Thoreau’s literary production was limited.

  • Thoreau was not merely a writer. He was a poet—one who receives and communicates truth.
  • If all that a man writes must be truth, his production will be limited.
  • Thoreau revised endlessly to clarify his thoughts and experiences in his own mind, reducing them to their essence, and to eliminate rather than to achieve style.
  • He reduced the communication to essentials.
  • Transcendental conviction: “the matter is all in all, and the manner nothing at all.”

References

Seybold, Ethel. “Proteus.” Thoreau: The Quest and the Classics, Yale University Press, 1951, pp. 1–21.