathe the air, drink the drink, taste the fruit, and resign yourself to the influence of the earth.”