{"product_id":"thoreau-the-land-surveyor-9780813041476","title":"Thoreau the Land Surveyor","description":"\u003cp\u003e\"An insightful study of how Thoreau's profession as a surveyor impacts his environmental sensibility and informs his literary works; further, Chura shows that the manuscript surveys and corresponding field notes are themselves worthy of literary analysis. \"--Sandra Harbert Petrulionis, coeditor of \u003ci\u003eMore Day to Dawn: Thoreau's Walden for the Twenty-first Century\u003c\/i\u003e \u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e \"Chura's thorough understanding of the cultural import and physical practice of 19th-century surveying provides a fresh and interesting perspective on Thoreau's life and works. . . . .He combines a spry writing style with meticulous research in this delightful book, which introduces readers to another side of Thoreau's life and thought. Highly recommended.\" --\u003ci\u003eG. D. MacDonald, Virginia State University\u003c\/i\u003e \u003cp\u003e\u003ci\u003e \u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\"Most books about Henry David Thoreau focus on his writing, philosophy, or literary vision, paying little attention to how he made a living while engaged in such transcendentalist pursuits. In \u003ci\u003eThoreau the Land Surveyor, \u003c\/i\u003ePatrick Chura corrects this oversight.\" --Lorianne DiSabato, \u003ci\u003eThe New England Quarterly\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\"A scholarly book that's as beautiful as it is unput-downable. . . Not only is Chura a fine writer here, he is one heck of a historian. He enriches every page with carefully considered research. . . .I loved this book from start to finish.\" --Mike Tidwell, author of \u003ci\u003eThe Ponds of Kalambayi: An African Sojourn. \u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\"An insightful study of how Thoreau's profession as a surveyor impacts his environmental sensibility and informs his literary works; further, Chura shows that the manuscript surveys and corresponding field notes are themselves worthy of literary analysis.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\"This book on the significance of land surveying to Henry Thoreau's writing is one that we have long needed. Chura's practical experience as a surveyor combined with his literary scholarship makes him the perfect person to write it.\"\u003ci\u003e--\u003c\/i\u003eRichard J. Schneider, editor of\u003ci\u003e\u003c\/i\u003eHenry David Thoreau: A Documentary Volume\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eHenry David Thoreau, one of America's most prominent environmental writers, supported himself as a land surveyor for much of his life, parceling land that would be sold off to loggers. In the only study of its kind, Patrick Chura analyzes this seeming contradiction to show how the best surveyor in Concord combined civil engineering with civil disobedience.\u003cbr\u003e \u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003ePlacing Thoreau's surveying in historical context, \u003ci\u003eThoreau the Land Surveyor \u003c\/i\u003eexplains the cultural and ideological implications of surveying work in the mid-nineteenth century. Chura explains the ways that Thoreau's environmentalist disposition and philosophical convictions asserted themselves even as he reduced the land to measurable terms and acted as an agent for bringing it under proprietary control. He also describes in detail Thoreau's 1846 survey of Walden Pond. By identifying the origins of Walden in--of all places--surveying data, Chura re-creates a previously lost supporting manuscript of this American classic\u003ci\u003e.\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eAbout the Author\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cp\u003ePatrick Chura is associate professor of English at the University of Akron and author of \u003ci\u003eVital Contact: Downclassing Journeys in American Literature from Herman Melville to Richard Wright\u003c\/i\u003e\u003ci\u003e.\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cbr\u003e","brand":"University Press of Florida","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":50413249134866,"sku":"9780813041476","price":19.99,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0831\/4771\/8930\/files\/img_3d3cceef-b0be-4871-b87a-33432c982f1f.jpg?v=1729351114","url":"https:\/\/surprise-castle.myshopify.com\/products\/thoreau-the-land-surveyor-9780813041476","provider":"Surprise Castle","version":"1.0","type":"link"}