EARTH ~

Walden Pond
7AM

NUMBERS

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. 2,000 population of Concord during Thoreau's stay at the pond

. 2 years, 2 months, 2 days : length of Thoreau's stay at Walden (before deducting a month spent at home while his cabin was being winterproofed and his two-week Maine trip)

. 1.3 miles distance from Thoreau's cabin to Emerson's house

. 28-36 : Thoreau's age during Walden composition

. 550 yards : distance from Thoreau's cabin to the Fitchburg railroad line

. 204 feet : distance from Thoreau's cabin to Walden Pond

. 612 acres : size of Walden Pond

. 31 : tools Thoreau used at Walden

. over 3,000 : uses of first-person pronoun Walden

. less than half a mile : distance from Thoreau's cabin to Irish railroad laborers' huts

. 10' x 15' : size of Thoreau's cabin

. 30 : people that could fit in the cabin without removing the furniture

. almost 7 miles : total length of Thoreau's bean rows

. over 700 : reference to animals in Walden

. 6 : languages Thoreau could read fluently (English, Latin, Greek, French, German, Italian)

. 25 : Harvard faculty members when Thoreau was a student

. over $1 million : 1988 sale price of Thoreau family house

"7 miles"?

Robert R. Ray
from Walden x 40
(essays on Thoreau)
Indiana University Press, 2012


photo © susan arnold