A Boy's Education Among the Reformers

The Journals of Edmund Quincy Sewall Jr., 1837-1840

Thoreau scholars have long been aware of the journal kept in Concord, Massachusetts during a period of seven weeks in 1840 when twelve-year-old Edmund Quincy Junior was attending John and Henry David Thoreau’s Concord Academy and boarding in the Thoreau household.

Edmund’s manuscript journal of 1840 was given to the American Antiquarian Society in 1945 but only recently has it become possible to present this diary alongside the three earlier journals Edmund kept between 1837 and 1840 mostly detailing his home life in Scituate, Massachusetts. Together these diaries offer a boy's eye view of what it was like to grow up in a social circle of New England's progressive intellectuals and reformers.

Introduction

The Journals
1: August 10, 1837-June 2, 1838
2: February 13-June 26, 1839
3: June 27-October 4, 1839
4: March 28-May 16, 1840

Three Essays, 1840 by Edmund Quincy Sewall Jr. while at the Thoreaus’ school in Concord, 1840

Download Journals and Essays

Please note:
The transcriptions follow Edmund’s originals in spelling (including misspellings) and punctuation. Editorial additions and explanations are given in brackets [as in this example]. Words crossed out by Edmund are written with strikethrough as in this example and later insertions by Edmund are set off by carets as in ^this^ example.