Henry Thoreau did not “flee” to nature to escape the human world, but rather used his observations of patterns and phenomena in the landscapes around him to reflect upon the human condition. The presentation also addresses the political and cultural history of Henry Thoreau’s New England, with a focus on Concord’s early Black inhabitants.

Our Presenter, from the Thoreau Society in Concord, Zoë Pollak, received her PhD from Columbia University, where she wrote her dissertation on 19th-century American Northeastern and pre-Harlem Renaissance nature poetry. She helps design exhibits for The Concord Free Public Library, Thoreau Farm, and the Thoreau Society. Her academic and creative writing has appeared or is forthcoming in AGNI, The American Sonnet (Iowa, 2023), Callaloo, ELH, ESQ, The Hopkins Review, Now Comes Good Sailing: Writers Reflect on Henry David Thoreau (Princeton, 2021), and Women’s Studies.

This program is sponsored by the Massachusetts Cultural Council.