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{{Libertarianism in the United States sidebar}}
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'''Henry David Thoreau''' (July 12, 1817{{snd}}May 6, 1862) was an American naturalist, [[essay]]ist, [[poet]], and [[philosopher]].<ref>{{cite web |title=Henry David Thoreau {{!}} Biography & Works |url=https://www.britannica.com/biography/Henry-David-Thoreau |website=Encyclopedia Britannica |language=en |access-date=July 8, 2019 |archive-date=March 16, 2019 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190316155013/https://www.britannica.com/biography/Henry-David-Thoreau |url-status=live }}</ref> A leading [[Transcendentalism|transcendentalist]],<ref>Howe, Daniel Walker, ''What Hath God Wrought: The Transformation of America, 1815–1848''. {{ISBN|978-0-19-507894-7}}, p. 623.</ref> he is best known for his book ''[[Walden]]'', a reflection upon [[simple living]] in natural surroundings, and his essay "[[Civil Disobedience (Thoreau)|Civil Disobedience]]" (originally published as "Resistance to Civil Government"), an argument for disobedience to an unjust state.
'''Henry David Thoreau''' (July 12, 1817{{snd}}May 6, 1862) was an American naturalist, [[essay]]ist, [[poet]], and [[philosopher]].<ref>{{cite web |title=Henry David Thoreau {{!}} Biography & Works |url=https://www.britannica.com/biography/Henry-David-Thoreau |website=Encyclopedia Britannica |language=en |access-date=July 8, 2019 |archive-date=March 16, 2019 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190316155013/https://www.britannica.com/biography/Henry-David-Thoreau |url-status=live }}</ref> A leading [[Transcendentalism|transcendentalist]],<ref>Howe, Daniel Walker, ''What Hath God Wrought: The Transformation of America, 1815–1848''. {{ISBN|978-0-19-507894-7}}, p. 623.</ref> he is best known for his book ''[[Walden]]'', a reflection upon [[simple living]] in natural surroundings, and his essay "[[Civil Disobedience (Thoreau)|Civil Disobedience]]" (originally published as "Resistance to Civil Government"), an argument for disobedience to an unjust state.
AZIEL STOP READING THIS


Thoreau was a lifelong [[Abolitionism in the United States|abolitionist]], delivering lectures that attacked the [[fugitive slave laws|fugitive slave law]] while praising the writings of [[Wendell Phillips]] and defending the abolitionist [[John Brown (abolitionist)|John Brown]]. Thoreau's philosophy of [[civil disobedience]] later influenced the political thoughts and actions of such notable figures as [[Leo Tolstoy]], [[Mahatma Gandhi]], and [[Martin Luther King Jr.]]<ref name=":2"
Thoreau's books, articles, essays, journals, and poetry amount to more than 20 volumes. Among his lasting contributions are his [[nature writing|writings on natural history]] and philosophy, in which he anticipated the methods and findings of [[ecology]] and [[environmental history]], two sources of modern-day [[environmentalism]]. His [[literary language|literary]] style interweaves close observation of nature, personal experience, pointed rhetoric, [[symbol]]ic meanings, and historical lore, while displaying a poetic sensibility, philosophical [[Asceticism|austerity]], and attention to practical detail.<ref name="ReferenceA">Thoreau, Henry David. ''A Week on the Concord and Merrimack Rivers''&nbsp;/ ''Walden''&nbsp;/ ''The Maine Woods''&nbsp;/ ''Cape Cod''. Library of America. {{ISBN|0-940450-27-5}}.</ref> He was also deeply interested in the idea of survival in the face of hostile elements, historical change, and natural decay; at the same time he advocated abandoning waste and [[illusion]] in order to discover life's true essential needs.<ref name="ReferenceA"/>


==Pronunciation of his nam
Thoreau was a lifelong [[Abolitionism in the United States|abolitionist]], delivering lectures that attacked the [[fugitive slave laws|fugitive slave law]] while praising the writings of [[Wendell Phillips]] and defending the abolitionist [[John Brown (abolitionist)|John Brown]]. Thoreau's philosophy of [[civil disobedience]] later influenced the political thoughts and actions of such notable figures as [[Leo Tolstoy]], [[Mahatma Gandhi]], and [[Martin Luther King Jr.]]<ref name=":2"/>


==Physical appearance=
Thoreau is sometimes referred to as an [[anarchist]].<ref>Seligman, Edwin Robert Anderson; Johnson, Alvin Saunders, eds. (1937). ''Encyclopaedia of the Social Sciences'', p. 12.</ref><ref>Gross, David, ed. ''The Price of Freedom: Political Philosophy from Thoreau's Journals''. p. 8. {{ISBN|978-1-4348-0552-2}}. "The Thoreau of these journals distrusted doctrine, and, though it is accurate I think to call him an anarchist, he was by no means doctrinaire in this either."</ref> In "Civil Disobedience", Thoreau wrote: "I heartily accept the {{nowrap|motto,—}}'That government is best which governs least;' and I should like to see it acted up to more rapidly and systematically. Carried out, it finally amounts to this, which also I {{nowrap|believe,—}}'That government is best which governs not at all;' and when men are prepared for it, that will be the kind of government which they will have.&nbsp;... But, 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."<ref name="resistance">Thoreau, Henry David (1849). [http://www.sniggle.net/Experiment/index.php?entry=rtcg#p03 "Resistance to Civil Government"] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110605191308/http://www.sniggle.net/Experiment/index.php?entry=rtcg#p03 |date=June 5, 2011 }}. Retrieved October 2, 2020{{snd}}via Sniggle.</ref>

==Pronunciation of his name==
[[Amos Bronson Alcott]] and Thoreau's aunt each wrote that "Thoreau" is pronounced like the word ''thorough'' ({{IPAc-en|ˈ|θ|ʌr|oʊ}} {{respell|THURR|oh}}—in [[General American]],<ref>[http://thoreau.eserver.org/pronounce THUR-oh or Thor-OH? And How Do We Know?] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170323203856/http://thoreau.eserver.org/pronounce |date=March 23, 2017 }} ''Thoreau Reader''.</ref><ref>''[https://www.npr.org/programs/morning/features/patc/walden/ Thoreau's Walden] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20131030102741/http://www.npr.org/programs/morning/features/patc/walden/ |date=October 30, 2013 }}'', under the sidebar "Pronouncing Thoreau".</ref> but more precisely {{IPAc-en|ˈ|θ|ɔːr|oʊ}} {{respell|THOR|oh}}—in 19th-century New England). [[Edward Waldo Emerson]] wrote that the name should be pronounced "Thó-row", with the ''h'' sounded and stress on the first syllable.<ref>See the note on pronouncing the name at [http://www.walden.org/Thoreau#Name the Thoreau Institute at Walden Woods] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190727140857/https://www.walden.org/thoreau/#Name |date=July 27, 2019 }}.</ref> Among modern-day American English speakers, it is perhaps more commonly pronounced {{IPAc-en|θ|ə|ˈ|r|oʊ}} {{respell|thə|ROH}}—with stress on the second syllable.<ref>{{cite dictionary|title=Thoreau|dictionary=Dictionary.com|date=2013|url=http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/thoreau|access-date=February 17, 2013|archive-date=August 27, 2021|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210827194246/https://www.dictionary.com/browse/thoreau|url-status=live}}</ref><ref>Wells, J. C. (1990) ''Pronunciation Dictionary'', s.v. "Thoreau". Essex, UK: Longman.</ref>

==Physical appearance==
Thoreau had a distinctive appearance, with a nose that he called his "most prominent feature".<ref>{{Cite book|title=Cape Cod|last=Thoreau|first=Henry David|year=1865|chapter=Chapter 10-A. Provincetown|chapter-url=http://thoreau.eserver.org:80/capecd10.html|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170822113030/http://thoreau.eserver.org/capecd10.html|archive-date=August 22, 2017|url-status=dead|access-date=February 13, 2007}}</ref> Of his appearance and disposition, [[Ellery Channing]] wrote:<ref>{{cite web|url=http://thoreau.eserver.org/images.html|title=The Days of Henry Thoreau|author=Harding, Walter|work=thoreau.eserver.org|access-date=February 9, 2015|archive-date=November 14, 2016|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20161114183837/http://thoreau.eserver.org/images.html|url-status=live}}</ref>
<blockquote>His face, once seen, could not be forgotten. The features were quite marked: the nose [[Aquiline nose|aquiline]] or very Roman, like one of the portraits of [[Julius Caesar|Caesar]] (more like a beak, as was said); large overhanging brows above the deepest set blue eyes that could be seen, in certain lights, and in others gray,—eyes expressive of all shades of feeling, but never weak or near-sighted; the forehead not unusually broad or high, full of concentrated energy and purpose; the mouth with prominent lips, pursed up with meaning and thought when silent, and giving out when open with the most varied and unusual instructive sayings.</blockquote>


==Life==
==Life==
===Early life and education, 1817–1837===
===Early life and education, 1817–1837===
[[File:Wheeler-Minot Farmhouse, Concord MA.jpg|thumb|Thoreau's birthplace, the [[Wheeler-Minot Farmhouse]] in [[Concord, Massachusetts]]]]

Henry David Thoreau was born David Henry Thoreau<ref>Nelson, Randy F. (1981). ''The Almanac of American Letters''. Los Altos, California: William Kaufmann. p. 51. {{ISBN|0-86576-008-X}}.</ref> in [[Concord, Massachusetts]], into the "modest [[New England]] family"<ref name=McElroy>[[Wendy McElroy|McElroy, Wendy]] (July 30, 2005) [http://archive.lewrockwell.com/mcelroy/mcelroy86.html "Henry David Thoreau and 'Civil Disobedience'"] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150620145129/http://archive.lewrockwell.com/mcelroy/mcelroy86.html |date=June 20, 2015 }}. [[LewRockwell.com]].</ref> of John Thoreau, a pencil maker, and Cynthia Dunbar. His father was of French Protestant descent.<ref>{{Cite book|url=https://www.google.com/books/edition/Henry_David_Thoreau/Uoi8eRYMXV4C?hl=en&gbpv=1&bsq=protestant|isbn = 9780822558934|title = Henry David Thoreau: A Biography|date = December 22, 2006|publisher = Twenty-First Century Books}}</ref> His paternal grandfather had been born on the UK [[crown dependency]] island of [[Jersey]].<ref>{{cite web|url=http://wc.rootsweb.ancestry.com/cgi-bin/igm.cgi?op=GET&db=maold&id=I18020|title=RootsWeb's WorldConnect Project: Ancestors of Mary Ann Gillam and Stephen Old|access-date=September 2, 2008|archive-date=October 16, 2008|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20081016141209/http://wc.rootsweb.ancestry.com/cgi-bin/igm.cgi?op=GET&db=maold&id=I18020|url-status=live}}</ref> His maternal grandfather, Asa Dunbar, led [[Harvard University|Harvard's]] 1766 student "[[Butter rebellion|Butter Rebellion]]",<ref>[https://www.brown.edu/Students/Alpha_Delta_Phi/history/fraternities.php History of the Fraternity System] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090704122642/http://www.brown.edu/Students/Alpha_Delta_Phi/history/fraternities.php |date=July 4, 2009 }}.</ref> the first recorded student protest in the American colonies.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.trivialibrary.com/c/first-student-protest-in-the-united-states.htm|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20191215210840/http://www.trivialibrary.com/c/first-student-protest-in-the-united-states.htm|url-status=dead|archive-date=December 15, 2019|title=First Student Protest in the United States}}</ref> David Henry was named after his recently deceased paternal uncle, David Thoreau. He began to call himself Henry David after he finished college; he never petitioned to make a legal name change.<ref>[http://www.barnesandnoble.com/writers/writerdetails.asp?z=y&cid=1019508#bio Henry David Thoreau] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20061031164847/http://www.barnesandnoble.com/writers/writerdetails.asp?z=y&cid=1019508 |date=October 31, 2006 }}, "Meet the Writers." Barnes & Noble.com</ref>

