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On the eastern edge of Concord, Massachusetts, just off Virginia Road, there stands a simple white and red Georgian-style home surrounded by a quaint stone fence. It’s where Henry David Thoreau was born in 1817, and now, nearly two hundred years later, it’s where Henry David Thoreau for Kidsauthor Corinne Hosfeld Smith gives tours as a licensed docent. She’s been educating visitors there nearly since the site opened to the public in 2010, and here she discusses her passion for the job, the highlights of the tour, and the books that have kept her knowledge of Thoreau and his birthplace sharp.
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https://www.chicagoreviewpress.com/blog/behind-the-scenes-thoreau-for-kids/
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Corinne Hosfeld Smith remembers reading Henry David Thoreau’s essays in high school English class — “Civil Disobedience” in 10th grade, she says, and “Walden” in 12th.
They affected her outlook on life, she says, and her interest in Thoreau only grew as she got older.
Smith, of West Hempfield Township, began researching the natural philosopher’s life. She lived for nearly a decade in Massachusetts, not far from Thoreau’s hometown of Concord and his beloved Walden Pond. She became a licensed tour guide for both the town and his birthplace, Thoreau Farm.
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I see that you became interested in Henry David Thoreau in high school, having read “Civil Disobedience” and Walden. What was it about Thoreau that attracted you?
First of all, I admired his spirit of independence. I had a good and quiet suburban childhood. But I was an only child with a very domineering mother. Her word was the law in our household, and my introverted father and I generally bowed to her will. So when I read in “Civil Disobedience” that we all had internal higher laws that we could call upon and follow, this was a revelation to me. You mean, I could think for myself? I didn’t have to be like everyone else? And I could be RIGHT? Wow! I want more of this.
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WESTBORO — “A lake is a landscape’s most beautiful and expressive feature,” Henry David Thoreau wrote in “Walden.” “It is Earth’s eye; looking into which the beholder measures the depth of his own nature.”
The Westboro Public Library, which has many of the 19th century author and poet’s books and essays in its collection, appreciates Thoreau’s passions for nature and writing. It will celebrate Thoreau’s 200th birthday with an event that features both passions. While Thoreau spent just over two years on Walden Pond, the library is inviting people to spend two hours at Westboro’s Gilmore Pond.
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EAST DOVER — Henry David Thoreau once wrote that he had three chairs in his house.
"One for solitude, two for friendship, three for society," the philosopher and naturalist wrote.
Almost all the seats in Dover Town Hall were filled on Aug. 3 for the Dover Free Library's annual Dessert Social, where those three things as they relate to Thoreau were discussed by Corinne H. Smith. Local inns and businesses donated desserts to the event, which saw 85 attendees and raised almost $900 for the library.
Hillary Twining, president of the library's board of trustees, said the Dessert Social is the library's biggest fundraiser.
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DOVER — After finding more than 100 letters to her mother from men serving during World War II, writer Corinne Smith made quick work of contacting living family members of the correspondents.
"Thanks to Google, it really isn't too hard to track a lot of people down, quite frankly," Smith told the Reformer. "I didn't wave too many magic wands to find these people really. You can't really hide anymore. So I couldn't have done this — at least not this easily — without internet access. Like 25 years ago, I wouldn't have been able to do this. So maybe it's good I did this now."
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