Richard Smith | |
|---|---|
 | |
| Born | Cleveland, Ohio, US |
| Education | University of Akron |
| Occupations | Public historian living history interpreter |
| Known for | Impersonation ofHenry David Thoreau |
Richard Smith is apublic historian and writer known for his writings onNew England history and for hisliving history interpretations ofHenry David Thoreau.
Smith was born and raised inCleveland, Ohio.[1] According to theLA Review of Books, "Richard grew up 'obsessed' with19th-century American history, and his supportive parents took him tobattlefields andhistoric houses on family vacations."[2] He graduated from theUniversity of Akron with a B.A. in history in 1985.[3] After college, he continued to study "the spiritual teachings of Native Americans" andTranscendentalists.[4] In his spare time, he took part inre-enactments of the AmericanCivil War andRevolutionary War,[2] and performed with severalpunk rock bands.[5][6]
Smith began his career as a public historian while working "as" an Ohio schoolmaster of 1848 for anAkronliving history museum.[2] After reading about the life and works ofHenry David Thoreau, Smith decided to visitConcord, Massachusetts,[4] where he then moved a year later, in 1999.[6]
Thoreau is just a small part of this radical, vibrant group of thinkers in the mid-19th century. People likeTheodore Parker, orMargaret Fuller, orLizzie Peabody. These people are all fighting forwomen's rights, they're fighting forAfrican-Americans' rights. They're fighting for an end to unjustwar.
In addition to writing and giving talks about his historical research, Smith also performed as a living history interpreter. In period costume asHenry David Thoreau, he gave public readings from Thoreau's works, responding in character as Thoreau to audience questions.[7][8][9]
Explaining his interest in living history work, Smith told an interviewer (who wondered "if he might be the closest I'd get to a ghost") that "I want people to be aware of the fact that Thoreau was a living, breathing, funny, spiritual guy."[6] Smith thinks of Thoreau not a peacefulhippie but as a rebel, or even "the first punk rocker. He didn't care what people thought. He questioned the government. Hippies tend to be peacemakers, peace and love. But Thoreau saw nothing wrong with someone likeJohn Brown trying to violently end slavery."[6]
At Thoreau-related sites such asWalden Pond orSleepy Hollow Cemetery (Concord, Massachusetts), Smith also did tour-guiding, sometimes in character and costume.[2][10] His talks and readings, either in costume as Thoreau or as himself, have taken place around New England and beyond,[11][12] including work forCSPAN and Public Radio'sLiving on Earth.[7][13][14][15] He also expanded and presented his research on Native American history while he was scholar in residence at the Longfellow's Wayside Inn Museum.[16][17]
He is the author of eight books,[18] includingQuotations of Henry David Thoreau (2017)[14] andA Short Biography of John Muir (2018).[19] He contributed a foreword toThe Other 'Hermit' of Thoreau's Walden Pond: The Sojourn of Edmond Stuart Hotham.[20]
Smith argued that he is 'a historian, not an actor,' when being questioned about the origins of his interest in acting. He found himself agreeing with the basic principles of Thoreau's way of life.
"I use the term 'historic interpreter' or 'living historian.' But when people say 'impersonator,' that doesn't bother me."
Richard Smith received his BA in History from the University of Akron in 1985. For the last nine years he has lived and worked in the Concord area. Richard has appeared as Henry Thoreau at various sites in Concord, Boston, Maine, and Tennessee, as well as on C-Span and on the Boston television show "Chronicle" and is a regular at Walden Pond. He currently works for the Thoreau Society and is writing a book on 19th-century Concord.
He got into hiking as a Boy Scout, and after college focused his personal studies on the spiritual teachings of Native Americans and Transcendentalists, who put a higher value on the inherent goodness of people and nature over the corruption that can come with social institutions.
But few people, not even the most dedicated greens enchanted by Thoreau's environmental ethics, can match Richard Smith's dedication to the man. Smith practices "living history," dressing up as and acting like Thoreau.
I was always attracted to the troublemakers in American history. Not just Thoreau, but Abby Hoffman, William Lloyd Garrison, Frederick Douglass, Thomas Paine. All of the rebels...Thoreau is just a small part of this radical, vibrant group of thinkers in the mid-19th century. People like Theodore Parker, or Margaret Fuller, or Lizzie Peabody. These people are all fighting for women's rights, they're fighting for African-Americans' rights. They're fighting for an end to unjust war.
Richard Smith does a professional impression of Henry David Thoreau, and all of a sudden it's a warm July day in 1847.
'I'm as well as I deserve,' said Thoreau, as portrayed by historian Richard Smith, during a First Day hike Sunday at Walden Pond. Smith was seated by the woodstove inside the replica of the American philosopher's cabin in the shadow of the new visitors' center at Walden Pond State Reservation.
This is the day Henry Thoreau left the pond, on Sept. 6, 1847. And after 26 years, this is my retirement.
Richard Smith has lectured on and written about antebellum United States and 19th-Century American history and literature since 1995.
He also has appeared in some of the locations that Thoreau visited, including Lowell, Boston, Salem, Fitchburg, Framingham, Cape Cod, Brattleboro, Vermont and Moosehead Lake in Maine.
I left Concord, Massachusetts, Wednesday morning, September 25th, 1850, for Quebec. … I wished only to be set down in Canada, and take one honest walk there as I might in Concord woods of an afternoon. ~ Henry Thoreau, in his opening paragraph ofA Yankee in Canada.
Actor Richard Smith, portraying Henry David Thoreau, read Thoreau's "Slavery in Massachusetts". He then talked about the role of slavery in Thoreau's lifetime. Thoreau was an abolitionist who helped runaway slaves and worked to repeal the fugitive slave law. He answered questions from the audience.
Step back in time to 1855 as Henry David Thoreau, the "Hermit of Walden Pond," visits Old South Meeting House! Was noted Transcendentalist, abolitionist and naturalist Thoreau really a hermit? What did he think of Boston, where he regularly visited the Athenaeum? Get the answers to these and other questions as you visit with Mr. Thoreau, portrayed by historian Richard Smith.
Richard Smith .. is the current Scholar in Residence for Longfellow's Wayside Inn in Sudbury.
Richard Smith has lectured on and written about antebellum United States history and 19th-century American literature since 1995. He has worked in Concord as a public historian and Living History Interpreter for 25 years and has portrayed Henry Thoreau at Walden Pond and around the country.
In the Foreword to this book, Thoreau interpreter and historian Richard Smith argues that Hotham was not an imitator of Thoreau and that his sojourn at Walden Pond was distinct from Thoreau's earlier and more famous experience.