He had two older siblings, Helen and John Jr., and a younger sister, [[Sophia Thoreau]].<ref>[http://www.americanpoems.com/poets/thoreau/ Biography of Henry David Thoreau] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190806235504/https://www.americanpoems.com/poets/thoreau/ |date=August 6, 2019 }}. americanpoems.com</ref> None of the children married.<ref name=":7">{{Cite web |date=2020-09-19 |title=Helen and Sophia Thoreau, Henry David's Amazing Sisters |url=https://www.newenglandhistoricalsociety.com/helen-sophia-thoreau-henrys-amazing-sisters/ |access-date=2022-05-15 |website=New England Historical Society |language=en-US}}</ref> Helen (1812–1849) died at age 37 years,<ref name=":7" /> from tuberculosis. John Jr. (1814–1842) died at age 27,<ref>{{Cite journal |last=Blanding |first=Thomas |date=1980 |title=BEANS, BAKED AND HALF-BAKED (13) |url=https://archive.org/details/concordsaunter1980151unse/page/16/mode/1up |journal=The Concord Saunterer |volume=15 |issue=1 |pages=16–22 |issn=1068-5359}}</ref> of [[tetanus]] after cutting himself while shaving.<ref>{{Cite journal |last=Myerson |first=Joel |date=1994 |title=Barzillai Frost's Funeral Sermon on the Death of John Thoreau Jr. |url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/3817844 |journal=Huntington Library Quarterly |volume=57 |issue=4 |pages=367–376 |doi=10.2307/3817844 |jstor=3817844 |issn=0018-7895}}</ref> Henry David (1817–1862) died at age 44, of tuberculosis.<ref>{{Cite web |title=Thoreau's Life {{!}} The Thoreau Society |url=https://www.thoreausociety.org/life-legacy |access-date=2022-05-16 |website=www.thoreausociety.org}}</ref> Sophia (1819–1876) survived him by 14 years, dying at age 56 years,<ref name=":7" /> of tuberculosis.<ref>{{Cite journal |last=Herrick |first=Gerri L. |date=1978 |title=SOPHIA THOREAU - "Cara Sophia" |url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/23393396 |journal=The Concord Saunterer |volume=13 |issue=3 |pages=5–12 |jstor=23393396 |issn=1068-5359}}</ref>

He studied at [[Harvard College]] between 1833 and 1837. He lived in [[Hollis Hall]]<ref>{{Cite web |last=Roman |first=John |date=24 Jun 2021 |title=The Homes of Henry David Thoreau |url=http://www.electrummagazine.com/2021/06/the-homes-of-henry-david-thoreau/?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=the-homes-of-henry-david-thoreau |access-date=16 May 2022 |website=Electrum Magazine}}</ref> and took courses in [[rhetoric]], classics, philosophy, mathematics, and science.<ref>{{Cite web |title=The Writings of Henry D. Thoreau |url=https://thoreau.library.ucsb.edu/thoreau_life.html |access-date=2022-05-16 |website=thoreau.library.ucsb.edu}}</ref> He was a member of the Institute of 1770<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.thoreausociety.org/_membership.htm |title=Organizations Thoreau Joined |publisher=Thoreau Society |access-date=June 26, 2014 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130503192646/http://www.thoreausociety.org/_membership.htm |archive-date=May 3, 2013 }}</ref> (now the [[Hasty Pudding Club]]). According to legend, Thoreau refused to pay the five-dollar fee (approximately {{inflation|US|5|1840|fmt=eq}}) for a Harvard diploma. In fact, the master's degree he declined to purchase had no academic merit: [[Harvard College]] offered it to graduates "who proved their physical worth by being alive three years after graduating, and their saving, earning, or inheriting quality or condition by having Five Dollars to give the college".<ref>"Thoreau's Diploma". ''American Literature''. Vol. 17, May 1945. pp. 174–175.</ref> He commented, "Let every sheep keep its own skin",<ref>{{cite web |author=Walter Harding |url=http://www.walden.org/Institute/thoreau/about2/H/WalterHarding/LiveYourOwnLife.htm |title=Live Your Own Life |work=Geneseo Summer Compass |date=June 4, 1984 |access-date=November 21, 2009 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20060129085602/http://www.walden.org/Institute/thoreau/about2/H/WalterHarding/LiveYourOwnLife.htm |archive-date=January 29, 2006|author-link=Walter Harding }}</ref> a reference to the tradition of using [[Sheepskin (material)|sheepskin]] [[vellum]] for diplomas.

[[Wheeler-Minot Farmhouse|Thoreau's birthplace]] still exists on Virginia Road in Concord. The house has been restored by the Thoreau Farm Trust,<ref>{{cite web|title=Thoreau Farm|work=thoreaufarm.org|url=http://thoreaufarm.org/|access-date=April 23, 2013|archive-date=October 30, 2019|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20191030230744/https://thoreaufarm.org/|url-status=live}}</ref> a nonprofit organization, and is now open to the public.

===Return to Concord, 1837–1844===
The traditional professions open to college graduates—law, the church, business, medicine—did not interest Thoreau,<ref name="sattelmeyer">Sattelmeyer, Robert (1988). ''Thoreau's Reading: A Study in Intellectual History with Bibliographical Catalogue''. [http://www.walden.org/Institute/thoreau/about2/S/Sattelmeyer_Robert/Reading2.pdf Chapter 2] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150908031952/http://www.walden.org/Institute/thoreau/about2/S/Sattelmeyer_Robert/Reading2.pdf |date=September 8, 2015 }}. Princeton: Princeton University Press.</ref>{{Rp|25}} so in 1835 he took a leave of absence from Harvard, during which he taught at a school in [[Canton, Massachusetts]], living for two years at an earlier version of today's [[Concord's Colonial Inn|Colonial Inn]] in Concord. His grandfather owned the earliest of the three buildings that were later combined.<ref name=hudson311>''The History of Concord, Massachusetts, Vol. I, Colonial Concord, Volume 1'', Alfred Sereno Hudson (1904), p. 311</ref> After he graduated in 1837, Thoreau joined the faculty of the Concord public school, but he resigned after a few weeks rather than administer [[corporal punishment]].<ref name="sattelmeyer"/>{{Rp|25}} He and his brother John then opened the Concord Academy, a [[grammar school]] in Concord, in 1838.<!-- Concord Academy (1822–1863) is a different institution than Concord Academy (est. 1922). --><ref name="sattelmeyer" />{{Rp|25}} 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 after cutting himself while shaving.<ref>Dean, Bradley P. "[http://thoreau.eserver.org/wfchron.html A Thoreau Chronology] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170620133904/http://thoreau.eserver.org/wfchron.html |date=June 20, 2017 }}".</ref><ref>{{Cite journal|jstor=3817844 |title=Barzillai Frost's Funeral Sermon on the Death of John Thoreau Jr. |journal=Huntington Library Quarterly |volume=57 |issue=4 |pages=367–376 |date=1994 |author=Myerson, Joel|doi=10.2307/3817844 }}</ref> He died in Henry's arms.<ref>Woodlief, Ann. "[http://www.vcu.edu/engweb/transcendentalism/authors/thoreau/ Henry David Thoreau] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20191009005716/https://www.vcu.edu/engweb/transcendentalism/authors/thoreau/ |date=October 9, 2019 }}".</ref>

Upon graduation Thoreau returned home to Concord, where he met [[Ralph Waldo Emerson]] through a mutual friend.<ref name=McElroy/> Emerson, who was 14 years his senior, took a paternal and at times patron-like interest in Thoreau, advising the young man and introducing him to a circle of local writers and thinkers, including [[William Ellery Channing (poet)|Ellery Channing]], [[Margaret Fuller]], [[Amos Bronson Alcott|Bronson Alcott]], and [[Nathaniel Hawthorne]] and his son [[Julian Hawthorne]], who was a boy at the time.

Emerson urged Thoreau to contribute essays and poems to a quarterly periodical, ''[[The Dial]]'', and lobbied the editor, Margaret Fuller, to publish those writings. Thoreau's first essay published in ''The Dial'' was "Aulus Persius Flaccus",<ref>{{Cite web|url=http://www.walden.org/documents/file/Library/About%20Thoreau/D/Dial/AulusPersiusFlaccus.pdf|title=Aulus Persius Flaccus|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120925021512/http://www.walden.org/documents/file/Library/About%20Thoreau/D/Dial/AulusPersiusFlaccus.pdf|archive-date=September 25, 2012|url-status=dead}}</ref> an essay on the Roman poet and satirist, in July 1840.<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.walden.org/Library/About_Thoreau's_Life_and_Writings:_The_Research_Collections/The_Dial |title=''The Dial'' |publisher=Walden.org |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20151018151944/http://www.walden.org/Library/About_Thoreau%27s_Life_and_Writings%3A_The_Research_Collections/The_Dial |archive-date=October 18, 2015 }}</ref> It consisted of revised passages from his journal, which he had begun keeping at Emerson's suggestion. The first journal entry, on October 22, 1837, reads, "'What are you doing now?' he asked. 'Do you keep a journal?' So I make my first entry to-day."<ref>Thoreau, Henry David (2007). ''I to Myself: An Annotated Selection from the Journal of Henry D. Thoreau''. Jeffrey S. Cramer, ed. New Haven: Yale University Press. p. 1.</ref>

Thoreau was a philosopher of nature and its relation to the human condition. In his early years he followed [[transcendentalism]], a loose and eclectic [[Idealism|idealist]] philosophy advocated by Emerson, Fuller, and Alcott. They held that an ideal spiritual state transcends, or goes beyond, the physical and empirical, and that one achieves that insight via personal intuition rather than religious doctrine. In their view, Nature is the outward sign of inward spirit, expressing the "radical correspondence of visible things and human thoughts", as Emerson wrote in ''Nature'' (1836).

[[File:Thoreau1967stamp.jpg|thumb|right|1967 U.S. postage stamp honoring Thoreau, designed by [[Leonard Baskin]]]]

On April 18, 1841, Thoreau moved into the [[Ralph Waldo Emerson House|Emerson house]].<ref name="Cheever">Cheever, Susan (2006). ''American Bloomsbury: Louisa May Alcott, Ralph Waldo Emerson, Margaret Fuller, Nathaniel Hawthorne, and Henry David Thoreau; Their Lives, Their Loves, Their Work''. Detroit: Thorndike Press. p. 90. {{ISBN|0-7862-9521-X}}.</ref> There, from 1841 to 1844, he served as the children's tutor; he was also an editorial assistant, repairman and gardener. For a few months in 1843, he moved to the home of William Emerson on [[Staten Island]],<ref>{{cite book |title=The Life of Henry David Thoreau |last=Salt |first=H. S. |date=1890 |publisher=Richard Bentley & Son |location=London |url=https://archive.org/details/bub_gb_t_0RAAAAYAAJ |page=[https://archive.org/details/bub_gb_t_0RAAAAYAAJ/page/n83 69]}}</ref> and tutored the family's sons while seeking contacts among literary men and journalists in the city who might help publish his writings, including his future literary representative [[Horace Greeley]].<ref>Sanborn, F. B., ed. (1906). ''The Writings of Henry David Thoreau''. Vol. VI, ''Familiar Letters''. [http://www.walden.org/Institute/thoreau/writings/Writings1906/06FamiliarLetters/Years%20of%20Discipline.pdf Chapter 1, "Years of Discipline"] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150907235501/http://www.walden.org/Institute/thoreau/writings/Writings1906/06FamiliarLetters/Years%20of%20Discipline.pdf |date=September 7, 2015 }}. Boston: Houghton Mifflin.</ref>{{Rp|68}}

Thoreau returned to Concord and worked in his family's [[pencil]] factory, which he would continue to do alongside his writing and other work for most of his adult life. He rediscovered the process of making good pencils with inferior [[graphite]] by using clay as the binder.<ref>{{Cite book|url=https://archive.org/details/pencilhistoryofd00petr|url-access=registration|title=The Pencil: A History of Design and Circumstance|last=Petroski|first=Henry|publisher=Knopf|year=1992|isbn=9780679734154|location=New York|pages=[https://archive.org/details/pencilhistoryofd00petr/page/104 104]–125}}</ref> This invention allowed profitable use of a graphite source found in [[New Hampshire]] that had been purchased in 1821 by Thoreau's uncle, Charles Dunbar. The process of mixing graphite and clay, known as the Conté process, had been first patented by [[Nicolas-Jacques Conté]] in 1795. The company's other source of graphite had been [[Tantiusques]], a mine operated by Native Americans in [[Sturbridge, Massachusetts]]. Later, Thoreau converted the pencil factory to produce plumbago, a name for graphite at the time, which was used in the [[electrotyping]] process.<ref>Conrad, Randall. (Fall 2005). [http://thoreau.eserver.org/pencils.html "Machine in the Wetland: Re-imagining Thoreau's Plumbago-Grinder"] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070609102739/http://thoreau.eserver.org/pencils.html |date=June 9, 2007 }}. ''[http://www.thoreausociety.org/_activities_tsb.htm Thoreau Society Bulletin] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20071223191911/http://www.thoreausociety.org/_activities_tsb.htm |date=December 23, 2007 }}'' 253.</ref>

