This Ever New Self: Thoreau and His Journal

Earliest surviving journal notebook, open to entries from November 1837.
"Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862) occupies a lofty place in American cultural history. He spent two years in a cabin by Walden Pond and a single night in jail, and out of those experiences grew two of this country’s most influential works: his book Walden and the essay known as 'Civil Disobedience.' But his lifelong journal—more voluminous by far than his published writings—reveals a fuller, more intimate picture of a man of wide-ranging interests and a profound commitment to living responsibly and passionately. This Ever New Self: Thoreau and His Journal brings together nearly one hundred items in the most comprehensive exhibition ever devoted to the author. Marking the 200th anniversary of Thoreau's birth and organized in partnership with the Concord Museum in his hometown of Concord, Massachusetts, the show centers on the journal he kept throughout his life and its importance in understanding the essential Thoreau. ..."
The Morgan Library & Museum
The Morgan Library & Museum: The Protester: April 1851, Etc. (Audio)
The Writings of Henry D. Thoreau
"When my father was in high school he worked summers as a lifeguard at Walden Pond. As a kid, I used to hang out there, bird-watching, reading from a slender volume of Henry David Thoreau’s journal and soaking up Transcendentalist vibes from the big glacial bowl of clear water ringed with firs and footpaths. Even off-season I wasn’t alone. Pilgrims kept turning up in search of Thoreau. The little cabin — he called it a house — that he’d built there in 1845, furnished with a green-painted pine desk, and lived in for two years, was long gone. But a cairn of loose stones marked the site, and each visitor would, by tradition, toss a fresh stone on the pile. Doing so gained you a little hit of Thoreau; a moral lesson (give, don’t take); and a sense that you’d added something to history. ..."
NY Times - Thoreau: American Resister (and Kitten Rescuer)

amazon: The Journal of Henry David Thoreau, 1837-1861

2009 April: Henry David Thoreau, 2012 September: Walden, 2015 March: A Week on the Concord and Merrimack Rivers (1849), 2017 March: Civil Disobedience (1849), 2017 April: The Maine Woods (1864)