Honor in Concord:
Seeking Spirit in Literary Concord

by Cathryn McIntyre

The writers of Concord's past are alive in present day in Honor in Concord.  Hawthorne, Alcott, Fuller, Thoreau, Emerson and Concord resident, Martha Hunt, appear as characters who struggle between their need for freedom and self-determination and the sense of responsibility they feel toward the commitments they have made.

Do the commitments we make define or limit us? 

At a time when we underestimate our own ability to intuit right and wrong, Honor in Concord asks:

What if we choose to honor our lives?
What if we choose to honor who we are and who others
determine themselves to be?

…leaving our hearts intact, rather than allowing our lives to shatter out of a sense of boredom or regret or out of the mistaken belief that none of it matters anyway?  The message here is that all that we think, say, and do has meaning.  Our actions and intentions make up the very essence of who we are and help to form the circumstances of the world in which we live.

In Honor in Concord the author’s own story is also told.  She is a writer with a psychic sensibility who sets out to record the impressions that she has while living in Concord.  What results is a weave of fiction and fact that includes extraordinary moments from her own life, as well as poignant images that she draws from Concord’s literary past, like that of Thoreau in his final days struggling to complete his essay, Walking; Hawthorne “drifting into the sea of infinity” as he writes; and Martha Hunt’s act of “purification” in the waters of the Concord River.  It is through this mix of reality and imagination that we see the link that exists between the present and the past and we are reminded of the presence of spirit in our lives.  We are reminded of what Emerson called the infinitude of the soul.

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Cathryn McIntyre is a writer and independent scholar of the life and work of Henry David Thoreau and the other transcendetalist writers of Concord, Massachusetts.  In the transcendentalists of Concord, she feels that both her literary and spiritual interests combine.  For more infomrtion on Cathryn and her upcoming work, including her book, Thoreau's Wise Silence, please visit her website: www.theconcordwriter.com
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THE ABOVE LANGUAGE IS FROM THE BACK COVER OF HONOR IN CONCORD.  PLEASE GO TO THE REVIEWS PAGE OF THIS WEBSITE FOR REVIEWS AND AN AUTHOR COMMENT.

HONOR IN CONCORD: SEEKING SPIRIT IN LITERARY CONCORD can be purchased through your local bookstore or from internet booksellers including www.amazon.com and www.barnesandnoble.com

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