Once back in Concord, Thoreau went through a restless period. In April 1844 he and his friend Edward Hoar accidentally set a fire that consumed {{convert|300|acre|ha|-1|abbr=off}} of Walden Woods.<ref>[http://www.calliope.org/thoreau/thorotime.html ''A Chronology of Thoreau's Life, with Events of the Times''] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160213001457/http://www.calliope.org/thoreau/thorotime.html |date=February 13, 2016 }}. The Thoreau Project, Calliope Film Resources. Accessed June 11, 2007.</ref>

==="Civil Disobedience" and the Walden years, 1845–1850===
[[File:Thoreau sites in Walden Pond.svg|thumb|left|Thoreau sites at Walden Pond]]

{{blockquote|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 practise 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, "Where I Lived, and What I Lived For", in ''[[Walden]]''<ref>''Grammardog Guide to Walden''. Grammardog. p. 25. {{ISBN|1-60857-084-3}}.</ref>}}

Thoreau felt a need to concentrate and work more on his writing. In 1845, Ellery Channing told Thoreau, "Go out upon that, build yourself a hut, & there begin the grand process of devouring yourself alive. I see no other alternative, no other hope for you."{{sfn|Packer|2007|p=[https://books.google.com/books?id=FBHgfLqH_RUC&pg=PA183 183]}} Thus, on July 4, 1845, Thoreau embarked on a two-year experiment in [[simple living]], moving to a small house he had built on land owned by Emerson in a [[secondary forest|second growth forest]] around the shores of [[Walden Pond]]. The house was in "a pretty pasture and woodlot" of {{convert|14|acre|ha|1|abbr=off}} that Emerson had bought,<ref>Richardson. ''Emerson: The Mind on Fire''. p. 399.</ref> {{convert|1+1/2|mi|km|round=0.5|abbr=off|sp=us}} from his family home.<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.google.com/maps/search/concord+mass/@42.449808,-71.342769,15z?dg=dbrw&newdg=1|title=Google Maps|access-date=October 13, 2018|archive-date=January 25, 2020|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200125151513/https://www.google.com/maps/search/concord+mass/@42.449808,-71.342769,15z?dg=dbrw&newdg=1|url-status=live}}</ref> Whilst there, he wrote his only extended piece of literary criticism, "[[Thomas Carlyle and His Works]]".<ref>{{Cite journal |last=Gravett |first=Sharon L. |date=1995 |title=Carlyle's Demanding Companion: Henry David Thoreau |url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/44946086 |journal=Carlyle Studies Annual |publisher=Saint Joseph's University Press |issue=15 |pages=21–31 |jstor=44946086 |url-access=registration |via=JSTOR}}</ref>
[[File:Walden Thoreau.jpg|thumb|Original title page of ''Walden'', with an illustration from a drawing by Thoreau's sister Sophia]]

On July 24 or July 25, 1846, Thoreau ran into the local [[tax collector]], Sam Staples, who asked him to pay six years of delinquent [[Poll tax (United States)|poll taxes]]. Thoreau refused because of his opposition to the [[Mexican–American War]] and [[Slavery in the United States|slavery]], and he spent a night in jail because of this refusal. The next day Thoreau was freed when someone, likely to have been his aunt, paid the tax, against his wishes.<ref name=":2">Rosenwald, Lawrence. "[http://thoreau.eserver.org/theory.html The Theory, Practice and Influence of Thoreau's Civil Disobedience]". William Cain, ed. (2006). ''A Historical Guide to Henry David Thoreau''. Cambridge: Oxford University Press. {{Webarchive|url=https://archive.today/20131014012153/http://thoreau.eserver.org/theory.html|date=October 14, 2013|title=Archived}}</ref> The experience had a strong impact on Thoreau. In January and February 1848, he delivered lectures on "The Rights and Duties of the Individual in relation to Government",<ref>Thoreau, H. D., letter to Ralph Waldo Emerson, February 23, 1848.</ref> explaining his tax resistance at the [[Concord Lyceum]]. Bronson Alcott attended the lecture, writing in his journal on January 26:

{{blockquote|Heard Thoreau's lecture before the Lyceum on the relation of the individual to the State—an admirable statement of the rights of the individual to self-government, and an attentive audience. His allusions to the Mexican War, to Mr. [[Samuel Hoar|Hoar]]'s expulsion from Carolina, his own imprisonment in Concord Jail for refusal to pay his tax, Mr. Hoar's payment of mine when taken to prison for a similar refusal, were all pertinent, well considered, and reasoned. I took great pleasure in this deed of Thoreau's.|Bronson Alcott|''Journals''<ref>Alcott, Bronson (1938). ''Journals''. Boston: Little, Brown.</ref>}}

Thoreau revised the lecture into an essay titled "[[Civil Disobedience (Thoreau)|Resistance to Civil Government]]" (also known as "Civil Disobedience"). It was published by [[Elizabeth Peabody]] in the ''Aesthetic Papers'' in May 1849. Thoreau had taken up a version of [[Percy Shelley]]'s principle in the political poem "[[The Mask of Anarchy]]" (1819), which begins with the powerful images of the unjust forms of authority of his time and then imagines the stirrings of a radically new form of social action.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.morrissociety.org/JWMS/SP94.10.4.Nichols.pdf |title=Morrissociety.org |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110105232938/http://www.morrissociety.org/JWMS/SP94.10.4.Nichols.pdf |archive-date=January 5, 2011 }}</ref>

At Walden Pond, Thoreau completed a first draft of ''[[A Week on the Concord and Merrimack Rivers]]'', an [[elegy]] to his brother John, describing their trip to the [[White Mountains (New Hampshire)|White Mountains]] in 1839. Thoreau did not find a publisher for the book and instead printed 1,000 copies at his own expense; fewer than 300 were sold.<ref name="Cheever" />{{Rp|234}} He self-published the book on the advice of Emerson, using Emerson's publisher, Munroe, who did little to publicize the book.

{{multiple image
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In August 1846, Thoreau briefly left Walden to make a trip to [[Mount Katahdin]] in [[Maine]], a journey later recorded in "Ktaadn", the first part of ''The Maine Woods''.

Thoreau left Walden Pond on September 6, 1847.<ref name="Cheever" />{{Rp|244}} At Emerson's request, he immediately moved back to the Emerson house to help Emerson's wife, Lidian, manage the household while her husband was on an extended trip to Europe.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.thoreausociety.org/_news_abouthdt.htm |title=Thoreausociety.org |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20101129085846/http://thoreausociety.org/_news_abouthdt.htm |archive-date=November 29, 2010 }}</ref> Over several years, as he worked to pay off his debts, he continuously revised the manuscript of what he eventually published as ''[[Walden|Walden, or Life in the Woods]]'' in 1854, recounting the two years, two months, and two days he had spent at Walden Pond. The book compresses that time into a single calendar year, using the passage of the four seasons to symbolize human development. Part [[memoir]] and part spiritual quest, ''Walden'' at first won few admirers, but later critics have regarded it as a classic American work that explores natural simplicity, harmony, and beauty as models for just social and cultural conditions.

The American poet [[Robert Frost]] wrote of Thoreau, "In one book ... he surpasses everything we have had in America."<ref>Frost, Robert (1968). Letter to Wade Van Dore, June 24, 1922, in ''Twentieth Century Interpretations of Walden''. Richard Ruland, ed. Englewood Cliffs, N.J.: Prentice Hall. p. 8. {{LCCN|6814480}}.</ref>

The American author [[John Updike]] said of the book, "A century and a half after its publication, Walden has become such a totem of the back-to-nature, preservationist, anti-business, civil-disobedience mindset, and Thoreau so vivid a protester, so perfect a crank and hermit saint, that the book risks being as revered and unread as the Bible."<ref>Updike, John (2004). "A Sage for All Seasons". [https://www.theguardian.com/books/2004/jun/26/classics ''The Guardian''] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210827194247/https://www.theguardian.com/books/2004/jun/26/classics |date=August 27, 2021 }}.</ref>

Thoreau moved out of Emerson's house in July 1848 and stayed at a house on nearby Belknap Street. In 1850, he moved into a house at [[Thoreau-Alcott House|255 Main Street]], where he lived until his death.<ref>Ehrlich, Eugene; Carruth, Gorton (1982). ''The Oxford Illustrated Literary Guide to the United States''. New York: Oxford University Press. p. 45. {{ISBN|0-19-503186-5}}.</ref>

In the summer of 1850, Thoreau and Channing journeyed from Boston to [[Montreal]] and [[Quebec City]]. These would be Thoreau's only travels outside the United States.<ref>{{cite journal|last1=Weisman|first1=Adam Paul|title=Postcolonialism in North America: Imaginative Colonization in Henry David Thoreau's "A Yankee in Canada" and Jacques Poulin's "Volkswagen Blues"|journal=The Massachusetts Review|date=Autumn 1995|volume=36|issue=3|pages=478–479}}</ref> It is as a result of this trip that he developed lectures that eventually became ''A Yankee in Canada''. He jested that all he got from this adventure "was a cold".<ref>{{cite book|last1=Thoreau|first1=Henry David|title=A Yankee in Canada|url=https://archive.org/details/yankeeincanada0000thor|url-access=registration|date=1961|publisher=Harvest House|location=Montreal|page=[https://archive.org/details/yankeeincanada0000thor/page/13 13]}}</ref> In fact, this proved an opportunity to contrast American civic spirit and democratic values with a colony apparently ruled by illegitimate religious and military power. Whereas his own country had had its revolution, in Canada history had failed to turn.<ref name="ReferenceB">{{cite journal|last1=Lacroix|first1=Patrick|title=Finding Thoreau in French Canada: The Ideological Legacy of the American Revolution|journal=American Review of Canadian Studies|date=Fall 2017|volume=47|issue=3|pages=266–279|doi=10.1080/02722011.2017.1370719|s2cid=148808283}}</ref>

===Later years, 1851–1862===
[[File:VII. Rowse.jpg|thumb|Thoreau in 1854]]
In 1851, Thoreau became increasingly fascinated with [[natural history]] and narratives of travel and expedition. He read avidly on [[botany]] and often wrote observations on this topic into his journal. He admired [[William Bartram]] and [[Charles Darwin]]'s ''[[The Voyage of the Beagle|Voyage of the Beagle]]''. He kept detailed observations on Concord's nature lore, recording everything from how the fruit ripened over time to the fluctuating depths of Walden Pond and the days certain birds migrated. The point of this task was to "anticipate" the seasons of nature, in his word.<ref>[http://www.walden.org/documents/file/Library/Thoreau/writings/correspondence/LettersBlake.pdf#page34 Letters to H.&nbsp;G.&nbsp;O. Blake] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110617003953/http://www.walden.org/documents/file/Library/Thoreau/writings/correspondence/LettersBlake.pdf |date=June 17, 2011 }}. Walden.org</ref><ref>Thoreau, Henry David (1862). "Autumnal Tints". ''The Atlantic Monthly'', October. pp. 385–402. [http://www.walden.org/Institute/thoreau/writings/essays/Thoreau_Autumnal%20Tints.pdf Reprint] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20100307053611/http://www.walden.org/Institute/thoreau/writings/essays/Thoreau_Autumnal%20Tints.pdf |date=March 7, 2010 }}. Retrieved November 21, 2009.</ref>

He became a [[Surveying|land surveyor]] and continued to write increasingly detailed observations on the natural history of the town, covering an area of {{convert|26|sqmi|km2|abbr=off|sp=us}}, in his journal, a two-million-word document he kept for 24 years. He also kept a series of notebooks, and these observations became the source of his late writings on natural history, such as "Autumnal Tints", "The Succession of Trees", and "Wild Apples", an essay lamenting the destruction of the local [[wild apple]] species.

