Henry David Thoreau : About the Author @ Classic Reader Member Login About the Author American essayist, poet, and practical philosopher, best-known for his autobiographical story of life in the woods, Walden (1854). Thoreau became one of the leading personalities in New England Transcendentalism. He wrote tirelessly but earned from his books and journalism little. Thoreau's Civil Disobedience (1849) influenced Gandhi in his passive resistance campaigns, Martin Luther King, Jr., and at one time the politics of the British Labour Party. "For many years I was self-appointed inspector of snowstorms and rainstorms, and did my duty faithfully, through I never received one cent for it." (Journal, February 22, 1845-1847 - no year in Thoreau's dateline) Henry David Thoreau was born in Concord, Massachusetts, which was center of his life, although he spent several years in his childhood in the neighboring towns and later elsewhere. Thoreau studied at Concord Academy (1828-33), and at Harvard University, graduating in 1837.

He was teacher in Canton, Massachusetts (1835-36), and at Center School (1837), resigning after two weeks. In 1835 he contracted tuberculosis and suffered from recurring bouts throughout his life. From 1837-38 Thoreau worked in his father's pencil factory, and later in 1844 and 1849-50. He opened with his brother John a school in Concord and taught there in 1838-41 until his brother became fatally ill. From 1848 he was a regular lecturer at Concord Lyceym. He also worked as a land surveyor. A decisive turning point in Thoreau's life came when he met Ralph Waldo Emerson in Concord. He was a member of Emerson household from 1841 to 1843, earning his living as a handyman. In 1843 he was a tutor to William Emerson's sons in Staten Island, New York, and in 1847-48 he again lived in Emerson's house.

In 1845 Thoreau built a home on the shores of Walden Pond for twenty-eight dollars, and described his observations and speculations in A Week on the Concord and Merrimack Rivers (1849). The account was based on a trip he took with his brother in 1839. Thoreau's first book sold poorly and he remarked, "I have now a library of nearly nine hundred volumes, over seven hundred of which I wrote myself." Thoreau's most famous essay, Civil Disobedience (1849), was a result of a overnight visit in 1846 in a jail, when he refused to pay his taxes in protest against the Mexican War and the extension of slavery. Later Thoreau lectured and wrote about the evils of slavery and helped fleeing slaves. In his famous statement, "the mass of men lead lives of quiet desperation," he crystallized his idea to be the one who has the courage to live, to stand against the trends of his own time. Walden; or, Life in the Woods described a two-year period in Thoreau's life from March 1845 to September 1847.

From the Fourth of July, the author retired from the town to live alone at Walden Pond. Much of Walden's material was derived from his journals and contains such pieces as 'Reading' and 'The Pond in the Winter.' "We are a race of titmen, and soar but a little higher in our intellectual flights than the columns of the daily paper" Thoreau wrote in 'Reading in Walden.' Other famous sections involve Thoreau's visits with a Canadian woodcutter and with an Irish family, a trip to Concord, and a description of his bean field. Although Walden has become an inspiration to all those who want to escape civilization, Thoreau himself took with him seed, lumber, clothes, nails, and other devices to survive - and his friends helped him to put the roof on his hut. "We are underbred and low-lived and illiterate; and in this respect I confess I do not make any very broad distinction between the illiterateness of my own townsman who cannot read at all and the illiterateness of him who has learned to read only what is for children and feeble intellects." Although Thoreau never earned a living by his writings, his works fill 20 volumes.

Among his many correspondence friends was H.G.O. Blake, once a Unitarian minister and later attached to the Transcendentalist, whom he wrote in December 1856: "I am grateful for what I am & have. My thanksgiving is perpetual. It is surprising how contended one can be with nothing definite - only a sense of existance." Aware that he was dying of tuberculosis, Thoreau cut short his travels and returned to Concord, where he prepared some of his journals for publication. He died at Concord on May 6, 1862. His letters were edited by his friend Emerson and published posthumously in 1865. Poems of Nature appeared in 1895 and Collected Poems in 1943. Thoreau's collection of journals was published in 1906 in 14 volumes. Light-winged Smoke!

Icarian bird, Melting thy pinions in thy upward flight, Lark without song, and messenger of dawn, Circling above the hamlets as thy nest; Or else, departing dream, and shadowly form Of midnight vision, gathering up thy skirts; By night star-veiling, and by day Darkening the light and blotting out the sun; Go thou my incense upward from this hearth, And ask the gods to pardon this clear flame. Thoreau's primary genre was essay, and his fascination with his natural surroundings is reflected in many of his writings dealing with totally different subjects. 'Natural History of Massachusetts' includes poetry, describes the Merrimack River, and discusses the best technique for spear-fishing. In 'Resistance to Civil Government', often reprinted with the title 'Civil Disobedience', Thoreau recommends disobeying unjust laws. "I think that we should be men first, and subjects afterward. It is not desirable to cultivate a respect for the law, so much as for the right." Many readers have pointed out that in 'Slavery in Massachusetts' Thoreau's defense of John Brown, when he raided on the armory at Harper's Ferry, contradicts his idea of passive resistance.

