Six Walks: In the Footsteps of Henry David Thoreau - Hardcover

by Ben Shattuck (Author)

A The New Yorker Best Book of 2022

A New England Indie Bestselller

A New York Times Best Book of Summer, a Wall Street Journal and Town & Country Best Book of Spring

"A gorgeous reminder that walking is the most radical form of locomotion nowadays." ―Nick Offerman

"I think Thoreau would have liked this book, and that's a high recommendation." ―Bill McKibben, author of The End of Nature

On an autumn morning in 1849, Henry David Thoreau stepped out his front door to walk the beaches of Cape Cod. Over a century and a half later, Ben Shattuck does the same. With little more than a loaf of bread, brick of cheese, and a notebook, Shattuck sets out to retrace Thoreau's path through the Cape's outer beaches, from the elbow to Provincetown's fingertip.

This is the first of six journeys taken by Shattuck, each one inspired by a walk once taken by Henry David Thoreau. After the Cape, Shattuck goes up Mount Katahdin and Mount Wachusett, down the coastline of his hometown, and then through the Allagash. Along the way, Shattuck encounters unexpected characters, landscapes, and stories, seeing for himself the restorative effects that walking can have on a dampened spirit. Over years of following Thoreau, Shattuck finds himself uncovering new insights about family, love, friendship, and fatherhood, and understanding more deeply the lessons walking can offer through life's changing seasons.

Intimate, entertaining, and beautifully crafted, Six Walks is a resounding tribute to the ways walking in nature can inspire us all.

Back Jacket

On a summer morning in 1849, Henry David Thoreau stepped out his front door to walk the beaches of Cape Cod. Over a century and a half later, Ben Shattuck does the same. With little more than a loaf of bread, brick of cheese, and a notebook, Shattuck sets out to retrace Thoreau's path through the Cape's outer beaches, from the elbow to Provincetown's fingertip.

This walk through Cape Cod is the first of six journeys taken by Shattuck, each one inspired by a journey once taken by Henry David Thoreau. As he first traverses the Cape, then Mount Wachusett and Mount Katahdin, Shattuck encounters the unexpected--like the enigmatic millionaire who buys him dinner in a Provincetown pub, or the kind couple who take him in for the night as an oysterman once took in Henry--and comes to see for himself the restorative effects that walking can have on a dampened spirit. And when he returns to New England, years later, to once again follow Thoreau's paths--this time due west, then to the Allagash in Maine, and finally back to Cape Cod--Shattuck finds himself uncovering new insights about family, love, friendship, and impending fatherhood, and understanding more deeply the lessons walking can offer through life's changing seasons.

Interweaving passages from Thoreau's many writings alongside Shattuck's own thinking and memories, Six Walks is an intimate, beautifully crafted meditation on Thoreau's work and personhood, and a resounding tribute to the ways walking in nature can inspire us all.

Author Biography

Ben Shattuck, a former Teaching-Writing Fellow and graduate of the Iowa Writers' Workshop, is a recipient of the PEN America Short Story Prize and a 2019 Pushcart Prize. Shattuck's first book, Six Walks: In the Footsteps of Henry David Thoreau (Tin House, 2022) was a New Yorker magazine Best Book of 2022, a Wall Street Journal Best Book of Spring, a New York Times Best Book of Summer, and a New England Indie Bestseller. His forthcoming book of short stories, The History of Sound, will be published by Viking in July of 2024. He lives with his wife and daughter on the coast of Massachusetts, where he owns and runs the oldest general store in America, built in 1793. He is also the founder and director of the Cuttyhunk Island Writers' Residency.