Ashcroft's Book Club

"Yesterday (July 8, 2004) I took the Internet Bookmobile to Walden Pond in Concord, Mass. It was the 150th anniversary of H. D. Thoreau's book 'Walden.' The Thoreau Society had a dawn to dusk reading.

After an hour of having readers print and take away free copies of 'Walden,' I was asked by the Walden Pond Reservation police to pack up and leave and threatened with arrest. I left.

The park supervisor told me I could not pass out free literature without a permit. And she would not give me a permit because, as she explained, the state park gets money from a concession by the Thoreau Society, which operates a store that sells 'Walden'--and I was competing with them by giving away free copies. "