Thoreau’s First New Yorker Cartoon

The wordless cartoons of Nurit Karlin. The sketched illustrations of R.O. Blechman. Turns out these staples from The New Yorker have an antecedent in Henry David Thoreau. Had The New Yorker been around, how might Thoreau have captioned this sketch from Journal XVII, kept February 1854 to September 1854? Certainly not as follows: At the steam-mill sand-bank was … Continue reading Thoreau’s First New Yorker Cartoon

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Thoreau, Hold the Joe

Noble and wise, Henry David Thoreau also could be irascible, judgy, and temperamental. In Walden, we learn why: a conspicuous absence of coffee. Take his list of supplies: Rice..... $ 1.73½ Molasses..... 1.73     Cheapest form of the saccharine. Rye meal..... 1.04¾ Indian meal..... 0.99¾     Cheaper than rye. Pork..... 0.22 Flour..... 0.88  Costs more than Indian meal, both money … Continue reading Thoreau, Hold the Joe