Selected Reviews for Beyond Walden
Kirkus Reviews: “A “lively chronicle of a hitherto obscure environmental feature. A rich, exhaustive account of one of America’s threatened ecological jewels.”…”The author’s enthusiasm shines through as he uses personal experience, literary references and the history of American popular culture .”
Library Journal: Thorson “pulls the most amazing geological and human data out of kettle ponds and explains why these lovely bodies of water bring such pleasure to those who live by them or make use of them for recreation.”…”The author “provides a complete natural and cultural history of kettle lakes.”
National Public Radio, host Robin Young notes that: “You tell us everything anyone’s ever wanted to know about kettle ponds.”
Bill McKibben, writer and activist: This book will be delightful reading for anyone who heads ‘to the lake’ every summer…Thorson writes with intellegence and pleasure.”
Kenneth Wagner, former president of North American Lake Management Society, “Beyond Walden should be required reading for all lakefront-property owners, other lake users, and those who manage our land and water resources.”
Boston Globe: “Robert M. Thorson’s account mixes hands-on geology, boyhood reminiscence, and a good dash of Thoreau.”
Jeffrey S. Cramer, Thoreau scholar: “Robert Thorson’s Beyond Walden is the gathering of the facts, presented with a touch of poetry and humor, that flowers into its own set of truths about these remarkable glacial-formed lakes, and tells us of the history of one very famous pond and other equally-fascinating waters.”
Image: Marsh somewhere in central Michigan likes within the belt of tens of thousands of kettle lakes.