Volume two of the Journal includes Thoreau's extensive reminiscences of
his 1839 excursion with his brother John along the Concord and Merrimack
rivers and all his first impressions and observations entered in
journals during the famous Walden sojourn. Collectively, these journals
illustrate the middle stage of Thoreau's literary career--a stage
noteworthy for his "devotion to the mastery of his craft" as evidenced
by the progressive, intermingled drafts of A Week on the Concord and
Merrimack Rivers and Walden, "Thomas Carlyle and His Works," "Wendell
Phillips Before Concord Lyceum," and "Ktaadn, and the Maine Woods." More
than half of the material presented in Journal 2 is previously
unpublished.