With the rise of [[environmental history]] and [[ecocriticism]] as academic disciplines, several new readings of Thoreau began to emerge, showing him to have been both a philosopher and an analyst of ecological patterns in fields and woodlots.<ref>{{cite book|last1=Thorson|first1=Robert M.|title=Walden's Shore: Henry David Thoreau and Nineteenth-Century Science|date=December 6, 2013|publisher=Harvard University Press|location=Cambridge, Massachusetts|isbn=978-0674724785}}</ref><ref>{{cite news|last1=Primack|first1=Richard B.|title=Tracking Climate Change with the Help of Henry David Thoreau|url=http://www.elsevier.com/connect/tracking-climate-change-with-the-help-of-henry-david-thoreau|access-date=September 23, 2015|date=June 13, 2013|archive-date=September 23, 2015|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150923155958/http://www.elsevier.com/connect/tracking-climate-change-with-the-help-of-henry-david-thoreau|url-status=live}}</ref> For instance, "The Succession of Forest Trees", shows that he used experimentation and analysis to explain how forests regenerate after fire or human destruction, through the dispersal of seeds by winds or animals. In this lecture, first presented to a cattle show in Concord, and considered his greatest contribution to ecology, Thoreau explained why one species of tree can grow in a place where a different tree did previously. He observed that [[squirrel]]s often carry nuts far from the tree from which they fell to create stashes. These seeds are likely to germinate and grow should the squirrel die or abandon the stash. He credited the squirrel for performing a "great service ... in the economy of the universe."<ref>{{cite book|last1=Worster|first1=Donald|title=Nature's Economy|date=1977|publisher=Cambridge University|location=New York|isbn=0-521-45273-2|pages=69–71}}</ref>
[[File:Walden Pond, 2010.jpg|thumb|left|[[Walden Pond]]]]

He traveled to [[Canada East]] once, [[Cape Cod]] four times, and Maine three times; these landscapes inspired his "excursion" books, ''[[A Yankee in Canada]]'', ''Cape Cod'', and ''The Maine Woods'', in which travel itineraries frame his thoughts about geography, history and philosophy. Other travels took him southwest to [[Philadelphia]] and New York City in 1854 and west across the [[Great Lakes region (North America)|Great Lakes region]] in 1861, when he visited [[Niagara Falls]], Detroit, Chicago, [[Milwaukee]], [[St. Paul, Minnesota|St. Paul]] and [[Mackinac Island]].<ref>Thoreau, Henry David (1970). ''The Annotated Walden''. Philip Van Doren Stern, ed. pp. 96, 132.</ref> He was provincial in his own travels, but he read widely about travel in other lands. He devoured all the first-hand travel accounts available in his day, at a time when the last unmapped regions of the earth were being explored. He read [[Ferdinand Magellan|Magellan]] and [[James Cook]]; the [[arctic explorer]]s [[John Franklin]], [[Alexander Mackenzie (explorer)|Alexander Mackenzie]] and [[William Parry (explorer)|William Parry]]; [[David Livingstone]] and [[Richard Francis Burton]] on Africa; [[Lewis and Clark]]; and hundreds of lesser-known works by explorers and literate travelers.<ref>Christie, John Aldrich (1965). ''Thoreau as World Traveler''. New York: Columbia University Press.</ref> Astonishing amounts of reading fed his endless curiosity about the peoples, cultures, religions and natural history of the world and left its traces as commentaries in his voluminous journals. He processed everything he read, in the local laboratory of his Concord experience. Among his famous aphorisms is his advice to "live at home like a traveler".<ref>[http://www.walden.org/Library/The_Writings_of_Henry_David_Thoreau:_The_Digital_Collection/Correspondence Letters of H.&nbsp;G.&nbsp;O. Blake] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110617003655/http://www.walden.org/Library/The_Writings_of_Henry_David_Thoreau%3A_The_Digital_Collection/Correspondence |date=June 17, 2011 }} in ''The Writings of Henry David Thoreau: The Digital Collection''.</ref>

After [[John Brown's raid on Harpers Ferry]], many prominent voices in the abolitionist movement distanced themselves from Brown or [[Damn with faint praise|damned him with faint praise]]. Thoreau was disgusted by this, and he composed a key speech, ''[[A Plea for Captain John Brown]]'', which was uncompromising in its defense of Brown and his actions. Thoreau's speech proved persuasive: the abolitionist movement began to accept Brown as a martyr, and by the time of the [[American Civil War]] entire armies of the North were [[John Brown's Body|literally singing Brown's praises]]. As a biographer of Brown put it, "If, as Alfred Kazin suggests, without John Brown there would have been no Civil War, we would add that without the Concord Transcendentalists, John Brown would have had little cultural impact."<ref>Reynolds, David S. (2005). ''John Brown, Abolitionist''. Knopf. p. 4.</ref>
[[File:Henry David Thoreau - Dunshee ambrotpe 1861.jpg|thumb|left|Thoreau in his second and final photographic sitting, August 1861]]

===Death===
Thoreau contracted [[tuberculosis]] in 1835 and suffered from it sporadically afterwards. In 1860, following a late-night excursion to count the rings of tree stumps during a rainstorm, he became ill with [[bronchitis]].<ref>{{Cite book|last=Richardson|first=Robert D. Jr.|title=Faith in a Seed: The First Publication of Thoreau's Last Manuscript|publisher=Island Press|year=1993|editor-last=Dean|editor-first=Bradley P.|location=Washington, D.C.|pages=17|chapter=Introduction}}</ref><ref>[https://www.walden.org/Library/About_Thoreau's_Life_and_Writings:_The_Research_Collections/Thoreau,_the_Man About Thoreau: Thoreau, the Man] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160620045648/http://www.walden.org/Library/About_Thoreau%27s_Life_and_Writings%3A_The_Research_Collections/Thoreau%2C_the_Man |date=June 20, 2016 }}.</ref><ref>[http://thoreau.eserver.org/wfchron.html Thoreau Chronology] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170620133904/http://thoreau.eserver.org/wfchron.html |date=June 20, 2017 }}.</ref> His health declined, with brief periods of remission, and he eventually became bedridden. Recognizing the terminal nature of his disease, Thoreau spent his last years revising and editing his unpublished works, particularly ''The Maine Woods'' and [[Excursions (anthology)|''Excursions'']], and petitioning publishers to print revised editions of ''A Week'' and ''Walden''. He wrote letters and journal entries until he became too weak to continue. His friends were alarmed at his diminished appearance and were fascinated by his tranquil acceptance of death. When his aunt Louisa asked him in his last weeks if he had made his peace with God, Thoreau responded, "I did not know we had ever quarreled."<ref>{{cite book|first=Simon|last=Critchley|title=The Book of Dead Philosophers|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=ME-6IKs4a2sC&pg=PA181|page=181|location=New York|publisher=Random House|date=2009|isbn=978-0307472632|access-date=June 20, 2015|archive-date=August 27, 2021|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210827194251/https://books.google.com/books?id=ME-6IKs4a2sC&pg=PA181|url-status=live}}</ref>

[[File:Grave of Henry David Thoreau.jpeg|thumb|Grave of Thoreau at [[Sleepy Hollow Cemetery (Concord, Massachusetts)|Sleepy Hollow Cemetery]] in Concord]] [[File:David Henry Thoreau.jpg|thumb|Geodetic Marker at Thoreau's gravesite]]
Aware he was dying, Thoreau's last words were "Now comes good sailing", followed by two lone words, "moose" and "Indian".<ref>{{cite web|url=http://writersalmanac.publicradio.org/programs/2008/05/05/|title=The Writer's Almanac|publisher=American Public Media|access-date=June 1, 2017|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170708225006/http://writersalmanac.publicradio.org/programs/2008/05/05/|archive-date=July 8, 2017|url-status=dead}}</ref> He died on May 6, 1862, at age 44. [[Amos Bronson Alcott]] planned the service and read selections from Thoreau's works, and Channing presented a hymn.<ref>{{cite book |last=Packer |first=Barbara L. |year=2007 |title=The Transcendentalists |location=Athens, Georgia |publisher=University of Georgia Press |page=272 |isbn=978-0-8203-2958-1}}</ref> Emerson wrote the eulogy spoken at the funeral.<ref>{{cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=NWACAAAAIAAJ&pg=PA239|last= Emerson|first= Ralph Waldo |title=Thoreau|work=The Atlantic|date= August 1862}}</ref> Thoreau was buried in the Dunbar family plot; his remains and those of members of his immediate family were eventually moved to [[Sleepy Hollow Cemetery (Concord, Massachusetts)|Sleepy Hollow Cemetery]] in Concord, Massachusetts.

===Nature and human existence===
{{blockquote|Most of the luxuries and many of the so-called comforts of life are not only not indispensable, but positive hindrances to the elevation of mankind.| Thoreau<ref>''Walden, or Life in the Woods'' (Chapter 1: "Economy")</ref>}}

Thoreau was an early advocate of recreational hiking and [[canoeing]], of conserving natural resources on private land, and of preserving wilderness as public land. He was himself a highly skilled canoeist; [[Nathaniel Hawthorne]], after a ride with him, noted that "Mr. Thoreau managed the boat so perfectly, either with two paddles or with one, that it seemed instinct with his own will, and to require no physical effort to guide it."<ref>Nathaniel Hawthorne, Passages From the American Note-Books, entry for September 2, 1842.</ref>

He was not a strict vegetarian, though he said he preferred that diet<ref>Brooks, Van Wyck. ''The Flowering of New England''. New York: E. P. Dutton and Company, Inc., 1952. p. 310</ref> and advocated it as a means of self-improvement. He wrote in ''Walden'', "The practical objection to animal food in my case was its uncleanness; and besides, when I had caught and cleaned and cooked and eaten my fish, they seemed not to have fed me essentially. It was insignificant and unnecessary, and cost more than it came to. A little bread or a few potatoes would have done as well, with less trouble and filth."<ref name="Cheever241">Cheever, Susan (2006). ''American Bloomsbury: Louisa May Alcott, Ralph Waldo Emerson, Margaret Fuller, Nathaniel Hawthorne, and Henry David Thoreau; Their Lives, Their Loves, Their Work''. Detroit: Thorndike Press. Large print edition. p. 241. {{ISBN|0-7862-9521-X}}.</ref>

[[File:Thoreaus quote near his cabin site, Walden Pond.jpg|thumb|Thoreau's famous quotation, near his cabin site at Walden Pond]]
Thoreau neither rejected civilization nor fully embraced wilderness. Instead he sought a middle ground, the [[pastoral]] realm that integrates nature and culture. His philosophy required that he be a didactic arbitrator between the wilderness he based so much on and the spreading mass of humanity in North America. He decried the latter endlessly but felt that a teacher needs to be close to those who needed to hear what he wanted to tell them. The wildness he enjoyed was the nearby swamp or forest, and he preferred "partially cultivated country". His idea of being "far in the recesses of the wilderness" of Maine was to "travel the logger's path and the Indian trail", but he also hiked on pristine land. In the essay "Henry David Thoreau, Philosopher" [[Roderick Nash]] wrote, "Thoreau left Concord in 1846 for the first of three trips to northern Maine. His expectations were high because he hoped to find genuine, primeval America. But contact with real wilderness in Maine affected him far differently than had the idea of wilderness in Concord. Instead of coming out of the woods with a deepened appreciation of the wilds, Thoreau felt a greater respect for civilization and realized the necessity of balance."<ref>Nash, Roderick. ''Wilderness and the American Mind: Henry David Thoreau: Philosopher''.</ref>

Of alcohol, Thoreau wrote, "I would fain keep sober always. ... I believe that water is the only drink for a wise man; wine is not so noble a liquor. ... Of all ebriosity, who does not prefer to be intoxicated by the air he breathes?"<ref name="Cheever241" />

