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More than any other Transcendentalist of his time, Henry David Thoreau (1817-1862) embodied the full complement of the movement's ideals and vocations: author, advocate for self-reform, stern critic of society, abolitionist, philosopher, and naturalist. The Thoreau ofourtime-valorized anarchist, founding environmentalist, and fervid advocate of civil disobedience-did not exist in the nineteenth century. In this rich and appealing collection, Sandra Harbert Petrulionis untangles Thoreau's multiple identities by offering a wide range of nineteenth-century commentary as the opinions of those who knew him evolved over time. The forty-nine recollections gathered inThoreau in His Own Timedemonstrate that it was those who knew him personally, rather than his contemporary literati, who most prized Thoreau's message, but even those who disparaged him respected his unabashed example of an unconventional life. Included are comments by Ralph Waldo Emerson-friend, mentor, Walden landlord, and progenitor of the spin on Thoreau's posthumous reputation; Nathaniel Hawthorne, who could not compliment Thoreau without simultaneously denigrating him; and John Weiss, whose extended commentary on Thoreau's spirituality reflects unusual tolerance. Selections from the correspondence of Caroline Healey Dall, Maria Thoreau, Sophia Hawthorne, Sarah Alden Bradford Ripley, and Amanda Mather amplify our understanding of the ways in which nineteenth-century women viewed Thoreau. An excerpt by John Burroughs, who alternately honored and condemned Thoreau, asserts his view that Thoreau was ever searching for the unattainable. The dozens of primary sources in this crisply edited collection illustrate the complexity of Thoreau's iconoclastic singularity in a way that no one biographer could. Each entry is introduced by a headnote that places the selection in historical and cultural context. Petrulionis's comprehensive introduction and her detailed chronology of personal and literary events in Thoreau's life provide a lively and informative gateway to the entries themselves. The collaborative biography that Petrulionis creates inThoreau in His Own Timecontextualizes the strikingly divergent views held by his contemporaries and highlights the reasons behind his profound legacy.

Much as she was regarded during her own lifetime, nineteenth-century American author Jessie Benton Frémont is still viewed primarily as the wife of adventurer and politician John Charles Frémont. John Frémont's entry in Merriam-Webster's New Biographical Dictionary (1995) notes that he was \"saved from dire poverty by [his] wife's writings.\" The biographical sketch goes on to relay the following details: \"His wife (m. 1841) [Jessie Ann Benton]...was a writer; author of The Story of the Guard (1863), Far-West Sketches (1890), The Will and the Way Stories (1891), etc.\" (\"Frémont, John Charles\"). Benet's Reader's Encyclopedia of American Literature also assesses Jessie Frémont the wife, rather than the writer. In the 1991 edition, the name \"Frémont, Jessie Benton\" directs one to \"see next entry,\" where the listing for \"Frémont, John C.\" includes the aside that \"his wife, Jessie Benton Frémont, managed to support him and their family by writing\" (\"Frémont, John Charles\"). Another work, Souvenirs of My Time, was a collection of several vignettes Frémont had published in Wide Awake, it enjoyed immediate success upon publication in 1887. One critic admired it unconditionally: \"`The whole book is so bright and winning, and displays such good taste and wise reserve, that we heartily wish Mrs. Frémont might be persuaded to write in earnest the full memories of her life'\" (qtd. in [Pamela Herr] 414). Many stories, such as \"Washington in Past Days,\" \"The Virginia Wedding,\" and \"Family Life in the White House,\" focus on episodes from Frémont's youth; others relate experiences from her European travels that reflect her substantial knowledge of French history, gleaned from years of study. In \"The Queen and the Peasant,\" Frémont pragmatically assesses the causes for the French Revolution; in \"A Nobleman of the Old Regime,\" she describes her reaction to the figure of the aging and unpopular Emperor Louis Napoleon in a Parisian parade. Although she characterizes much of her work as \"`fireside' history\" (Herr 414), Frémont's correspondence records the actuality of a life stressed by anxieties and ambitions, and it lays open the emotional turmoil behind the romance that prevails in her published writing. Letters to close friends discuss the ongoing struggles of shaping and salvaging her husband's career while trying to maneuver within the bounds of acceptable female behavior. She was not always successful, as when President [Lincoln] mocked her as \"quite a female politician\" (338). Repeatedly, Frémont's letters communicate her inside knowledge and keen analysis of political and military strategy -- talents that she put to good use in composing much of her husband's correspondence throughout his career. Later in their lives, Frémont also assisted John Frémont in writing the first volume of his Memoirs, a work that commences with Frémont's biographical essay on her father, in which she stresses the importance of Senator Benton's vision toward exploring the west: \"My father became possessed by this Oregon question. He had the fire of devotion to an idea which transmutes the thought of many into united defined action\" (\"Biographical Sketch\" 10).

In 1833, William Lloyd Garrison predicted that the emancipation of slavery would rely on the cooperation of America's women. While this statement proved to be undoubtedly true, little has been written on one of the most influential abolitionist womens' groups of the time, the Concord Female Anti-Slavery Society. Petrulionis discusses the history of Concord, Massachusetts's contribution to the abolition movement.