CONCORD, MA—Philosopher-naturalist David Henry Thoreau has long inspired anglers with assorted versions of the misattributed mantra: Many go fishing all their lives without knowing it is not the fish they are after. But a Ph.D. student at Southeastern New Hampshire University, Arthur Bigastrio, recently discovered a series of Thoreau’s never-before-seen journals that threatens to douse the fire that served as a beacon for over a century of anglers and outdoor enthusiasts.
“I was fascinated by Jan Harold Brunvand’s article in the Winter 2022 edition of The American Fly Fisher where he pointed out that Thoreau had neither written nor said the famous line about people fishing their entire lives without knowing it’s not the fish they are after,” Mr. Bigastrio said during a recent presentation at the American Museum of Fly Fishing. “If he didn’t write or say it, I thought, then maybe he didn’t believe it. That set me on a two-year search, discovering ten lost volumes of Thoreau’s journals. Through those writings, I realized there were two Thoreaus: The one we know from Walden, who wrote about a deliberate life of introspection, and another man who chased fish like an otter with an appetite that could not be appeased. You see, there was a Mr. Hide to the Dr. Jekyll we’ve come to know, and Thoreau’s alter ego desperately loved to catch, kill, and eat fish.”
Mr. Bigastrio wrapped up his presentation by explaining how these newfound journals reveal that Thoreau intended Civil Disobedience to be an anthem against overly restrictive creel limits, but later broadened his treatise to the more general consequences of an unjust government. Mr. Bigastrio’s manuscript on this topic is currently under review by the editorial board at The Journal of Irreproducible Results.
