the essays of ralph waldo emerson or henry david thoreau. or by the 20th-century, the novel, "the virginian," which celebrated frontier justice and spoke to the perils of over civilization. a theme that is stressed by theodore roosevelt, whose wild west sojourn was central to his experience. of course, this anxiety culminates in frederick jackson turner's famous frontier thesis of 1893, which are do two things. one that the existence of the frontier explains american development, american social, intellectual, cultural, material development. and second, that this era of american history was coming to a close. the frontier, according to census of 1890, was closed. what turner wondered, what would this do to american life, if the material motive, the precondition for all of these fundamental american traits disappears? it is a tremendous amount of anxiety at the turn of the century about this issue. it did not end then. john f. kennedy's campaign for president in 1960, which adopted the theme of the new frontier, was precisely meant to draw up

c-span: so, ralph waldo and henry david thoreau is in the same community? >> guest: absolutely. absolutely. and thoreau worked for emerson, was friends with emerson. so sort of, in some sense, tutee of emerson, but then, from some points of view, surpassed emerson. hawthorne and thoreau were good friends too, in some ways better friends than hawthorne and emerson who were more like rivals. hawthorne bought thoreau's boat, called the pond lilly, that -- to help thoreau. thoreau didn't have much money. he really liked thoreau, respected thoreau. they were both kind of sardonic men, unusual men, eccentric men, and in some ways loners, even though hawthorne was married. c-span: is nathaniel hawthorne on author's ridge? >> guest: yeah. c-span: buried there with all the rest of them? >> guest: yeah. c-span: i know, emerson ... >> guest: he was in the vanguard. c-span: well, emerson is down the road there, within half a block in the same cemetery. >> guest: well, he has that big boulder. it is sort of taking over. c-span: ok, go back to henry longfellow, who you mentioned earlier. long