his friend, ralph waldo emerson, had not long before bought the property we are standing on as a woodlot, the soil around walden was not good for much except growing trees. he asked emerson if he could put up a structure here and stay here a while and emerson said sure. his principal purpose was to find a sort of writers studio for himself. it was something he had been thinking about for several years that the specific project he had in mind was a book in memoriam to his brother, john, who died in 1841. the book is about a trip he took with john in 1839, very young, but they took a trip by boat up to new hampshire and loosely the thread that runs through a week in the concorde and marymac which is the book that he wrote. it is easy to imagine that thoreau was all alone. he would think he was halfway up the slopes of mount cut epoxy or something, off at the end of the world somewhere but he is not. he is connected to town. only a little over a mile away especially if you take railroad up there and you are in town in no time and you had lots of visitors out here, it is not that he was isol