ABSTRACT
In Henry David Thoreau’s most famous works, a natural world overwhelmed by humanity’s actions seems beyond the author’s imagination, as he frequently portrays nature as either outwitting humanity or as sublimely invulnerable. However, recent scholarship on Thoreau has turned increasingly to the more scientifically focused works from the close of his career in order to temper his optimistic self-representation. Thoreau’s later passions for mapping, cataloguing, and interacting with material objects that straddle the natural and human worlds present a literary persona more useful to current Anthropocene scholarship and environmental activism than the seemingly overconfident philosophical voice of his early career.
