# Walden (1854) Thoreau

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Walden, or, Life in the Woods is a reflection upon simple living in natural surroundings. The work is part personal declaration of independence, social experiment, voyage of spiritual discovery, satire, and (to some degree) a manual for self-reliance. Walden details Thoreau's experiences over the course of two years, two months, and two days in a cabin he built near Walden Pond, amidst woodland owned by his friend and mentor Ralph Waldo Emerson, near Concord, Massachusetts. Thoreau used this time to write his first book, A Week on the Concord and Merrimack Rivers. The experience later inspired Walden, in which Thoreau compresses the time into a single calendar year, and uses passages of four seasons to symbolize human development. Warning: template has been deprecated.
The copy presented here is the first edition, published in the United States in 1854 by Ticknor and Fields. For other editions, see Walden, or, Life in the Woods.
WALDEN;
OR,
LIFE IN THE WOODS.
By HENRY D. THOREAU, AUTHOR OF "A WEEK ON THE CONCORD AND MERRIMACK RIVERS."
I do not propose to write an ode to dejection, but to brag as lustily as chanticleer in the morning, standing on his roost, if only to wake my neighbors up.—Page 92.
BOSTON:
TICKNOR AND FIELDS.
M DCCC LIV.
Entered, according to Act of Congress, in the year 1854, by HENRY D. THOREAU, In the Clerk's Office of the District Court of the District of Massachusetts.
STEREOTYPED AT THE BOSTON STEREOTYPE FOUNDRY.
CONTENTS.
* PAGE
* ECONOMY,................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................5
* WHERE I LIVED, AND WHAT I LIVED FOR,................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................88
* READING,................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................108
* SOUNDS,................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................121
* SOLITUDE,................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................140
* VISITORS,................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................152
* THE BEAN-FIELD,................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................168
* THE VILLAGE,................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................181
* THE PONDS,................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................188
* BAKER FARM,................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................217
* HIGHER LAWS,................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................226
* BRUTE NEIGHBORS,................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................240
* HOUSE-WARMING,................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................256
* FORMER INHABITANTS; AND WINTER VISITORS,................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................275
* WINTER ANIMALS,................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................291
* THE POND IN WINTER,................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................303
* SPRING,................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................320
* CONCLUSION,................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................342
This work was published before January 1, 1929, and is in the public domain worldwide because the author died at least 100 years ago.
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