In his final essay, 'Life Without Principle', the writer warns that working for money alone will never bring happiness. He attacks his contemporaries' fascination with news and gossips and explains how individuals must resist conformity in the search for truth. In 1999 appeared Thoreau's Wild Fruits, written over 130 years ago with henscratched handwriting. The text was born during the last decade of his life. Thoreau lived in the third-floor attic of his parents' house and recorded his observations about vegetation surrounding Concord. In Wild Fruits he argued against the destruction of the wilderness around him. Most author biographies courtesy of Author's Calendar . Used with permission. Henry David Thoreau > By Individual Philosopher > Philosophy (Daguerreotype by Benjamin D. Maxham, 1856) Introduction Henry David Thoreau (1817 - 1862) was an American philosopher, naturalist, writer and political activist of the early Modern period. He was involved with the 19th Century American Transcendentalism movement of his friend and mentor Ralph Waldo Emerson .

Although relatively unknown to the general public during his own lifetime, the influence of his philosophy of civil disobedience and non-violent resistance has been specifically credited by such later figures as Leo Tolstoy, Mahatma Gandhi and Martin Luther King Jr. He adhered to no recognizable political position, but his work to some extent influenced later generations of Anarchists , Marxists and Existentialiststs . Likewise, it was only many years after his death that he came to be regarded as one of the foremost American writers, both for the modern clarity of his prose style and for his prescient of his views on nature and politics. His writings on natural history anticipated the methods and findings of modern ecology and environmentalism. Life Thoreau (pronounced THUR-ow) was born on 12 July 1817 in Concord, Massachusetts. He was christened David Henry Thoreau; he only became known as "Henry David" after college. His father was John Thoreau, the owner of a pencil factory in Concord; his mother was Cynthia Dunbar (her father, Asa Dunbar, was known for leading Harvard's 1766 "Butter Rebellion", the first recorded student protest in the United States).

He had two older siblings, Helen and John Jr., and a younger sister, Sophia. He was usually described as plain to the point of ugly, with a long nose, misshapen mouth and wild neck-beard, and with "uncouth and rustic, though courteous" manners. He studied at Concord Academy from 1828 to 1833, and then at Harvard University from 1833 to 1837, taking courses in rhetoric, classics, philosophy, mathematics and science. During a leave of absence from Harvard in 1835, he taught at a school in Canton, Massachusetts, awakening an interest in education. After graduating in 1837, he briefly joined the faculty of Concord Academy, but the school board soon dismissed him when he refused to administer corporal punishment. He and his brother John then opened a grammar school in Concord in 1838, where they introduced several progressive concepts, including nature walks and visits to local shops and businesses. The school closed when John became fatally ill from tetanus in 1842.

He worked at his family's pencil factory at various times throughout his adult life, helping to create the modern pencil by introducing clay into the manufacture of graphite (pencil "lead"), and later converting the factory to produce ink for typesetting machines. He also worked as a land surveyor for a time. During the early years after graduating, Thoreau met Ralph Waldo Emerson (whose essay "Nature" he had read while at Harvard), which proved to be a decisive turning point in Thoreau's life. Emerson took a paternal (and at times patronizing) interest in Thoreau, advising the young man and introducing him to a circle of local writers and thinkers, including Ellery Channing (1818 - 1901), Margaret Fuller (1810 - 1850), Bronson Alcott(1799 - 1888), Nathaniel Hawthorne (1804 - 1864) and Julian Hawthorne (1846 - 1934).

Several of these were members of Emerson 's Transcendentalism philosophical movement, and Thoreau became a convert of Transcendentalism (albeit not a hugely active one), which fitted well with his spiritual and intuitive bent and his interest in Nature. From 1841 to 1844, Thoreau moved into Emerson 's house, where he served as children�s tutor, editorial assistant, repair man and gardener. For a few months in 1843, he moved to the home of Emerson 's brother, William, on Staten Island, tutoring his children while also writing for New York periodicals, aided in part by his future literary representative, Horace Greeley (1811 - 1872). He went through a restless period in the mid-1840s, and often talked of buying or leasing a farm to give him the means of support and the solitude to write a book.

He finally embarked on his two-year experiment in simple living in July of 1845, when he moved to a small self-built house on land owned by Emerson in a second-growth forest around the shores of Walden Pond, just a couple of miles from his family home. In 1854, seven years after moving out of his Walden Pond house (and after seven full drafts and re-writes), he published "Walden, or Life in the Woods", his famous account of the two years, two months and two days he had spent at Walden Pond. Part memoir and part spiritual quest, "Walden" (which includes his famous lines, "The mass of men lead lives of quiet desperation" and "If a man does not keep pace with his companions, perhaps it is because he hears a different drummer" among many other well-known quotations) at first won few admirers, but today critics regard it as a classic American book that explores natural simplicity, harmony and beauty as models for just social and cultural conditions.

