A Week on the Concord and Merrimack Rivers

A Week on the Concord and Merrimack Rivers is a nonfictional travel book by Henry David Thoreau. First published in the mid-19th century and more recently in 2004 by Princeton University Press, it’s a narrative of Thoreau’s journey from Massachusetts to New Hampshire and back which he undertook with his brother. It is praised for its unusual structure, layered storytelling and poignant symbolism. The book also critiques Christian institutions, which was again unusual for its time. Thoreau was a well-known philosopher who made longstanding contributions to natural history and modern-day environmentalism.

A Week on the Concord and Merrimack Rivers is divided into chapters for each day of the journey. Much of the book contains literal, detailed depictions of the day’s events. However, Thoreau ties these events into religious, historical and poetic digressions. He enjoys living a simple life, and he despises changes such as the Industrial Revolution.

The book opens with a tribute to Thoreau’s brother, who died before the work is completed. Thoreau wrote this book while living at Walden Pond after his brother's death. He couldn’t find a publisher, and self-publishing put him into debt. Thoreau’s final version of the book wasn’t published until after his death.



Thoreau begins with an account of the Grass-ground River, known as “Concord” to New England settlers. He laments that the name of the river will change depending on who lives there, and what their purpose is. In this way, nothing stays the same—for example, older civilisations know the river as the Grass-ground River because it served their hunting needs, but it can never be as pure as this again. His descriptions of the river are highly poetic and romanticised, and he compares stretches of the river which are undisturbed to stretches which are changed by settlers.

Thoreau’s journey begins on a Saturday in the August of 1939, when he and his brother lay anchor in a nearby port. They are both natives of this area, which makes the descriptions even more detailed. He describes travelling past sights such as the first major battleground of the American Revolution and the North Bridge, and he ties this into a political discussion. He also dedicates several paragraphs to describing the various fish and wildlife they pass.

The boat then passes by Billerica, which is a tranquil village. Thoreau comments that this is a good thing, and that all men are, by nature, attracted to peaceful, simple living, and can adapt accordingly. He sees the Industrial Revolution as unnatural and going against our instincts. He also understands why Native Americans do not wish to adopt such lifestyles, and why the ancients did not, either.



Thoreau comments on the inauthenticity of religion and its institutions, and how this goes against nature. He notes that many people only follow their religious teachings when it suits them, and how churches are the ugliest buildings in any village because it’s within their walls that man commits the greatest sins of lies and hypocrisy. Thoreau laments that religious institutions and industrialisation erode one of the greatest artforms—poetry. This is perhaps why Thoreau’s accounts of his travels are poetic to excess.

As the boat travels along the river, Thoreau comments on different battles which took place along the banks, and he describes injuries in some detail. For example, he discovers that in one place, a man had a musket ball inside him and his right hand shot off, but this is less than other men had to contend with. Thoreau learns many of these stories when he and his brother lay anchor for the night at different stops along the way.

Thoreau believes that we should follow “Conscience”—that is, we should abide by God’s rules as opposed to manmade ones. God gave us earth and the means to maintain ourselves, and we should choose this way of living over an artificial and industrialised life of order and efficiency. He believes in Christianity for its purity and promotion of an individual and collective conscience, but he doesn’t believe in the institutions which promote it.



Thoreau also laments how restricted and narrow European writers are. He comments that they only look inside themselves and to their immediate neighbours for inspiration. They do a disservice to great writings and teachings from other nations and continents. Americans, however, seek cultural diversification and avoid the “clannish” nature of European writers who assume they speak for everyone.

When Thoreau nears the end of his account, he comments on how wonderful it is to revisit childhood haunts and see how they’ve thrived. He describes how nature preserves itself so well, and that it’s us who destroy and change what isn’t meant to change. This philosophy can also be seen in Thoreau’s accounts of the riverbanks as he journeys back home the way he came.

Thoreau notes that the sky and the waters change, but this is important for natural order. In this sense, travellers always have something new to see and write about, if they only know where to look for it.