Henry David Thoreau

Record year1837–1861

summaryConnects day-by-day phenology, local landscapes, and a limited experiment in living into a literary–observational text that can be checked.

M rationaleIt combines an important literary work with long-term observational materials and has substantial scope and independent form, but a personal experiment cannot be generalized into a social prescription.

attribution rationaleHenry David Thoreau .59; Ralph Waldo Emerson .06; earlier work in Transcendentalism and natural history .15; Concord local knowledge and direct interlocutors .06; the original editing-and-publication chain of "Walden" .07; unresolved share .07. The shares are revisable research judgments.

overlap boundaryCounts the continuous observational method in the 1837–61 diaries during his lifetime and the 1845–47 life experiment as developed into the core text of 1854 "Walden"; modern diary editions, travel books, political essays, and posthumous selections are handled separately.

Evidence gapsOverlapping passages between the diaries and "Walden" have not been audited volume by volume; the identities of local-knowledge contributors are incomplete; modern diary editing is a later achievement and does not enter the budget for the original 1837–61 records.

Record year1846–1860

summaryWrites the individual action of refusing to fund an unjust government as a communicable argument; the John Brown texts also explicitly argue that in particular circumstances forceful intervention against enslavement can be justified, creating an internal tension rather than a single line.

M rationaleThe tax-refusal action and texts have a clear political-ethical completed outcome, and their antislavery scope is important; their individualist assumptions and defense of lethal violence are both part of the full scope of thought, compressed into the same M, without backfilling later selective nonviolent reception.

attribution rationaleHenry David Thoreau .58; earlier work in abolition, resistance, and theories of conscience .13; Concord lecterns and abolitionist interlocutors .08; original editing-and-publication chain .07; historical action by enslaved people and resisters .04; unresolved share 0.10. The shares are revisable research judgments.

overlap boundaryCounts the 1846 refusal to pay the poll tax, the 1848 lecture, and the 1849 "Resistance to Civil Government," and includes the explicit defense in 1859 "A Plea for Captain John Brown" and related 1860 speeches of using force to free enslaved people; it neither simplifies this line into a purely nonviolent theory nor claims the outcomes of later civil-rights or antiwar movements.

Evidence gapsThe three 1859–60 John Brown texts have not yet been compared passage by passage; the later title "Civil Disobedience" is not identical to the 1849 original title; later nonviolent interpretations do not determine the original scope; John Brown is an actor in the argument; there is still insufficient evidence to allocate to him a share in the writing of this text family, and credit cannot be given solely for being depicted.

Record year1839–1861 writing, 1849–1865 publication

summaryWrites journeys through specific rivers, coasts, and forests as regional texts combining people, terrain, and natural observation.

M rationaleThere are multiple regional completed outcomes distinct from settled observation, but two posthumous books depend heavily on editorial transmission, so the family is valued as an important work family.

attribution rationaleHenry David Thoreau .48; John Thoreau Jr. .07; local guides and information contributors including Penobscot people .13; Sophia Thoreau .07; William Ellery Channing .06; earlier work in travel and nature writing .10; unresolved share .09. The shares are revisable research judgments.

overlap boundaryCombines "A Week" (1849), completed and published during his lifetime, with texts formed by Thoreau from Maine journeys of 1846/1853/1857 and Cape Cod journeys including 1849, and organized with assistance from Sophia Thoreau and Channing into the 1864 "The Maine Woods" and 1865 "Cape Cod"; it does not repeat the general observational method of "Walden" or mix all posthumous selections into this family.

Evidence gapsThe naming of local guides and their specific knowledge inputs require work-by-work verification; the chapter-by-chapter changes by the two editors in the two books have not been fully compared; the budget is provisional according to documented version roles; Emerson participated in transmission work for "Excursions" and other works, but this is not backfilled into the two travel books of this family.

Record yearthe 1840s–1860

summaryCombines precise measurement with records of local landscapes, leaving land and river materials that can be verified.

M rationaleThere are numerous physical drawings and professional services, but their geographic reach is limited, so they are valued as a generally important tool service.

attribution rationaleHenry David Thoreau .55; earlier work in surveying mathematics and cartography .18; public and private commissioners .08; local guides, landowners, and field assistants .08; unresolved share .11. The shares are revisable research judgments.

overlap boundaryCounts, from the 1840s onward, approximately 195 survey drawings, notes, and river surveys completed for the town of Concord and private properties; it does not count general natural observation or modern archival interpretation again.

Evidence gapsIndividual commissions and property consequences have not been verified; modern archival custodianship belongs to later transmission, and any evaluation of preservation outcomes should be established as a separate item.