Soon after moving to Walden Pond in 1845, he was arrested on account of six years of unpaid tax, spending a night in jail before his aunt paid his arrears for him. He used the tax issue to protest his opposition to the Mexican-American War and to slavery, and his small first act of civil disobedence had a profound effect on him. He began to lecture on the relation of the individual to the State, and produced an influential essay entitled "Resistance to Civil Government" (also known as "Civil Disobedience"), which was eventually published in 1849. In 1847, he self-published a book called "A Week on the Concord and Merrimack Rivers", an elegy to his brother, John, on Emerson �s advice (and using Emerson 's own publisher). The book failed badly, and put Thoreau into a debt that took years to pay off. Emerson �s flawed advice caused a schism between the friends that never entirely healed. In the 1850s, Thoreau became increasingly fascinated with natural history and travel narratives. He kept increasingly detailed natural history observations on his local area in a huge continuous journal covering many years.

He also travelled widely in eastern and mid-western America, writing all the while. In 1859, he wrote an uncompromising defence of the radical abolitionist John Brown (1800 - 1859) after Brown's contentious raid at Harpers Ferry in 1859, and Thoreau�s speech proved persuasive as the abolitionist movement began to accept Brown as a martyr by the time of the American Civil War (immortalized in the song "John Brown's Body"). Thoreau had first contracted tuberculosis in 1835 and suffered from it sporadically throughout his life. In 1859, following a late night excursion during a rain storm, he became ill with bronchitis, and his health declined over the next three years with brief periods of remission, until he eventually became bedridden. Although he seemed to accept his imminent death with tranquillity, he nevertheless spent his final months frantically editing his travel books (including "The Maine Woods" and "Excursions") for publication. He died in Concord on 6 May 1862 at age 44.

Emerson wrote the eulogy spoken at his funeral, and Thoreau's remains were eventually moved to Sleepy Hollow Cemetery in Concord. It was only many years later that he came to be regarded as one of the foremost American writers, both for the modern clarity of his prose style and the prescience of his views on nature and politics, and his memory is now honoured by the international Thoreau Society among other institutions. Work Back to Top Although Thoreau never managed to earn a living by his writings, his works fill 20 volumes. By far the most famous is "Walden" (subtitled "Life in the Woods"), published in 1854, his account of the two years he spent living the simple life in the woods at Walden Pond. His travel books, "The Maine Woods" and "Excursions", were published after his death. His most influential essay was the 1849 "Resistance to Civil Government" (often reprinted with the title "Civil Disobedience"), in which he recommended disobeying unjust laws. His huge "Journal", accumulated over 24 years, was published in 14 volumes in 1906.

Along with his friend and mentor, Ralph Waldo Emerson , and others in the group of American Transcendentalists who formed around Emerson , Thoreau dedicated his life, skills and classical learning to the call for the creation of an original American literature and philosophy, in an era when "writer" was not yet a specialized profession. Thoreau and the Transcendentalists believed that there was more to reality than what a person could experience with their senses, and more knowledge than what a person could discover through human reason. They encouraged intuition, self-examination, individualism and exploration of the beauty of nature and humankind. Contrary to popular opinion, Thoreau neither rejected civilization nor fully embraced wilderness. Instead, he sought a middle ground, the pastoral realm that integrates both nature and culture. He dedicated much of his life to the exploration of nature, not just as a backdrop to human activity but as a living, integrated system of which humanity is simply a part.

His "nature writing" progressed from the poetic symbolism of "Walden" to the scientific method in his later journals (involving observation and information-gathering, the stating of a hypothesis, and the verification of the hypothesis by testing), anticipating many of the methods and findings of modern ecology and environmentalism. His essay "Civil Disobedience" of 1849 has been perhaps the most influential of his works because of its overt political implications. He boldly asserted that "the only obligation which I have a right to assume is to do at any time what I think right". He believed that radical social reforms (such as the abolition of slavery, for example) could be effected only when each right-minded individual takes direct action on his own part. This form of "peaceful revolution" could be achieved by an individual withdrawing his allegiance "in person and property" from the government that supports or permits the abuse in question (such as, for example, refusing to pay taxes). This philosophy of civil disobedience and non-violent resistance has been specifically credited by such later figures as Leo Tolstoy, Mahatma Gandhi and Martin Luther King Jr.

Thoreau was a committed anti-slavery activist and, despite his deep-rooted Individualism , he was readily moved to activism against injustice. The well-known essay "Civil Disobedience" was not Thoreau's final word on resistance against injustice and oppression: his strongest critiques of American society lay in his later public addresses, "Slavery in Massachusetts", "Life Without Principle" and "A Plea for Captain John Brown". Like Karl Marx , he sought to some extent to dismantle existing institutions in an attempt to provide full human satisfaction. Yet, like S�ren Kierkegaard , he insisted on maintaining the uniqueness of the individual as the ultimate source of value. Thus, he did not advocate revolution, but he was an influence on Marxism ; he would not have claimed to be an Existentialism (had such a concept even been known in his day), but his insistence on Individualism carried weight with later Existentialists ; he was not an out-and-out Anarchist , but he opposed the strictures of government and influenced later figures with Anarchist sympathies.

