The Other "Hermit" of Thoreau's Walden Pond: The Sojourn of Edmond Stuart Hotham

By Terry Barkley

“Barkley’s biography brings Hotham back to life and paints a picture of a complex and fascinating man.” —Richard Smith, acclaimed Living History interpreter of Henry David Thoreau
 
Nearly seven years after Henry Thoreau died in 1862 of tuberculosis in Concord, Massachusetts, a young theological student from New York City arrived in Concord in November 1868. Edmond Hotham had never been there, but he immediately began preparations to pursue the “wild life.” He met transcendentalist poet (William) Ellery Channing, a former close friend of Thoreau’s who had suggested to Thoreau that he build his cabin at Walden Pond. It was Channing who likely introduced Hotham to transcendentalist leader Ralph Waldo Emerson (the “Sage of Concord”), and Emerson who gave Hotham permission, like Thoreau before him, to build his “Earth-cabin” on the poet’s property at Walden Pond. Hotham built his shanty on the pond’s shore about 100 yards in front of Thoreau’s, where he attempted to out-economize and out-simplify Thoreau. Hotham’s sojourn as the second “hermit” at Walden Pond exemplified the growing adulation of Henry David Thoreau and his literary work.
 
Author Terry Barkley has gleaned archival sources, vital records, period newspaper accounts, and census rolls for everything that is known about Edmond Hotham. The Other “Hermit” of Thoreau’s Walden Pond is the first book-length treatise on Hotham, half of which is wholly new material. It far supersedes the late Kenneth Walter Cameron’s 1962 article on Hotham, which until now was the most complete study of the man.
 
Barkley’s groundbreaking study book is an important addition to the Concord-Walden Pond story and a fascinating read. To quote Thoreau, “What is once well done is done forever.”

• Language: English
• Publisher: Open Road Integrated Media
• Release date: Jun 28, 2019
• ISBN: 9781940669953

Terry Barkley

A member of the Thoreau Society, Terry Barkley is a retired professional librarian, archivist, and Harvard-trained museum curator, and a former history teacher. He is the author of three books and co-author of a fourth. His articles have appeared in the Tennessee Historical Quarterly, Living Blues, and in The Brethren Encyclopedia. Terry is currently chair of the Brethren Historical Committee of the Church of the Brethren (Dunkers). He is an independent scholar and musician who lives in Lexington, Virginia.

Book preview

Prologue

The New Hermit will grind his meal at noon, precisely.

In a whimsical piece published in the Springfield [Massachusetts] Republican in May 1869 and signed by Concord correspondent Tribulation Periwinkle (the alter ego of Louisa May Alcott), the writer teased her readers about the explosion of interest in all things Concord and Walden Pond. As it has become the fashion to make a yearly report of the condition of Concord and its inhabitants, wrote Periwinkle, and as no gossip concerning this immortal town seems to be considered too trivial for the public ear, we feel it our duty to add to said yearly report lately published, the last rumor afloat.

After providing a checklist of delights awaiting the onslaught of curious pilgrims to this modern Mecca, Periwinkle concluded that all about has conspired to confer immortality upon one of the dullest little towns in Massachusetts. Guides will be in attendance to show the most famous portions of the glorified sand-bank, she added, "and a daily bulletin will appear telling the most favorable hours for beholding the various lions—something in this style, perhaps:

—Emerson will walk at 4 p.m.

—Alcott will converse from 8 a.m. till 11 p.m.

—Channing may be seen with the naked eye at sunset.

—The new Hermit will grind his meal at noon, precisely.

—The ladies of Concord will not be exhibited on Saturdays.

Tribulation Periwinkle described the lures of her proposed new hotel for Concord—The Sphinx’s Head—where the throng of pilgrims can be entertained in the most hospitable and appropriate style. They could be served Walden water and Thoreauvian wild apples, sleep on beds made of Thoreau’s pine boughs, and those with gifted eyes can look through telescopes to watch the soarings of the Oversoul. Finally, lassos could be provided the expert to catch untamed hermits like Hotham, or poets on the wing. The need of an establishment like this has been long and deeply felt, she explained,

especially since each spring brings, with the robins, a flock of reporters, who like those brisk and inquisitive birds, roost upon Concordian fences, chirp on Concordian door-steps, and hop over Concordian hills and fields, scratching vigorously, as if hoping to unearth a new specimen from what is popularly believed to be the hot-bed of genius.²

The new hermit, Edmond Stuart Hotham, was completing nearly six months of living in his Earth-cabin on the shore of Walden Pond. That he was included with the various lions of Concord’s famed literary circle denotes the celebrity status Hotham quickly obtained among the aging Concord transcendentalists. Like they, Edmond Hotham was on daily display to the rush of visitors everywhere in town and at Walden Pond, the throngs finally ruining his search for solitude where he could pursue his private work, commune with nature, and live the wild life he had