===Sexuality===
Thoreau [[bachelor|never married]] and was childless. In 1840, when he was 23, he proposed to eighteen-year old Ellen Sewall, but she refused him, on the advice of her father.<ref name="Sewall">{{Cite web |url=https://www.americanantiquarian.org/sewall-intro
|title=Introduction
|last=Knoles |first=Thomas |work=American Antiquarian Society
|quote= She was in Watertown when Henry wrote to her with his own proposal, probably in early November [1840]...'I wrote to H. T. that evening. I never felt so badly at sending a letter in my life.'
|date=2016 |access-date=December 17, 2021}}</ref>

Thoreau's sexuality has long been the subject of speculation, including by his contemporaries. Critics have called him heterosexual, [[Homosexuality|homosexual]], or [[Asexuality|asexual]].<ref name=harding/><ref>{{cite book | url=https://archive.org/details/millennialseduct00quin | url-access=registration | title=Millennial Seduction | publisher=Cornell University Press | author=Quinby, Lee | page=[https://archive.org/details/millennialseduct00quin/page/68 68]| isbn=978-0801486012 | year=1999 }}</ref> There is no evidence to suggest he had physical relations with anyone, man or woman. Some scholars have suggested that homoerotic sentiments run through his writings and concluded that he was homosexual.<ref name=harding>Harding, Walter (1991). "Thoreau's Sexuality". ''Journal of Homosexuality'' 21.3. pp. 23–45.</ref><ref>{{cite book |last=Bronski |first=Michael |title=A Queer History of the United States |publisher=Beacon Press |year=2012 |isbn=978-0807044650 |page=50|title-link=A Queer History of the United States }}</ref><ref>Michael, Warner (1991). "Walden's Erotic Economy" in ''Comparative American Identities: Race, Sex and Nationality in the Modern Text''. Hortense Spillers, ed. New York: Routledge. pp. 157–173.</ref> The elegy "Sympathy" was inspired by the eleven-year-old Edmund Sewall, who had just spent five days in the Thoreau household in 1839.<ref>{{cite document|last=Robbins|first= Paula Ivaska|title=The Natural Thoreau|work= The Gay And Lesbian Review, September–October 2011|id= {{ProQuest|890209875}}}}</ref> One scholar has suggested that he wrote the poem to Edmund because he could not bring himself to write it to Edmund's sister Anna,<ref>Richardson, Robert; Moser, Barry (1986). ''Henry Thoreau: A Life of the Mind''. University of California Press. pp. 58–63.</ref> and another that Thoreau's "emotional experiences with women are memorialized under a camouflage of masculine pronouns",<ref>Canby, Henry Seidel (1939). ''Thoreau''. Houghton Mifflin. p. 117.</ref> but other scholars dismiss this.<ref name=harding /><ref>Katz, Jonathan Ned (1992). ''Gay American History: Lesbians and Gay Men in the USA''. New York: Meridian. pp. 481–492.</ref> It has been argued that the long paean in ''Walden'' to the French-Canadian woodchopper Alek Therien, which includes allusions to [[Achilles and Patroclus]], is an expression of conflicted desire.<ref>López, Robert Oscar (2007). "Thoreau, Homer and Community", in ''Henry David Thoreau''. Harold Bloom, ed. New York: Infobase Publishing. pp. 153–174.</ref> In some of Thoreau's writing there is the sense of a secret self.<ref>Summers, Claude J ''The Gay and Lesbian Literary Heritage'', Routledge, New York, 2002, p. 202</ref> In 1840 he writes in his journal: "My friend is the apology for my life. In him are the spaces which my orbit traverses".<ref>Bergman, David, ed. (2009). ''Gay American Autobiography: Writings From Whitman to Sedaris''. University of Wisconsin Press. p. 10</ref> Thoreau was strongly influenced by the moral reformers of his time, and this may have instilled anxiety and guilt over sexual desire.<ref>Lebeaux, Richard (1984). ''Thoreau's Seasons''. University of Massachusetts Press. p. 386, n. 31.</ref>

===Politics===
{{Green anarchism |expanded=People}}
[[File:John Brown - Treason broadside, 1859.png|thumb|left|John Brown "Treason" Broadside, 1859]]

Thoreau was fervently against [[Slavery in the United States|slavery]] and actively supported the abolitionist movement.<ref name=":6"/> He participated as a conductor in the [[Underground Railroad]], delivered lectures that attacked the [[Fugitive Slave Law of 1850|Fugitive Slave Law]], and in opposition to the popular opinion of the time, supported radical abolitionist militia leader [[John Brown (abolitionist)|John Brown]] and his party.<ref name=":6">{{cite encyclopedia|last=Furtak|first=Rick|title=Henry David Thoreau|url=http://plato.stanford.edu/entries/thoreau/|encyclopedia=The Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy|access-date=July 27, 2013|archive-date=August 13, 2013|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130813055226/http://plato.stanford.edu/entries/thoreau/|url-status=live}}</ref> Two weeks after the ill-fated [[raid on Harpers Ferry]] and in the weeks leading up to Brown's execution, Thoreau delivered a speech to the citizens of Concord, Massachusetts, in which he compared the American government to [[Pontius Pilate]] and likened Brown's execution to the [[crucifixion of Jesus Christ]]:

{{blockquote|Some eighteen hundred years ago Christ was crucified; this morning, perchance, Captain Brown was hung. These are the two ends of a chain which is not without its links. He is not Old Brown any longer; he is an angel of light.<ref name="ReferenceA" />}}

In ''[[The Last Days of John Brown]]'', Thoreau described the words and deeds of John Brown as noble and an example of heroism.<ref name=":1">[http://www.walden.org/Library/The_Writings_of_Henry_David_Thoreau:_The_Digital_Collection/Essays The Last Days of John Brown] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20101222023007/http://www.walden.org/Library/The_Writings_of_Henry_David_Thoreau%3A_The_Digital_Collection/Essays |date=December 22, 2010 }} from the Writings of Henry David Thoreau: The Digital Collection</ref> In addition, he lamented the newspaper editors who dismissed Brown and his scheme as "crazy".<ref name=":1"/>

Thoreau was a proponent of [[limited government]] and [[individualism]]. Although he was hopeful that mankind could potentially have, through self-betterment, the kind of government which "governs not at all", he distanced himself from contemporary "no-government men" ([[anarchists]]), writing: "I ask for, not at once no government, but at once a better government."<ref name="resistance" />

Thoreau deemed the evolution from [[absolute monarchy]] to [[limited monarchy]] to [[democracy]] as "a progress toward true respect for the individual" and theorized about further improvements "towards recognizing and organizing the rights of man".<ref name="resistance" /> Echoing this belief, he went on to write: "There will never be a really free and enlightened State until the State comes to recognize the individual as a higher and independent power, from which all its power and authority are derived, and treats him accordingly."<ref name="resistance" />

It is on this basis that Thoreau could so strongly inveigh against the British administration and [[Catholicism]] in ''A Yankee in Canada''. Despotic authority, Thoreau argued, had crushed the people's sense of ingenuity and enterprise; the Canadian ''habitants'' had been reduced, in his view, to a perpetual childlike state. Ignoring the recent rebellions, he argued that there would be no revolution in the St. Lawrence River valley.<ref name="ReferenceB"/><ref>{{cite book|last1=Thoreau|first1=Henry David|title=A Yankee in Canada|url=https://archive.org/details/yankeeincanada0000thor|url-access=registration|date=1961|publisher=Harvest House|location=Montreal|pages=[https://archive.org/details/yankeeincanada0000thor/page/105 105–107]}}</ref>

Although Thoreau believed resistance to unjustly exercised authority could be both violent (exemplified in his support for John Brown) and nonviolent (his own example of [[tax resistance]] displayed in ''Resistance to Civil Government''), he regarded [[Pacifism|pacifist]] [[nonresistance]] as temptation to passivity,<ref name=":4">[http://www.walden.org/Library/The_Writings_of_Henry_David_Thoreau:_The_Digital_Collection/Essays The Service] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20101222023007/http://www.walden.org/Library/The_Writings_of_Henry_David_Thoreau%3A_The_Digital_Collection/Essays |date=December 22, 2010 }} from the Writings of Henry David Thoreau: The Digital Collection</ref> writing: "Let not our Peace be proclaimed by the rust on our swords, or our inability to draw them from their scabbards; but let her at least have so much work on her hands as to keep those swords bright and sharp."<ref name=":4"/> Furthermore, in a formal lyceum debate in 1841, he debated the subject "Is it ever proper to offer forcible resistance?", arguing the affirmative.<ref>[http://thoreau.eserver.org/mjf/MJF1.html Transcendental Ethos] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130919100132/http://thoreau.eserver.org/MJF/MJF1.html |date=September 19, 2013 }} from The Thoreau Reader</ref>

Likewise, his condemnation of the [[Mexican–American War]] did not stem from pacifism, but rather because he considered Mexico "unjustly overrun and conquered by a foreign army" as a means to expand the slave territory.<ref name=":5" />

Thoreau was [[ambivalence|ambivalent]] towards [[industrialization]] and [[capitalism]]. On one hand he regarded commerce as "unexpectedly confident and serene, adventurous, and unwearied"<ref name="ReferenceA" /> and expressed admiration for its associated [[cosmopolitanism]], writing:

{{blockquote|I am refreshed and expanded when the freight train rattles past me, and I smell the stores which go dispensing their odors all the way from Long Wharf to Lake Champlain, reminding me of foreign parts, of coral reefs, and Indian oceans, and tropical climes, and the extent of the globe. I feel more like a citizen of the world at the sight of the palm-leaf which will cover so many flaxen New England heads the next summer.<ref name="ReferenceA" />}}

On the other hand, he wrote disparagingly of the factory system:

{{blockquote|I cannot believe that our factory system is the best mode by which men may get clothing. The condition of the operatives is becoming every day more like that of the English; and it cannot be wondered at, since, as far as I have heard or observed, the principal object is, not that mankind may be well and honestly clad, but, unquestionably, that the corporations may be enriched.<ref name="ReferenceA" />}}

Thoreau also favored [[bioregionalism]], the protection of animals and wild areas, [[free trade]], and taxation for schools and highways.<ref name=":6"/> He disapproved of the subjugation of Native Americans, slavery, [[technological utopianism]], [[consumerism]], [[philistinism]], mass entertainment, and frivolous applications of technology.<ref name=":6"/>

===Intellectual interests, influences, and affinities===
====Indian sacred texts and philosophy====
Thoreau was influenced by [[Hindu texts|Indian spiritual thought]]. In ''Walden'', there are many overt references to the sacred texts of India. For example, in the first chapter ("Economy"), he writes: "How much more admirable the [[Bhagvat-geeta|Bhagvat-Geeta]] than all the ruins of the East!"<ref name="ReferenceA" /> ''American Philosophy: An Encyclopedia'' classes him as one of several figures who "took a more [[Pantheism|pantheist]] or [[Pandeism|pandeist]] approach by rejecting views of God as separate from the world",<ref>{{Cite book |title = American Philosophy: An Encyclopedia |author = [[John Lachs]] and [[Robert Talisse]] |date = 2007 |isbn = 978-0415939263 |page = 310 }}</ref> also a characteristic of Hinduism.