Henry David Thoreau Quotes - Philosophers Henry David Thoreau - Rich - Cheap I wish to suggest that a man may be very industrious, and yet not spend his time well. There is no more fatal blunderer than he who consumes the greater part of his life getting his living. All great enterprises are self-supporting. The poet, for instance, must sustain his body by his poetry, as a steam planing-mill feeds its boilers with the shavings it makes. You must get your living by loving. Henry David Thoreau - Life - Hard Work - Love - Career - Time - Poetry To speak practically and as a citizen, unlike those who call themselves no-government men, I ask for, not at once no government, but at once a better government. Let every man make known what kind of government would command his respect, and that will be one step toward obtaining it. Henry David Thoreau - Nature - Indigenous - Society No definition of poetry is adequate unless it be poetry itself. The most accurate analysis by the rarest wisdom is yet insufficient, and the poet will instantly prove it false by setting aside its requisitions. It is indeed all that we do not know.

Henry David Thoreau - Poetry - Wisdom - Criticism Why should we be in such desperate haste to succeed and in such desperate enterprises? If a man does not keep pace with his companions, perhaps it is because he hears a different drummer. Let him step to the music which he hears, however measured or far away. The Writings of Henry D. Thoreau By Elizabeth Witherell, with Elizabeth Dubrulle When I wrote the following pages, or rather the bulk of them, I lived alone, in the woods, a mile from any neighbor, in a house which I had built myself, on the shore of Walden Pond, in Concord, Massachusetts, and earned my living by the labor of my hands only. I lived there two years and two months. (Walden, 3) With these words, Henry David Thoreau began the tale of his experiment of simple living at Walden Pond . Over the course of the next three hundred-odd pages, Thoreau outlined his philosophy of life, politics, and nature, laying the foundation for a secure place in the canon of great American writers.

Although Walden enjoyed only moderate success in Thoreau's lifetime, his experiment at the pond would spark considerable interest in the years to come. The book has inspired other young people to follow his example and retire to a lonely spot--even if only in imagination--to ponder the world and their place in it. Thoreau's words expressed the concerns of many of his contemporaries as industrialization and war permanently altered the world around them, just as they struck a chord in a generation of young people in the 1960s and 1970s who opposed the modern military-industrial complex and sought peace and simplicity in their lives. For many, Walden has served as a touchstone. In the years following Thoreau's death in 1862, his sister and his friends undertook the responsibility of editing his work. Posthumous editions of his previously unpublished or partially published works were produced by Ticknor & Fields and Houghton Mifflin, and articles about Thoreau and reviews of his writings appeared in newspapers and magazines. Thoreau's life and work have continued to provoke and inspire, and there are almost as many different opinions as there are readers.

Which view of Thoreau is most accurate: The dour hermit of Walden Woods? The environmental guru? The antislavery crusader? The irresponsible layabout? The pacifist? The pantheist? The prophet? None suffices to represent Thoreau by itself; all find support in Walden. THOREAU'S LIFE AT WALDEN POND In late March 1845 Thoreau went to Walden Pond, a sixty-two acre body of water a few miles from his parents' home in Concord, Massachusetts, and selected a spot to build a house. The site he picked was on land belonging to his close friend Ralph Waldo Emerson; he and Emerson had already discussed Thoreau's plan to live on the land which Emerson had recently purchased. By July 4 of that same year, the house was substantially complete and Thoreau moved to the pond. The experiment had begun. I went to the woods because I wished to live deliberately, to front only the essential facts of life, and see if I could not learn what it had to teach, and not, when I came to die, discover that I had not lived.

(Walden, 90) He also went to the pond to work on a book that was to be a memorial tribute to his older brother John, who had died three years earlier of lockjaw. The narrative frame of the story is provided by a boat trip the brothers had taken in 1839, but there are many philosophical digressions. This work, A Week on the Concord and Merrimack Rivers , was Thoreau's first published book. At Walden, Thoreau worked diligently on A Week, but he also explored Walden Woods and recorded his observations on nature in his Journal. He entertained visitors and made regular trips to town; friends and neighbors began to inquire about his life at the pond. What did he do all day? How did he make a living? Did he get lonely? What if he got sick? He began collecting material to write lectures for his curious townsmen, and he delivered two at the Concord Lyceum, on February 10 and 17, 1847.

By the time he left the pond on September 6, 1847, he had combined his lectures on life at Walden with more notes from his journal to produce the first draft of a book which he hoped to publish shortly after A Week. A Week was published in 1849, with a note at the back announcing the imminent publication of Walden; or, Life in the Woods. A Week was not well received by the public, however, and only two hundred copies of it sold in the first few years after its publication. Thoreau financed the volume himself. When publisher James Munroe returned the unsold copies to him in 1853, Thoreau wrote in a journal entry for October 28, 1853, "I have now a library of nearly 900 volumes over 700 of which I wrote myself--" Considering the failure of A Week, publishers were not enthusiastic about Walden, and plans for its publication were postponed. Over the next five years, through seven drafts, Walden evolved from a sometime shrill justification of Thoreau's unorthodox lifestyle into a complex, multi-layered account of a spiritual journey.

