Street Librarian

Chris Dodge Utne magazine

Global Outlook covers political stories that aren't published widely. Issue #7 presents compelling evidence of 9/11-related government cover-ups, articles about the militarization of space, and an ardent call by Arundhati Roy to resist imperialist war. Not the sort of thing to take to an airport, unless you're prepared to be detained -- thus, important to read. $21/4 issues ($25 in Canada) from Box 222, Oro, ON L0L 2X0, Canada; www.globaloutlook.ca

Comic Art is a serious, interesting, colorful magazine about comic strips, comic books, and illustration. Eschewing news and reviews, each issue contains a handful of substantial articles. Issues #4 and #5 include an essay on Charles Schulz's life from 1946 to 1950, profiles of Mexican poster artist Ernesto Cabra and Harold and the Purple Crayon creator Crockett Johnson, and pieces about cartoonists Charles Burns, Basil Wolverton, and Kim Deitch. $36/4 issues from 5715 Nottingham Ave., St. Louis, MO 63109; www.comicartmagazine.com

Wild Guardian (a field journal for coexisting with wildlife) is a new publication of the nonprofit Predator Conservation Alliance. The 16-page Winter 2004 issue includes an article about human-grizzly bear conflicts in the Rocky Mountains (with practical suggestions for avoiding them) and a report on an international meeting on 'wolf livestock depredation.' Donation to Box 6733, Bozeman, MT 59771; www.predatorconservation.org

Boy Trouble used to be a zine. Now -- with a 10th anniversary issue (#5) -- it's a perfect-bound book. Robert Kirby and David Kelly's collection of 'gay boy comics with a new attitude' features material by Michael Fahy, Ivan Velez, and other men, but also includes the Camper sisters, Leanne Franson, and G.B. Jones. Like licorice: sweet and twisted. $8.95 from 2400 NW 80th St. #147, Seattle, WA 98117.

The Gospel According to Thoreau

One hundred fifty years ago a book was published to limited acclaim. Slowly it grew into a massive oak. Drawn from the journals of Henry David Thoreau, Walden is a masterpiece of wit, philosophy, economics, natural science, and exuberant description of the physical world, from ants to ice.

While the Concord contrarian is known for having spent a night in jail rather than pay a poll tax, it's less well known that he harbored escaped slaves and helped conduct them to safety. Was Thoreau a self-absorbed crank? Yes, to a degree, and also a friend to people of all ages, political speechmaker, poet, punster, prophet, surveyor, corre-spondent, ice skater, scholar, mystic, pencil maker, travel writer, humorist, shipwreck investigator, huckleberry picker, midnight walker, unrepentant pyromaniac, and all-around sage.

One way to know Thoreau better is to read his journals -- all 12 volumes -- or his correspondence. Thanks to Bradley P. Dean, 50 of Thoreau's letters to his friend Harrison Blake, written over the course of 13 years, are now available under one cover in Henry D. Thoreau: Letters to a Spiritual Seeker, published this summer by W. W. Norton.

Dean also edits the excellent quarterly Thoreau Society Bulletin, which includes interesting notes on Thoreau's continual appearance in contemporary culture, along with articles about bibliographic puzzles and discoveries. Membership in the society also includes The Concord Saunterer, an annual journal whose focus includes such Thoreau contemporaries as Ralph Waldo Emerson. $35 membership from Penn State Altoona, 129 Community Arts Center, Altoona, PA 16601; www.thoreausociety.org

A related book recently published, W. Barksdale Maynard's excellent Walden Pond: A History (Oxford), focuses on the 62-acre, 100-foot-deep lake and its surrounding woods from the years of Thoreau's childhood through the present. Maynard effectively examines land use and public policy over time, documenting how we now have Walden Pond State Reservation and not a housing development.

Not new but worth noting: The Thoreau Reader (eserver.org/thoreau) includes annotated texts of books and essays.