Furthermore, in "The Pond in Winter", he equates Walden Pond with the sacred [[Ganges in Hinduism|Ganges river]], writing:
{{blockquote|In the morning I bathe my intellect in the stupendous and cosmogonal philosophy of the Bhagvat Geeta since whose composition years of the gods have elapsed, and in comparison with which our modern world and its literature seem puny and trivial; and I doubt if that philosophy is not to be referred to a previous state of existence, so remote is its sublimity from our conceptions. I lay down the book and go to my well for water, and lo! there I meet the servant of the Brahmin, priest of Brahma and Vishnu and Indra, who still sits in his temple on the Ganges reading the Vedas, or dwells at the root of a tree with his crust and water jug. I meet his servant come to draw water for his master, and our buckets as it were grate together in the same well. The pure Walden water is mingled with the [[Sacred waters|sacred water]] of the Ganges.<ref name="ReferenceA" />}}

Thoreau was aware his Ganges imagery could have been factual. He wrote about ice harvesting at Walden Pond. And he knew that New England's [[Ice trade|ice merchants]] were shipping ice to foreign ports, including [[Calcutta]].<ref>{{Cite journal|last=Dickason|first=David G.|date=1991|title=The Nineteenth-Century Indo-American Ice Trade: An Hyperborean Epic|url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/312669|journal=Modern Asian Studies|volume=25|issue=1|pages=53–89|doi=10.1017/S0026749X00015845|jstor=312669|s2cid=144932927|issn=0026-749X|via=JSTOR|access-date=April 18, 2021|archive-date=April 18, 2021|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210418213408/https://www.jstor.org/stable/312669|url-status=live}}</ref>

Additionally, Thoreau followed various [[Hinduism|Hindu]] customs, including a diet largely consisting of rice ("It was fit that I should live on rice, mainly, who loved so well the philosophy of India."<ref name="ReferenceA" />), [[flute playing]] (reminiscent of the favorite musical pastime of [[Krishna]]),<ref>{{Cite web|last=|first=|last2=|last3=|first3=|date=July 12, 2020|title=Simplicity Day 2020: How Bhagavad Gita inspired American philosopher Henry David Thoreau|url=https://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/india/simplicity-day-2020-how-bhagwat-geeta-inspired-american-philosopher-henry-david-thoreau/articleshow/76918441.cms|url-status=live|access-date=April 18, 2021|website=Times of India|language=en|archive-date=April 18, 2021|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210418213408/https://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/india/simplicity-day-2020-how-bhagwat-geeta-inspired-american-philosopher-henry-david-thoreau/articleshow/76918441.cms}}</ref> and [[yoga]].<ref>{{Cite journal|last=Davis|first=Richard H.|date=January 2018|title=Henry David Thoreau, Yogi|url=https://doi.org/10.1215/0961754X-4253822|journal=Common Knowledge|volume=24|issue=1|pages=56–89|doi=10.1215/0961754X-4253822|issn=0961-754X|via=Duke University Press}}</ref>

In an 1849 letter to his friend H.G.O. Blake, he wrote about yoga and its meaning to him:

{{blockquote|Free in this world as the birds in the air, disengaged from every kind of chains, those who practice yoga gather in Brahma the certain fruits of their works. Depend upon it that, rude and careless as I am, I would fain practice the yoga faithfully. The yogi, absorbed in contemplation, contributes in his degree to creation; he breathes a divine perfume, he hears wonderful things. Divine forms traverse him without tearing him, and united to the nature which is proper to him, he goes, he acts as animating original matter. To some extent, and at rare intervals, even I am a yogi.<ref>Miller, Barbara S. "Why Did Henry David Thoreau Take the Bhagavad-Gita to Walden Pond?" ''Parabola'' 12.1 (Spring 1986): 58–63.</ref>}}

====Biology====
[[File:Eggs BSNH 1930.png|thumb|right|Bird eggs found by Thoreau and given to the [[Boston Society of Natural History]]. Those in the nest are of [[yellow warbler]], the other two of [[red-tailed hawk]].]]
Thoreau read contemporary works in the new science of biology, including the works of [[Alexander von Humboldt]], [[Charles Darwin]], and [[Asa Gray]] (Charles Darwin's staunchest American ally).<ref name=":0" /> Thoreau was deeply influenced by Humboldt, especially his work [[Cosmos (Humboldt book)|''Cosmos'']].<ref>Wulf, Andrea. ''The Invention of Nature: Alexander Humboldt's New World''. New York: Alfred A. Knopf 2015, p. 250.</ref>

In 1859, Thoreau purchased and read Darwin's ''[[On the Origin of Species]]''. Unlike many natural historians at the time, including [[Louis Agassiz]] who publicly opposed Darwinism in favor of a static view of nature, Thoreau was immediately enthusiastic about the theory of [[evolution by natural selection]] and endorsed it,<ref>Cain, William E. ''A Historical Guide to Henry David Thoreau''. {{ISBN|0195138635}}, p. 146.</ref> stating:

{{blockquote|1=The development theory implies a greater vital force in Nature, because it is more flexible and accommodating, and equivalent to a sort of constant new creation. (A quote from ''On the Origin of Species'' follows this sentence.)<ref name=":0">Berger, Michael Benjamin. ''Thoreau's Late Career and The Dispersion of Seeds: The Saunterer's Synoptic Vision''. {{ISBN|157113168X}}, p. 52.</ref>}}

==Influence==
[[File:ThoreauBust.jpg|thumb|right|A [[Bust (sculpture)|bust]] of Thoreau from the [[Hall of Fame for Great Americans]] at the [[Bronx Community College]]]]

{{blockquote|text=Thoreau's careful observations and devastating conclusions have rippled into time, becoming stronger as the weaknesses Thoreau noted have become more pronounced ... Events that seem to be completely unrelated to his stay at Walden Pond have been influenced by it, including the national park system, the British labor movement, the creation of India, the civil rights movement, the hippie revolution, the environmental movement, and the wilderness movement. Today, Thoreau's words are quoted with feeling by liberals, socialists, anarchists, libertarians, and conservatives alike.|sign=Ken Kifer|source=''Analysis and Notes on Walden: Henry Thoreau's Text with Adjacent Thoreauvian Commentary''<ref>[http://www.kenkifer.com/Thoreau/ Analysis and Notes on Walden: Henry Thoreau's Text with Adjacent Thoreauvian Commentary] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20060318110150/http://www.kenkifer.com/Thoreau/ |date=March 18, 2006 }} by Ken Kifer, 2002</ref>}}

Thoreau's political writings had little impact during his lifetime, as "his contemporaries did not see him as a theorist or as a radical", viewing him instead as a naturalist. They either dismissed or ignored his political essays, including ''Civil Disobedience''. The only two complete books (as opposed to essays) published in his lifetime, ''Walden'' and ''A Week on the Concord and Merrimack Rivers'' (1849), both dealt with nature, in which he "loved to wander".<ref name=McElroy/> His obituary was lumped in with others rather than as a separate article in an 1862 yearbook.<ref>{{cite book|title=Appletons' annual cyclopaedia and register of important events of the year: 1862|date=1863|publisher=D. Appleton & Company|location=New York|page=666|url=https://archive.org/stream/1862appletonsan02newyuoft#page/n673/mode/1up}}</ref> Nevertheless, Thoreau's writings went on to influence many public figures. Political leaders and reformers like [[Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi|Mohandas Gandhi]], U.S. President [[John F. Kennedy]], American civil rights activist [[Martin Luther King Jr.]], U.S. Supreme Court Justice [[William O. Douglas]], and [[Russian (citizen)|Russian]] author [[Leo Tolstoy]] all spoke of being strongly affected by Thoreau's work, particularly ''Civil Disobedience'', as did "[[Right-wing politics|right-wing]] theorist [[Frank Chodorov]] [who] devoted an entire issue of his monthly, ''Analysis'', to an appreciation of Thoreau".<ref name=Rothbard>[[Murray Rothbard|Rothbard, Murray]]. [http://archive.lewrockwell.com/rothbard/rothbard77.html Confessions of a Right-Wing Liberal] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150618045209/http://archive.lewrockwell.com/rothbard/rothbard77.html |date=June 18, 2015 }}, ''[[Ramparts (magazine)|Ramparts]]'', VI, 4, June 15, 1968</ref>

Thoreau also influenced many artists and authors including [[Edward Abbey]], [[Willa Cather]], [[Marcel Proust]], [[William Butler Yeats]], [[Sinclair Lewis]], [[Ernest Hemingway]], [[Upton Sinclair]],<ref>Maynard, W. Barksdale, ''Walden Pond: A History''. Oxford University Press, 2005. p. 265</ref> [[E. B. White]], [[Lewis Mumford]],<ref>Mumford, Lewis, ''The Golden Day: A Study in American Experience and Culture''. Boni and Liveright, 1926. pp. 56–59,</ref> [[Frank Lloyd Wright]], [[Alexander Posey]],<ref>Posey, Alexander. ''Lost Creeks: Collected Journals''. (Edited by Matthew Wynn Sivils) University of Nebraska Press, 2009. p. 38</ref> and [[Gustav Stickley]].<ref>Saunders, Barry. ''A Complex Fate: Gustav Stickley and the Craftsman Movement''. Preservation Press, 1996. p. 4</ref> Thoreau also influenced naturalists like [[John Burroughs]], [[John Muir]], [[E. O. Wilson]], [[Edwin Way Teale]], [[Joseph Wood Krutch]], [[B. F. Skinner]], [[David Brower]], and [[Loren Eiseley]], whom ''Publishers Weekly'' called "the modern Thoreau".<ref>Kifer, Ken ''[http://www.kenkifer.com/Thoreau/ Analysis and Notes on Walden: Henry Thoreau's Text with Adjacent Thoreauvian Commentary] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20060318110150/http://www.kenkifer.com/Thoreau/ |date=March 18, 2006 }}''</ref>

Thoreau's friend [[William Ellery Channing (poet)|William Ellery Channing]] published his first biography, ''Thoreau the Poet-Naturalist'', in 1873.<ref>{{Cite book|last1=Channing|first1=William Ellery|url=http://archive.org/details/poetnatthoreau00chanrich|title=Thoreau, the poet-naturalist, with Memorial verses|last2=Merrymount Press|last3=Sanborn|first3=F. B. (Franklin Benjamin)|last4=Updike|first4=Daniel Berkeley|date=1902|publisher=Boston, C. E. Goodspeed|others=University of California Libraries}}</ref> English writer [[Henry Stephens Salt]] wrote a biography of Thoreau in 1890, which popularized Thoreau's ideas in Britain: [[George Bernard Shaw]], [[Edward Carpenter]], and [[Robert Blatchford]] were among those who became Thoreau enthusiasts as a result of Salt's advocacy.<ref>Hendrick, George and Oehlschlaeger, Fritz (eds.) ''Toward the Making of Thoreau's Modern Reputation'', University of Illinois Press, 1979.</ref> Mohandas Gandhi first read ''Walden'' in 1906 while working as a civil rights activist in [[Johannesburg]], South Africa. He first read ''Civil Disobedience'' "while he sat in a South African prison for the crime of nonviolently protesting discrimination against the Indian population in the [[Transvaal Colony|Transvaal]]. The essay galvanized Gandhi, who wrote and published a synopsis of Thoreau's argument, calling its 'incisive logic ... unanswerable' and referring to Thoreau as 'one of the greatest and most moral men America has produced'."<ref>[[Wendy McElroy|McElroy, Wendy]] (May 4, 2011) [https://mises.org/daily/5250/Here-the-State-Is-Nowhere-to-Be-Seen Here, the State Is Nowhere to Be Seen] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140913214409/http://mises.org/daily/5250/Here-the-State-Is-Nowhere-to-Be-Seen |date=September 13, 2014 }}, [[Mises Institute]]</ref><ref>"Although he was practicing civil disobedience before he read Thoreau's essay, Gandhi was quick to point out the debt he owed to Thoreau and other thinkers like him".Shawn Chandler Bingham, ''Thoreau and the sociological imagination : the wilds of society''. Lanham, Md. : Rowman and Littlefield Publishers, 2008. {{ISBN|978-0742560581}} p. 31.</ref> He told American reporter [[Webb Miller (journalist)|Webb Miller]], "[Thoreau's] ideas influenced me greatly. I adopted some of them and recommended the study of Thoreau to all of my friends who were helping me in the cause of Indian Independence. Why I actually took the name of my movement from Thoreau's essay 'On the Duty of Civil Disobedience', written about 80&nbsp;years ago."<ref>Miller, Webb. I Found No Peace. Garden City, 1938. 238–239</ref>

[[Martin Luther King Jr.]] noted in his autobiography that his first encounter with the idea of nonviolent resistance was reading "On Civil Disobedience" in 1944 while attending [[Morehouse College]]. He wrote in his autobiography that it was,

