Remembrances of Concord

by Horace Hosmer and George Hendrick

No Synopsis Available.

• Format: Hardcover
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0252006607
• ISBN13: 9780252006609
• Release Date: November 1977
• Publisher: University of Illinois Press
• Length: 157 Pages
• Weight: 0.85 lbs.

Customer Reviews

Who wrote these letters? And why should we read them?

Dr. Samuel A. Jones (1834-1912) was a physician and Thoreau scholar who lived in Ann Arbor, Michigan. Horace Hosmer (1830-1894) was a small businessman in Acton and Concord, Massachusetts. They formed a friendship when their paths crossed in 1890, and they exchanged letters from that point on until Horace's death in 1894. Much of their correspondence dealt with the then-contemporary image of Henry David Thoreau, who had been popularized in an 1888 biography by F. B. Sanborn. Dr. Jones was a devoted fan of the naturalist; Horace was a family friend who had once been a student in Henry and John Thoreau's school. Both set out to refute details revealed in the Sanborn book.Enter George Hendrick, an English professor who in 1974 discovered this collection of Horace's letters in the attic of Dr. Jones' daughter-in-law. While the doctor's replies have not survived, Horace's side of the conversation is revealing enough, and we can fill in the blanks. We get a general idea of what life was like in Concord in the 1890s, especially regarding politics. And we learn a great deal about the personal life of Horace Hosmer, of course. He gives specifics about his own health condition, which seems natural enough because he was speaking with a doctor. He talks about his own pencil-making business and compares it to the Thoreau family operation. He dispels rumors that Henry's cabin was a stop on the Underground Railroad. He glows with respect for Henry's brother John and for their parents, John and Cynthia. Just as we come to know and nearly understand this common man, we read a final letter from his daughter, who writes to Dr. Jones the day after her father died.An informal but revealing and sometimes amusing glimpse of life at a certain time, in a certain place.