Thoroughly Satisfying

thoreau-ly enjoyed this! the easter eggs are a nice touch (39A, each of the six words having a connection to thoreau, and his mentor in 43D)

Great puzzle to start off the week, thanks!

Nice one! Great way to start the meta week! Thanks, Cap’n!

Always a pleasure, Cap'n Rick!

Nice start to the week, Cap’n! Thank you!

Fun one, Rick. Enjoyed all the Easter Eggs as well. Although is it just me, or when folks see Walden do they think of the Doonesbury comic strip as well (or even first)? Because that was the first thing that popped into my mind, and I almost typed in WALDEN PUDDLE. In any event, thanks for the puzzle!

They told me that high school English class would come in handy some day. Finally.

Had it after WAL . Did take me a beat or two to shift from looking for S A in the grid to the clues. Went too fast to appreciate the Easter eggs, but impressive in retrospect. Very fun, thanks.

What, you could not fit Lincoln in there? Nice Monday exercise Cap. I'll admit that with the title and prompt I kind of had a jump start. Love all the "tie-ins", I think I have them all: WILDERNESS, ARTIST, LONER, CONCORD, DIARY, ESSAYS, NATURALIST, WRITERS, HENLEY. Thank you for painting a very serene picture this morning.

thanks so much for a wonderful puzzle

Very nice!

Lovely!

Lovely meta - thanks, Cap'n!

Very nice! Also love that all of the theme content didn't overcomplicate the grid!

Thanks, Rick - very satisfying, indeed

Been there. While lovely, it is and was apparently even back then not at all remote from civilization. Sort of a "two years in the backyard" thing.

Got sidetracked looking at the fill with SA or AS (nothing); then the fill with letters between S and A (again, nothing). Came back to it and thought to look at clueing. Nice'n Cap'n

Super Awesome! :D Thanks, Cap'n!

Good grief. How could I have gone through the grid and clues so many times and thought so hard and some NEVER see that 51 A had words written after "Scholarly articles". Seriously. I had seen that clue many time and it always appeared to say exactly "Scholarly articles". It's as though the pixel fairies waited until I was exhausted and decided to add "(and a hint to solving the meta)" just to taunt me.

Okay, You Henry David Thoreau me and I was very slow to Henry David Catch but I got there..... eventually.

Love the easter eggs and the blatant Title....thanks Cap'n.

Fun one! We had a brief glitch due to 41A, which also was an SA clue. Red herring!

Nerdy English major here — needed only Concord and naturalist to land this one. Thanks for a serene puzzle!

very satisfying

Very clever pondsy scheme!

Pleasant end to a Monday evening. Thanks

Wow, such a lot of Easter eggs!

Very fun! I was trying to make 41A work! “See 37-Across”

Wonderful meta, Cap'n Rick...thanks!