I wanted to live deep and suck out all the marrow of life... (Walden, 91) WALDEN'S RECEPTION AND THOREAU'S REPUTATION Walden was published on August 9, 1854. Two thousand copies were printed, selling for $1 each. Unlike Thoreau's first book, Walden enjoyed moderate success from the first, and it continued to sell reasonably well after Thoreau's death in 1862. But in the 1870s and 1880s, critics attacked Thoreau's character and style of life, accusing him of crankiness and irresponsibility. In the 1890s a group of admirers who had not known Thoreau personally but who had been affected by his writings began actively to promote him. One of the first substantial biographies of Thoreau, The Life of Henry David Thoreau, was published by an Englishman, Henry Salt, in 1890. Walden was reprinted several times in both America and England during the second half of the nineteenth century.

In 1893 and then 1906, relatively complete editions of Thoreau's writings were published, increasing the accessibility of his work and his general popularity. Beginning in the 1930s, interest in Thoreau began to rise markedly. Henry Seidel Canby's 1939 biography, Thoreau, reached the best-seller lists. In July 1941, the Thoreau Society of America was founded at a meeting in Concord . Still active today, the Thoreau Society 's purpose is "to honor Henry David Thoreau, by stimulating interest in and fostering education about his life, works, and philosophy and his place in his world and ours, by coordinating research on his life and writings, and by acting as a repository for Thoreauviana and material relevant to Henry David Thoreau, and by advocating for the preservation of Thoreau Country." Thoreau's popularity continued: six editions of Walden were published in 1948, eleven in 1958, and twenty-three in 1968, along with many editions of his other works.

In 1966, a project to edit and publish all of Thoreau's writings was undertaken by a group of scholars under the sponsorship of the National Endowment for the Humanities . Under the editorship of Walter Harding (1966-1972), William L. Howarth (1973-1979), and Elizabeth Witherell (1980-present), the project, The Writings of Henry D. Thoreau, has published fourteen of its projected thirty-volume series with Princeton University Press . The Princeton Edition of Walden was published in 1971. I learned this, at least, by my experiment; that if one advances confidently in the direction of his dreams, and endeavors to live the life which he has imagined, he will meet with a success unexpected in common hours. He will put some things behind, will pass an invisible boundary; new, universal, and more liberal laws will begin to establish themselves around and within him; or the old laws be expanded, and interpreted in his favor in a more liberal sense, and he will live with the license of a higher order of beings.

In proportion as he simplifies his life, the laws of the universe will appear less complex, and solitude will not be solitude, nor poverty poverty, nor weakness weakness. If you have built castles in the air, your work need not be lost; that is where they should be. Now put the foundations under them. (Walden, 323- 324) WALDEN POND AND WALDEN WOODS TODAY In 1849, Thoreau's house at Walden Pond was removed from its site; parts of it were incorporated into other structures around Concord, including a barn near Estabrook Woods. Ten years after Thoreau's death in 1862, in a spontaneous tribute to the writer and philosopher, visitors to the pond began placing rocks, flowers, and twigs in a cairn on a spot near where the house had been. The cairn became a standard stop for pilgrims to Walden. In the 1940s, the exact site of Thoreau's house was located and excavated by Roland Robbins, and simple granite posts were placed to indicate the outline of the structure.

The proper use of Walden Pond and Walden Woods has been the subject of debate for over a century. Should it serve as a public park with full access for swimming, fishing, hunting, and camping? Should it be preserved in a pristine state? Should commercial development be allowed? For several decades, the area has been open to the public for swimming and fishing. Those who have felt that the pond was threatened by overuse have been very vocal in Concord, and during the 1980s the number of users per day was limited by closing the parking area when a certain capacity was reached. During the same period, though, the town made it possible for some of the land around the pond to be developed. When the door to development opened, two projects were proposed: a large office building and a condominium complex. These plans were brought to the attention of Don Henley, lead singer of the rock group the Eagles, by a group of concerned local residents. Henley spearheaded a campaign to preserve the area, and rallied political figures such as Senators Ted Kennedy and Paul Tsongas, as well as a number of actors and musicians, to the support of the Walden Woods Project (WWP).

WWP arranged a number of fund-raising events, including rock concerts, movie premieres, and a "Walk for Walden Woods," and successfully negotiated with the developers to purchase the endangered land, as well as additional land in Walden Woods. THE LEGACY OF WALDEN In order to continue the process of education about the need for preservation, the Walden Woods Project turned to the Thoreau Society and its half-century of experience and knowledge. The Society and WWP collaborated to found the Thoreau Institute , which is owned and managed by WWP and hosts seminars and forums on Thoreau, Transcendentalism, and the environment. The Institute is also the repository of the world's largest collection of Thoreau-related research material. The Thoreau Institute and the Thoreau Society promote continued interest in and research on Thoreau and his work. This essay was written in 1995 for an exhibit commemorating the 150th anniversary of Thoreau's move to Walden Pond and his writing of the American classic, Walden; it has been updated for inclusion here. All references are to Walden, ed. J.

