SOURCE: "Developing the Structure," in The Making of Walden with the Text from the First Version, The University of Chicago Press, 1957, pp. 74-91.

In this excerpt, Shanley examines the successive versions of the Walden manuscript to determine the development of the work's structure.

In some respects the most valuable insight we gain from the manuscript is that which it gives us into the structure of Walden. We would know something of Thoreau's revising and adding to his material simply from a comparison of his journals with the published text, but without the manuscript we would know nothing of the way in which he found out how he could best organize his material.

Furthermore, although I do not believe that we must have the information that the manuscript gives us in order to recognize the nice disposition and relations of the parts of Walden or that this information proves...