Cape Cod

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by Henry David Thoreau,

Edited by Joseph Moldenhauer,

Introduction by Robert Pinsky

Princeton University Press

Due/Published June 2004, 256 pages, paper

ISBN 0691118426

This new edition of Henry D. Thoreau's account of Cape Cod contains the complete, definitive text of the original. Introduced by Robert Pinsky--himself a resident of Cape Cod--this volume contains some of Thoreau's most beautiful work.

In the plants, animals, topography, weather, and people of Cape Cod, Thoreau finds "another world" Encounters with the ocean dominate this book, from the fatal shipwreck of the opening chapter to his later reflections on the Pilgrims' landing and reconnaissance. Along the way, Thoreau relates the experiences of fishermen and oystermen, farmers and salvagers, lighthouse-keepers and ship captains, as well as his own intense confrontations with the sea as he travels the land's outermost margins. Chronicles of exploration, settlement, and survival on the Cape lead Thoreau to reconceive the history of New England--and to recognize the parochialism of history itself.