Significant Simplicity
“Simplicity! Simplicity! Simplicity!” So sang America’s arch–philosopher of domestic economy Henry David Thoreau, who, in his carefully crafted masterpiece Walden laid out this spare recipe for happy living: “Let your affairs be as two or three, not a 100 or a 1000, and keep your accounts on your thumbnail.”
Henry would have found himself right at home in our Significant Simplicity collection, where he could choose from Walden Pond cabin–worthy furniture from the 20th century’s most celebrated designers: Norman Cherner [12, 16]; George Nelson [18, 239]; Milo Baughman [17, 411]; Hans Wegner [31, 219]; Arne Vodder [167, 233]; and Adrian Pearsall [256, 294]. Having spent but $28.12 to build his cabin, $4.90 on seeds for his bean field, and 54¢ for a hoe, he’d have ample cash left over for some extra–vagances (he always hyphenated the word to emphasize its literal meaning of “to walk outside of bounds) such as this lovely nymph [71] who would look magical emerging from any pond.
A skilled mapmaker, draftsman, and pencil designer, Thoreau would have required a state–of–the–art desk at which to wield his pencil; might we suggest this one [259], which could easily double when hosting his Concord friends Emerson, Alcott, or even the mysterious “visitor who never comes”?
“I have now a library of nearly nine hundred volumes, over seven hundred of which I wrote myself,” Thoreau declared tongue–and–cheek about his unsold publisher–returned literary debut, A Week on the Concord & Merrimack Rivers. He could happily keep them here [241] or here [20].
“Simplify! Simplify” chanted Henry, but let it be – like both Thoreau’s cabin and his writing – elegantly, capaciously, significantly. As you savor the significant simplicity of this trove of 20th century treasures, keep Thoreau’s most meaningful motto close at hand: “In the long run we find what we expect; we shall be fortunate then, if we expect great things.”
By Kevin Dann