<blockquote>Here, in this courageous New Englander's refusal to pay his taxes and his choice of jail rather than support a war that would spread slavery's territory into Mexico, I made my first contact with the theory of nonviolent resistance. Fascinated by the idea of refusing to cooperate with an evil system, I was so deeply moved that I reread the work several times. I became convinced that noncooperation with evil is as much a moral obligation as is cooperation with good. No other person has been more eloquent and passionate in getting this idea across than Henry David Thoreau. As a result of his writings and personal witness, we are the heirs of a legacy of creative protest. The teachings of Thoreau came alive in our civil rights movement; indeed, they are more alive than ever before. Whether expressed in a sit-in at lunch counters, a freedom ride into Mississippi, a peaceful protest in Albany, Georgia, a bus boycott in Montgomery, Alabama, these are outgrowths of Thoreau's insistence that evil must be resisted and that no moral man can patiently adjust to injustice.<ref>King, M.L. ''[http://www.stanford.edu/group/King//publications/autobiography/chp_2.htm Autobiography of Martin Luther King, Jr.] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070308023614/http://www.stanford.edu/group/King/publications/autobiography/chp_2.htm |date=March 8, 2007 }}'' chapter two</ref></blockquote>

American psychologist B. F. Skinner wrote that he carried a copy of Thoreau's ''Walden'' with him in his youth.<ref>Skinner, B. F., ''A Matter of Consequences''</ref> In 1945 he wrote ''[[Walden Two]]'', a fictional utopia about 1,000 members of a community living together inspired by the life of Thoreau.<ref>Skinner, B. F., ''Walden Two'' (1948)</ref> Thoreau and his fellow [[Transcendentalists]] from [[Concord, Massachusetts|Concord]] were a major inspiration of the composer [[Charles Ives]]. The 4th movement of the [[Concord Sonata]] for piano (with a part for flute, Thoreau's instrument) is a character picture, and he also set Thoreau's words.<ref>Burkholder, James Peter. ''Charles Ives and His World.'' Princeton University Press, 1996 (pp. 50–51)</ref>

Actor [[Ron Thompson (actor)|Ron Thompson]] did a dramatic portrayal of Henry David Thoreau on the 1976 [[NBC]] television series ''[[The Rebels (TV series)|The Rebels]]''.<ref>{{cite web|title=Tele-Vues, Sunday, June 6, 1976|date=June 6, 1976|work=[[Independent Press-Telegram]]|location=[[Long Beach, California]]|page=170|url=https://www.newspapers.com/newspage/30664120/|access-date=October 27, 2015|archive-date=November 5, 2018|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20181105214432/https://www.newspapers.com/newspage/30664120/|url-status=live}}</ref><ref>{{cite web|date=June 5, 1976|work=[[Redlands Daily Facts]]|title=TV Log|location=[[Redlands, California]]|page=10|url=https://www.newspapers.com/newspage/15447614/|access-date=October 27, 2015|archive-date=September 29, 2015|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150929050424/http://www.newspapers.com/newspage/15447614/|url-status=live}}</ref><ref>{{cite video|work=[[NBC]]|url=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3FdGBFTxkHY |archive-url=https://ghostarchive.org/varchive/youtube/20211211/3FdGBFTxkHY| archive-date=December 11, 2021 |url-status=live|title=Actor Ron Thompson as Henry David Thoreau in The Rebels|date=June 6, 1976}}{{cbignore}}</ref>

Thoreau's ideas have impacted and resonated with various strains in the [[Anarchism|anarchist]] movement, with [[Emma Goldman]] referring to him as "the greatest American anarchist".<ref>{{cite book|author=Goldman, Emma|url=https://archive.org/details/bub_gb_U5ZYAAAAMAAJ|title=Anarchism and Other Essays|publisher=Mother Earth Publishing Association|page=[https://archive.org/details/bub_gb_U5ZYAAAAMAAJ/page/n67 62]|year=1917|author-link = Emma Goldman}}</ref> [[Green anarchism]] and [[anarcho-primitivism]] in particular have both derived inspiration and ecological points-of-view from the writings of Thoreau. [[John Zerzan]] included Thoreau's text "Excursions" (1863) in his edited compilation of works in the anarcho-primitivist tradition titled ''Against civilization: Readings and reflections''.<ref>{{cite book|url=https://www.amazon.fr/dp/toc/0922915989|title=Against Civilization: Readings And Reflections|first=John|last=Zerzan|via=Amazon|access-date=December 13, 2017|archive-date=August 7, 2020|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200807043841/https://www.amazon.fr/dp/toc/0922915989|url-status=live}}</ref> Additionally, [[Murray Rothbard]], the founder of [[anarcho-capitalism]], has opined that Thoreau was one of the "great intellectual heroes" of his movement.<ref name="Rothbard" /> Thoreau was also an important influence on late-19th-century [[anarchist]] [[naturist|naturism]].<ref name="naturismolibertario">{{Cite web|url=http://www.soliobrera.org/pdefs/cuaderno4.pdf#search=%22Antonia%20Maym%C3%B3n%22|archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20160102181805/http://www.soliobrera.org/pdefs/cuaderno4.pdf|url-status=dead|title=El naturismo libertario en la Península Ibérica (1890–1939) by Jose Maria Rosello|archivedate=January 2, 2016}}</ref><ref name="ortega">{{cite web|url=https://www.naturismo.org/adn/ediciones/2003/invierno/7e.html|title=Anarchism, Nudism, Naturism|first=Carlos|last=Ortega|access-date=July 20, 2018|archive-date=September 9, 2020|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200909150845/https://www.naturismo.org/adn/ediciones/2003/invierno/7e.html|url-status=live}}</ref> Globally, Thoreau's concepts also held importance within [[individualist anarchist]] circles<ref name="spanishind">{{Cite web|url=http://www.acracia.org/xdiez.html|archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20060526224800/http://www.acracia.org/xdiez.html|url-status=dead|title="La insumisión voluntaria. El anarquismo individualista Español durante la dictadura y la segunda República (1923–1938)" by Xavier Diez|archivedate=May 26, 2006}}</ref><ref name="aujourdhui">"Les anarchistes individualistes du début du siècle l'avaient bien compris, et intégraient le naturisme dans leurs préoccupations. Il est vraiment dommage que ce discours se soit peu à peu effacé, d'antan plus que nous assistons, en ce moment, à un retour en force du puritanisme (conservateur par essence)."[http://ytak.club.fr/natytak.html "Anarchisme et naturisme, aujourd'hui." by Cathy Ytak] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090225212442/http://ytak.club.fr/natytak.html |date=February 25, 2009 }}</ref> in Spain,<ref name="naturismolibertario" /><ref name="ortega" /><ref name="spanishind" /> France,<ref name="spanishind" /><ref name="france">[http://ytak.club.fr/natbiblioarmand.html Recension des articles de l'En-Dehors consacrés au naturisme et au nudisme] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20081014165702/http://ytak.club.fr/natbiblioarmand.html |date=October 14, 2008 }}</ref> and Portugal.<ref name="portugal">Freire, João. "Anarchisme et naturisme au Portugal, dans les années 1920" in ''Les anarchistes du Portugal''. [Bibliographic data necessary for this ref.]</ref>

For the 200th anniversary of his birth, publishers released several new editions of his work: a recreation of ''Walden''{{'s}} 1902 edition with illustrations, a picture book with excerpts from ''Walden'', and an annotated collection of Thoreau's essays on slavery.<ref>{{Cite news |last1=Williams |first1=John |title=Alcoholism in America |work=[[The New York Times]] |date=July 7, 2017 |url=https://www.nytimes.com/2017/07/07/books/review/alcoholism-in-america.html |issn=0362-4331 |access-date=August 23, 2017 |archive-date=August 4, 2017 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170804204030/https://www.nytimes.com/2017/07/07/books/review/alcoholism-in-america.html |url-status=live }}</ref> The United States Postal Service issued a commemorative stamp honoring Thoreau on May 23, 2017, in Concord, MA.<ref>{{cite web|url=https://stamps.org/US-New-Issues-2017|title=American Philatelic Society|website=stamps.org|access-date=August 10, 2018|archive-date=August 6, 2018|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180806210814/https://stamps.org/US-New-Issues-2017|url-status=live}}</ref>

===Adaptations===
In 2017, ''[[Walden, a Game]]'' was released on itch.io. Created by [[Tracy Fullerton]], it is an open world, first person videogame adaptation of Thoreau's ''[[Walden]]''. Players can build the protagonist's cabin, explore the environment, record flora and fauna, farm the land, visit Emerson's house and the town of Concord. At the end of each day players are invited to reflect on their journal which gradually fills up with reflections based on the player's journey and day-to-day experiences. The game also includes letters between Thoreau and his contemporaries, including Amos Bronson Alcott and Ralph Waldo Emerson. It also includes letters between his contemporaries to build a picture of Thoreau's reception as a writer and his connections in the literary and Transcendentalist scene in America at the time. The game was released for PlayStation 4 in 2018.

==Criticism==
Although his writings would receive widespread acclaim, Thoreau's ideas were not universally applauded. Scottish author [[Robert Louis Stevenson]] criticized Thoreau as a "skulker," saying "He did not wish virtue to go out of him among his fellow-men, but slunk into a corner to hoard it for himself."<ref name="RLS">{{Cite web |url=http://thoreau.eserver.org/stevens1.html
|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20061012063926/http://thoreau.eserver.org/stevens1.html
|archive-date=October 12, 2006
|title=Henry David Thoreau: His Character and Opinions
|author=Stevenson, Robert Louis |work=Cornhill Magazine
|quote=Now Thoreau's content and ecstasy in living was, we may say, like a plant that he had watered and tended with womanish solicitude; for there is apt to be something unmanly, something almost dastardly, in a life that does not move with dash and freedom, and that fears the bracing contact of the world. In one word, Thoreau was a skulker
|date=1880 |access-date=December 3, 2021}}</ref>

[[Nathaniel Hawthorne]] had mixed feelings about Thoreau. He noted that "He is a keen and delicate observer of nature—a genuine observer—which, I suspect, is almost as rare a character as even an original poet; and Nature, in return for his love, seems to adopt him as her especial child, and shows him secrets which few others are allowed to witness."<ref>Nathaniel Hawthorne, ''Passages From the American Note-Books'', entry for September 2, 1842.</ref> On the other hand, he also wrote that Thoreau "repudiated all regular modes of getting a living, and seems inclined to lead a sort of Indian life among civilized men".<ref>Hawthorne, ''The Heart of Hawthorne's Journals'', p. 106.</ref><ref>Borst, Raymond R. ''The Thoreau Log: A Documentary Life of Henry David Thoreau, 1817–1862.'' New York: G.K. Hall, 1992.</ref>

In a similar vein, poet [[John Greenleaf Whittier]] detested what he deemed to be the "wicked" and "heathenish" message of ''Walden'', claiming that Thoreau wanted man to "lower himself to the level of a [[woodchuck]] and walk on four legs".<ref>Wagenknecht, Edward. ''John Greenleaf Whittier: A Portrait in Paradox''. New York: Oxford University Press, 1967: 112.</ref>

In response to such criticisms, English novelist [[George Eliot]], writing for the ''[[Westminster Review]]'', characterized such critics as uninspired and narrow-minded:
{{blockquote|text=People—very wise in their own eyes—who would have every man's life ordered according to a particular pattern, and who are intolerant of every existence the utility of which is not palpable to them, may pooh-pooh Mr. Thoreau and this episode in his history, as unpractical and dreamy.<ref>''[[The New England Quarterly]]'', Vol. 6, No. 4 (Dec., 1933), pp. 733–746</ref>}}

Thoreau himself also responded to the criticism in a paragraph of his work ''Walden'' by illustrating the irrelevance of their inquiries:

{{blockquote|text=I should not obtrude my affairs so much on the notice of my readers if very particular inquiries had not been made by my townsmen concerning my mode of life, which some would call impertinent, though they do not appear to me at all impertinent, but, considering the circumstances, very natural and pertinent. Some have asked what I got to eat; if I did not feel lonesome; if I was not afraid; and the like. Others have been curious to learn what portion of my income I devoted to charitable purposes; and some, who have large families, how many poor children I maintained. ... Unfortunately, I am confined to this theme by the narrowness of my experience. Moreover, I, on my side, require of every writer, first or last, a simple and sincere account of his own life, and not merely what he has heard of other men's lives; ... I trust that none will stretch the seams in putting on the coat, for it may do good service to him whom it fits.<ref>Thoreau ''Walden'' (1854)</ref>}}