Lyndon Shanley (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1971). Walden Pond by Henry David Thoreau: Text, Ebook Henry David Thoreau Alternatively titled Walden (1854) is probably the most famous writing of American author and transcendentalist Henry David Thoreau. The book, often read in grades 11-12, reflects Thoreau's attempt to 'live life simply.' A popular quote from its second chapter: "I went to the woods because I wished to live deliberately, to front only the essential facts of life, and see if I could not learn what it had to teach, and not, when I came to die, discover that I had not lived. I did not wish to live what was not life, living is so dear; nor did I wish to practice resignation, unless it was quite necessary.

I wanted to live deep and suck out all the marrow of life, to live so sturdily and Spartan-like as to put to rout all that was not life, to cut a broad swath and shave close, to drive life into a corner, and reduce it to its lowest terms, and, if it proved to be mean, why then to get the whole and genuine meanness of it, and publish its meanness to the world; or if it were sublime, to know it by experience, and be able to give a true account of it in my next excursion." Henry David Thoreau Astute teachers and students should note, however, that the quotation cuts short the paragraph, and in doing so, clips out a key tenet and distinction of transcendentalism itself.

The continuation of Thoreau's meditation in that particular paragraph continues into the religious realm and concludes, For most men, it appears to me, are in a strange uncertainty about it, whether it is of the devil or of God, and have somewhat hastily concluded that it is the chief end of man here to "glorify God and enjoy him forever." Modern students should keep in mind that though freedom of religion was a founding principal of the United States, religion was pervasive and much more deeply intertwined with the culture than it is today. The point being that Transcendentalism was not simply a philosophical movement but a philosophical and religious movement. I think it is common to bump up against transcendentalism and conclude that the movement was promoting man of over God or man over religion but I think it is more correct to understand it as a movement that was trying to create a better way to live. The final sentence of that paragraph (the second quote) reflects back into the entire paragraph and inflects the early statements with more meaning. There is another popular misconception to dispatch immediately. Thoreau was not buried deep in the wilderness, reflecting in solitude, capturing varmints, and skinning them with his teeth in order to survive.

His cabin was not far from the edge of town, his nearest neighbor was about a mile away, and he was only a couple miles removed (that's ~3KM for you European readers) from his family's house. He also had frequent guests and visitors. Thoreau stayed at Walden for two years, two months, and two days (a fun personal fact for me because I once worked for a congressman for one year, one month, one week, and one day; which was a journey into the wilderness in its own right). However the book is written to express that visit over a one year rather than two year period and Thoreau placed careful emphasis on the division of the four seasons. More about Transcendentalism can be found here, and at a later date I will compile a more material on that subject.

10 Influential American Authors - Education Photo Book 10 Influential American Authors 10 Influential American Authors - Page Text Content FC: 10 Influential American Authors from 1850 to Today by: Andrew Mayette 1: Table of Contents Nathaniel Hawthorne..........pg 2-3 Mark Twain.........................pg 4-5 Walt Whitman.....................pg 6-7 Ralph Waldo Emerson........pg 8-9 Harriet Beecher Stowe......pg 10-11 Henry David Thoreau.......pg 12-13 Ernest Hemingway...........pg 14-15 Herman Melville...............pg 16-17 William Faulkner..............pg 18-19 Robert Frost.....................pg 20-21 2: Nathaniel Hawthorne 1804-1864 3: - Born July 4 1804 in Salem, Massachusetts - He was part of the Romantic movement, and specifically dark romanticism - His famous novel the Scarlet Letter was published in 1850.

A controversial book at the time because it was written with adultery as a subject - His themes dealt with moral aspects of life, and involved sin and human nature. His Puritan background could be seen as an influence in many of his writings - He was a good friend with Herman Melville, another author at the time.

who dedicated Moby-Dick to Hawthorne when it was released in 1851 - Other works include The House of the Seven Gables, The Blithedale Romance, The Marble Faun, The Dolliver Romance, and many other short stories 4: Samuel Clemens aka "Mark Twain" 1835-1910 5: - Born November 30th 1835 - Went by the pen name "Mark Twain" for which he is better known as - He was an accomplished writer, lecturer, satirist, and humorist - He was called the father of American literature by William Falkner - His famous work of the Adventures of Huckleberry Finn became known as the Great American Novel - His upbringing in the South on the Mississippi, with steamboats, and slavery greatly influenced his writings - Other major writings include the Adventures of Tom Sawyer, The Celebrated Jumping Frog of Calaveras County, Roughing It, The Gilded Age: A Tale of Today, and many more 6: Walt Whitman 1819-1892 7: - Born May 31st 1819 - Became known as the father of free verse

 for his poetry style, Americas's poet, and a poet of democracy - Famous for being a poet he also was a journalist, essayist, and humanist - His most famous work was Leaves of Grass, which was a collection of poems released in 1855 and he continually revised it until his death - Leaves of Grass was praised by many, but also criticized by many because its controversial topics of sexuality - His sexuality has been discussed to be homosexual or bisexual but never proven - He believe in no religion but accepted them all equally - He also made many works influenced by his time as nurse during the Civil War 8: Ralph Waldo Emerson 1803-1882 | Ralph Waldo Emerson 1803-1882 9: Bon May25th 1803 Boston, Massachusetts - Considered one of the greatest orators of his time - A well known philosopher who lead the Transcendentalist era - Also a essayist and poet who wrote, Nature, one of his famous works which put forth his Transcendentalist ideas that nature is divine - He was good friends with Nathaniel Ha - Was strongly against slavery and spoke strongly about Abolitionist ideas | - Born May

