This is CBS I On The World.

Here's John Batchler.

Continuing with Professor Dan Flores, his new book is Wild New World,

the epic story of animals and people in America, Henry David Thoreau.

Certainly a man celebrated for his literary skill and his observation talents.

Wrote very carefully, this is the 19th century.

When I consider that the nobler animals have been exterminated here,

the Cougar Panther, Lynx, Wolverine, Wolf Bear, most deer, the beaver, the turkey,

I cannot but feel as if I have lived in a tamed and as it were a masculated country.

I take infinite pains to know all the phenomenon of the spring,

thinking that I have heard the entire poem, and then to Masha Grin,

I hear that it is but an imperfect copy that I possess and have read,

that my ancestors have torn out many of the first leaves and grandest passages

and mutilated it in many places.

I read that aloud, Professor, because it's extremely sad and very accurate.

In your telling, you fill in the parts that Henry David Thoreau moves quickly past

as he celebrates a pond.

And in considering North America, I ask the big question because you've been dealing with this story

for quite some time, Dan, and I'm privileged to speak to you about it having read your book.

Is this understanding that Thoreau had?

Is he isolated? Is he a loner at the time?

Or was this always there in America and just overwhelmed by the politics and the prosperity of the age?

...