25th 1803 Boston, Massachusetts - Considered one of the greatest orators of his time - A well known philosopher who lead the Transcendentalist era - Also a essayist and poet who wrote, Nature, one of his famous works which put forth his Transcendentalist ideas that nature is divine - He was good friends with Nathaniel Hawthorne and Henry David Thoreau who his ideas greatly influenced - Was a Unitarian minister but was later lead to belief in a non personal God and nature being divine - Was strongly against slavery and spoke strongly about Abolitionist ideas 10: Harriet Beecher Stowe 1811-1896 11: - Born June 14th, 1811 in Connecticut - A major influence in the abolitionist movement - Her book Uncle Tom's Cabin was released in 1852 and revealed many horrors about slavery - She is believed to have some impact in starting the Civil War with her book release and abolitionist movements - Her writings in papers and her books about slavery were very controversial and angered the South - She helped many runaway and fugitive slaves and even helped school them after the Civil War 12: Henry David Th

oreau 1817 -1862 13: - Born July 12th, 1817 - An author, philosopher, and a naturalist who inisted on living simply - Also was a Transcendentalist who was influenced by Ralph Waldo Emerson - Strongly disagreed with the government and slavery and his book Civil Disobedience explained his differences and what should be done - His book Walden shows his naturalist side when he lived alone in the woods and emphasized simplicity - His writings greatly impacted figures like Ghandi, Martin Luther King Jr, and John F.

Kennedy - His grievences with the government caused him also to be a tax evader and refused to pay because slavery was in tact and he believed in a less controlling government - Also one of the first to start accepting Darwin's Evolution Theoory 14: Ernest Hemingway 1899-1961 15: - Born July 21st, 1899 - An novelitst and journalist known for his War and Romances, and his understatement wrting style - Won the Pulitzer Prize for his book The Old Man and the Sea - Won the Nobel Prize in Literature in 1954 | - Impacted a new era of fiction with his writing style - Well known adventurer who loved to hunt, fish, and being a rugged outdoorsman - Part of the "Lost Generation" because he was in the World War 2 | - Had mental problems later in age - His father committed suicide soon after being mentally ill too - Hemingway's medical treatment caused memory loss and committed suicide by shotgun 16: Herman Melville 1819-1891 | Herman Melville 1819-1891 17: - Born August 1, 

1819 in New York City - An accomplished novelist and short story writer - His writings were greatly influenced by his time as a sailor throughout his life.

Most of his writings involve his experiences or are drawn from them - His most famous book, Moby Dick, did not receive much recognition upon its release in 1851. The book was dedicated to his friend Nathaniel Hawthorne who he admired very much - Moby Dick did not receive the recognition until after Melville had passed away and the Melville Revival took place - Moby Dick is now considered one of the greatest writings in American history - Melville has become known as the American Shakespeare | - Born August 1, 1819 in New York City - An accomplished novelist and short story writer - His writings were greatly influenced by his time as a sailor throughout his life. Most of his writings involve his experiences or are drawn from them - His most famous book, Moby Dick, did not receive much recognition upon its release in 1851.

The book was dedicated to his friend Nathaniel Hawthorne who he admired very much - Moby Dick did not receive the recognition until after Melville had passed away and the Melville Revival took place - Moby Dick is now considered one of the greatest writings in American history - Melville has become known as the American Shakespeare 18: William Faulkner 1897-1962 19: - Born September 25th, 1897 in Mississippi - He wrote many short stories, and fiction novels - Considered of the most influential authors in 20th Century and one of the most important Southern writers - Won the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1949 - Won the Pulitzer Prize in 1955 for his book A Fable and again in 1963 for The Reivers - He was famous for using "stream of consciousness" style in his many writings 20: Robert Frost 1874-1963 21: - Born March 26th 1874 in San Francisco, California - A poet who was written numerous poems, many of which are quoted often - He experienced much grief in his life with the death of

 his children and wife that influenced his poetry - He also wrote many of his poems of rural living, especially in New England where he lived after her buried his father there as a boy - He won four Pulitzer Prizes in his career as a poet - Many people found comfort in his poetry with the distinct descriptions and feelings put into them from his life's difficulties 22: Works Cited "The Top 100." The Atlantic.

2007. Atlantic Monthly. 9 July 2008 . "Robert Frost- Biography and Works." The Literature Network. 11 July 2008 . "William Faulkner." Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia. 11 Jul 2008, 09:01 UTC. Wikimedia Foundation, Inc. 13 Jul 2008 . MHRA style "Ernest Hemingway His Life and Works." 2007. 11 July 2008 . "Herman Melville." Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia. 12 Jul 2008, 17:53 UTC. Wikimedia Foundation, Inc. 13 Jul 2008 . "Harriet Beecher Stowe." Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia. 10 Jul 2008, 20:21 UTC. Wikimedia Foundation, Inc. 13 Jul 2008 . 23: "Henry David Thoreau." Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia. 13 Jul 2008, 02:49 UTC. Wikimedia Foundation, Inc. 13 Jul 2008 .

"Ralph Waldo Emerson." Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia. 10 Jul 2008, 14:44 UTC. Wikimedia Foundation, Inc. 13 Jul 2008 . "Walt Whitman." Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia. 15 Jun 2008, 13:40 UTC. Wikimedia Foundation, Inc. 13 Jul 2008 . "Official Web Site of Mark Twain." 5 July 2006. Estate of Mark Twain. 12 July 2008 . "Nathaniel Hawthorne." Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia. 12 Jul 2008, 11:52 UTC. Wikimedia Foundation, Inc. 13 Jul 2008 .

Joined: over 8 years ago Published Mixbooks: 1 Title: 10 Influential American Authors Pictures and some background information Tags: None Henry David Thoreau (Author of Walden) Henry David Thoreau in Concord, Massachusetts, The United States July 12, 1817 Philosophy , Biographies & Memoirs , Nonfiction Influences edit data Henry David Thoreau (born David Henry Thoreau)was an American author, naturalist, transcendentalist, tax resister, development critic, philosopher, and abolitionist who is best known for Walden, a reflection upon simple living in natural surroundings, and his essay, Civil Disobedience, an argument for individual resistance to civil government in moral opposition to an unjust state. Thoreau's books, articles, essays, journals, and poetry total over 20 volumes. Among his lasting contributions were his writings on natural history and philosophy, where he anticipated the methods and findings of ecology and environmental history, two sources of modern day environmentalism. In 1817, Henry David Thoreau was born in Massachusetts.

He graduated from H Henry David Thoreau (born David Henry Thoreau)was an American author, naturalist, transcendentalist, tax resister, development critic, philosopher, and abolitionist who is best known for Walden, a reflection upon simple living in natural surroundings, and his essay, Civil Disobedience, an argument for individual resistance to civil government in moral opposition to an unjust state. Thoreau's books, articles, essays, journals, and poetry total over 20 volumes. Among his lasting contributions were his writings on natural history and philosophy, where he anticipated the methods and findings of ecology and environmental history, two sources of modern day environmentalism. In 1817, Henry David Thoreau was born in Massachusetts. He graduated from Harvard University in 1837, taught briefly, then turned to writing and lecturing. Becoming a Transcendentalist and good friend of Emerson , Thoreau lived the life of simplicity he advocated in his writings. His two-year experience in a hut in Walden, on land owned by Emerson , resulted in the classic, Walden: Life in the Woods (1854).

During his sojourn there, Thoreau refused to pay a poll tax in protest of slavery and the Mexican war, for which he was jailed overnight. His activist convictions were expressed in the groundbreaking On the Duty of Civil Disobedience (1849). In a diary he noted his disapproval of attempts to convert the Algonquins "from their own superstitions to new ones." In a journal he noted dryly that it is appropriate for a church to be the ugliest building in a village, "because it is the one in which human nature stoops to the lowest and is the most disgraced." (Cited by James A. Haught in 2000 Years of Disbelief.) When Parker Pillsbury sought to talk about religion with Thoreau as he was dying from tuberculosis, Thoreau replied: "One world at a time." Thoreau's philosophy of nonviolent resistance influenced the political thoughts and actions of such later figures as Leo Tolstoy, Mohandas K. Gandhi , and Martin Luther King, Jr. D. 1862.

Henry David Thoreau Biography for Kids « Remove Ads Henry David Thoreau Biography for Kids Henry David Thoreau was an influential author, philosopher and environmentalist. He graduated from Harvard University in 1837. After college, Thoreau became a school teacher and wrote poems for The Dial but failed as a freelance writer in New York City. After the sudden death of his brother, Thoreau moved to a forest along the shores of Walden Pond, near Concord, Massachusetts. Thoreau’s experience at Walden formed the basis of his legendary work Walden, or, Life in the Woods, published in 1854. The book described his memoirs of his life along the beautiful pond as a spiritual quest. Although he spent 26 months on Walden Pond, the book compresses the time as one calendar year (four seasons, each describing a stage of human development). Thoreau went on to write a two million word journal (over 24 years) about the natural history of Concord and surrounding areas, and wrote “excursion” books about the natural wonders of Cape Cod, Canada, and the Maine Woods.

He also wrote essays on fall foliage, seed dispersion, and the wonders of hiking and canoeing. He was among the first to advocate land conservation and wilderness as well as Charles Darwin’s Theory of Evolution. Today, Henry David Thoreau is considered America’s first environmentalist. Every creature is better alive than dead, men and moose and pine trees, and he who understands it aright will rather preserve its life than destroy it. – Henry David Thoreau

Question: What influential American philosopher and author wrote the book 'Walden, or Life in the Woods'?
Answer: Henry David Thoreau