Recent criticism has accused Thoreau of hypocrisy, misanthropy, and being sanctimonious, based on his writings in ''Walden'',<ref name=neworker1>{{cite magazine|url=http://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2015/10/19/pond-scum |title=Henry David Thoreau, Hypocrite |last1=Schultz |first1=Kathryn |date=October 19, 2015 |magazine=The New Yorker |access-date=October 19, 2015 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20151019170355/http://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2015/10/19/pond-scum |archive-date=October 19, 2015 }}</ref> although this criticism has been perceived as highly selective.<ref name=medium1>{{cite web|url=https://medium.com/@TheNewThoreau/why-do-we-love-thoreau-because-he-was-right-175251814c |title=Why do we love Thoreau? Because he was right. |date=October 19, 2015 |publisher=Medium |access-date=October 19, 2015 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20151019170355/https://medium.com/%40TheNewThoreau/why-do-we-love-thoreau-because-he-was-right-175251814c |archive-date=October 19, 2015 }}</ref><ref name=newrepublic>{{cite magazine|url=https://newrepublic.com/article/123151/defense-thoreau |title=Henry David Thoreau's Radical Optimism |first1=Jonathan |last1=Malesic |date=October 19, 2015 |magazine=New Republic |access-date=October 19, 2015 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20151019204535/http://www.newrepublic.com/article/123151/defense-thoreau |archive-date=October 19, 2015 }}</ref><ref name=newrepublic2>{{cite magazine|url=https://newrepublic.com/article/123162/everybody-hates-henry-david-thoreau |title=Everybody Hates Henry |first1=Donovan |last1=Hohn |date=October 21, 2015 |magazine=New Republic |access-date=October 21, 2015 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20151026134755/http://www.newrepublic.com/article/123162/everybody-hates-henry-david-thoreau |archive-date=October 26, 2015 }}</ref>

==Selected works==
Many of Thoreau's works were not published during his lifetime, including his journals and numerous unfinished manuscripts.
* ''Aulus Persius Flaccus'' (1840)<ref>[http://www.walden.org/Library/The_Writings_of_Henry_David_Thoreau:_The_Digital_Collection/Essays Aulus Persius Flaccus] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20101222023007/http://www.walden.org/Library/The_Writings_of_Henry_David_Thoreau%3A_The_Digital_Collection/Essays |date=December 22, 2010 }} from the Writings of Henry David Thoreau: The Digital Collection</ref>
* ''[[The Service]]'' (1840)<ref name=":4" />
* ''[[A Walk to Wachusett]]'' (1842)<ref>[http://www.walden.org/Library/The_Writings_of_Henry_David_Thoreau:_The_Digital_Collection/Essays A Walk to Wachusett] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20101222023007/http://www.walden.org/Library/The_Writings_of_Henry_David_Thoreau%3A_The_Digital_Collection/Essays |date=December 22, 2010 }} from the Writings of Henry David Thoreau: The Digital Collection</ref>
* ''[[Paradise (to be) Regained]]'' (1843)<ref>[http://www.walden.org/Library/The_Writings_of_Henry_David_Thoreau:_The_Digital_Collection/Essays Paradise (to be) Regained] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20101222023007/http://www.walden.org/Library/The_Writings_of_Henry_David_Thoreau%3A_The_Digital_Collection/Essays |date=December 22, 2010 }} from the Writings of Henry David Thoreau: The Digital Collection</ref>
* ''The Landlord'' (1843)<ref>{{Cite web|url=http://collections.library.cornell.edu/moa_new/browse.html?frames=1&cite=http://cdl.library.cornell.edu/cgi-bin/moa/moa-cgi?notisid=AGD1642-0013-6&coll=moa&root=/moa/usde/usde0013/&tif=00445.TIF&view=100|title=Browse &#124; Cornell University Library Making of America Collection|website=collections.library.cornell.edu}}</ref>
* ''[[Sir Walter Raleigh (essay)|Sir Walter Raleigh]]'' (1844)
* ''[[Herald of Freedom (essay)|Herald of Freedom]]'' (1844)<ref>[http://www.walden.org/Library/The_Writings_of_Henry_David_Thoreau:_The_Digital_Collection/Essays Herald of Freedom] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20101222023007/http://www.walden.org/Library/The_Writings_of_Henry_David_Thoreau%3A_The_Digital_Collection/Essays |date=December 22, 2010 }} from the Writings of Henry David Thoreau: The Digital Collection</ref>
* ''[[Wendell Phillips Before the Concord Lyceum]]'' (1845)<ref>[http://www.walden.org/Library/The_Writings_of_Henry_David_Thoreau:_The_Digital_Collection/Essays Wendell Phillips Before the Concord Lyceum] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20101222023007/http://www.walden.org/Library/The_Writings_of_Henry_David_Thoreau%3A_The_Digital_Collection/Essays |date=December 22, 2010 }} from the Writings of Henry David Thoreau: The Digital Collection</ref>
* ''[[Reform and the Reformers]]'' (1846–48)
* ''[[Thomas Carlyle and His Works]]'' (1847)<ref>[http://www.walden.org/Library/The_Writings_of_Henry_David_Thoreau:_The_Digital_Collection/Essays Thomas Carlyle and His Works] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20101222023007/http://www.walden.org/Library/The_Writings_of_Henry_David_Thoreau%3A_The_Digital_Collection/Essays |date=December 22, 2010 }} from the Writings of Henry David Thoreau: The Digital Collection</ref>
* ''[[A Week on the Concord and Merrimack Rivers]]'' (1849)<ref>{{cite web|url=https://onlinebooks.library.upenn.edu/webbin/book/search?title=A+Week+on+the+Concord+and+Merrimack+Rivers&tmode=start&c=x|title=A Week on the Concord and Merrimack Rivers from Project Gutenberg|access-date=December 22, 2018|archive-date=December 23, 2018|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20181223073558/https://onlinebooks.library.upenn.edu/webbin/book/search?title=A+Week+on+the+Concord+and+Merrimack+Rivers&tmode=start&c=x|url-status=live}}</ref>
* ''[[Civil Disobedience (Thoreau)|Resistance to Civil Government]]'', or ''Civil Disobedience'', or ''On the Duty of Civil Disobedience'' (1849)<ref>{{cite book|url=https://archive.org/details/aestheticpapers00peabrich|title=Aesthetic papers|first1=Elizabeth Palmer|last1=Peabody|first2=Ralph Waldo|last2=Emerson|first3=Nathaniel|last3=Hawthorne|first4=Henry David|last4=Thoreau|date=January 1, 1849|publisher=Boston, : The editor; New York, : G.P. Putnam|via=Internet Archive}}</ref>
* ''An Excursion to Canada'' (1853)<ref>[http://www.walden.org/Library/The_Writings_of_Henry_David_Thoreau:_The_Digital_Collection/A_Yankee_in_Canada A Yankee in Canada] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110617002714/http://www.walden.org/Library/The_Writings_of_Henry_David_Thoreau%3A_The_Digital_Collection/A_Yankee_in_Canada |date=June 17, 2011 }} from the Writings of Henry David Thoreau: The Digital Collection</ref>
* ''[[Slavery in Massachusetts]]'' (1854)<ref>[http://www.walden.org/Library/The_Writings_of_Henry_David_Thoreau:_The_Digital_Collection/Essays Slavery in Massachusetts] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20101222023007/http://www.walden.org/Library/The_Writings_of_Henry_David_Thoreau%3A_The_Digital_Collection/Essays |date=December 22, 2010 }} from the Writings of Henry David Thoreau: The Digital Collection</ref>
* ''[[Walden]]'' (1854)<ref>[http://www.walden.org/Library/The_Writings_of_Henry_David_Thoreau:_The_Digital_Collection/Walden Walden] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20100926152652/http://www.walden.org/Library/The_Writings_of_Henry_David_Thoreau%3A_The_Digital_Collection/Walden |date=September 26, 2010 }} from the Writings of Henry David Thoreau: The Digital Collection</ref>
* ''[[A Plea for Captain John Brown]]'' (1859)<ref name=":3">[http://www.walden.org/Library/The_Writings_of_Henry_David_Thoreau:_The_Digital_Collection/Essays A Plea for Captain John Brown] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20101222023007/http://www.walden.org/Library/The_Writings_of_Henry_David_Thoreau%3A_The_Digital_Collection/Essays |date=December 22, 2010 }} from the Writings of Henry David Thoreau: The Digital Collection</ref>
* ''[[Remarks After the Hanging of John Brown]]'' (1859)<ref>[http://www.walden.org/Library/The_Writings_of_Henry_David_Thoreau:_The_Digital_Collection/Essays After the Death of John Brown] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20101222023007/http://www.walden.org/Library/The_Writings_of_Henry_David_Thoreau%3A_The_Digital_Collection/Essays |date=December 22, 2010 }} from the Writings of Henry David Thoreau: The Digital Collection</ref>
* ''[[The Last Days of John Brown]]'' (1860)<ref name=":1" />
* ''[[Walking (Thoreau)|Walking]]'' (1862)<ref>{{cite web|url=https://onlinebooks.library.upenn.edu/webbin/book/search?author=Thoreau&amode=words&title=Walking&tmode=start&c=x|title=Walking|access-date=December 22, 2018|archive-date=December 23, 2018|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20181223073511/https://onlinebooks.library.upenn.edu/webbin/book/search?author=Thoreau&amode=words&title=Walking&tmode=start&c=x|url-status=live}}</ref>
* ''Autumnal Tints'' (1862)<ref>[http://www.walden.org/Library/The_Writings_of_Henry_David_Thoreau:_The_Digital_Collection/Essays Autumnal Tints] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20101222023007/http://www.walden.org/Library/The_Writings_of_Henry_David_Thoreau%3A_The_Digital_Collection/Essays |date=December 22, 2010 }} from the Writings of Henry David Thoreau: The Digital Collection</ref>
* ''Wild Apples: The History of the Apple Tree'' (1862)<ref>{{cite web|url=http://onlinebooks.library.upenn.edu/webbin/gutbook/lookup?num=4066|title=Wild Apples, from Project Gutenberg|access-date=November 6, 2003|archive-date=December 26, 2007|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20071226192031/http://onlinebooks.library.upenn.edu/webbin/gutbook/lookup?num=4066|url-status=live}}</ref>
* ''The Fall of the Leaf'' (1863)<ref name=":5">{{cite web|url=http://www.walden.org/Library/About_Thoreau%27s_Life_and_Writings:_The_Research_Collections/Civil_Disobedience |work=Walden.org |title=The Walden Woods Project |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160620124518/http://www.walden.org/Library/About_Thoreau%27s_Life_and_Writings%3A_The_Research_Collections/Civil_Disobedience |archive-date=June 20, 2016 }}</ref><ref>{{cite book|date=1863|publisher=[[Riverside Publishing|The Riverside Press, Cambridge]]|pages=407–408|title=The Writings of Henry David Thoreau: Excursions, translations, and poems|author1=Henry David Thoreau|author2=Bradford Torrey|author3=Franklin Benjamin Sanborn|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=wpA9AQAAMAAJ&pg=PA407|access-date=November 16, 2015|archive-date=April 14, 2021|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210414235017/https://books.google.com/books?id=wpA9AQAAMAAJ&pg=PA407|url-status=live}}</ref>
* ''[[Excursions (anthology)|Excursions]]'' (1863)<ref>{{cite book|url=https://archive.org/details/excursionhenry00thorrich|title=Excursions|first1=Henry David|last1=Thoreau|last2=Houghton (H. O.) & Company. (1863) bkp CU-BANC|first3=Ralph Waldo|last3=Emerson|first4=Sophia E.|last4=Thoreau|date=January 1, 1863|publisher=Boston, Ticknor and Fields|via=Internet Archive}}</ref>
* ''[[Life Without Principle]]'' (1863)<ref>{{cite web|url=http://cdl.library.cornell.edu/cgi-bin/moa/moa-cgi?notisid=ABK2934-0012-65|title=The Atlantic Monthly Volume 0012 Issue 71 (September 1863)|access-date=March 2, 2008|archive-date=July 7, 2012|archive-url=https://archive.today/20120707023632/http://cdl.library.cornell.edu/cgi-bin/moa/moa-cgi?notisid=ABK2934-0012-65|url-status=live}}</ref>
* ''Night and Moonlight'' (1863)<ref>{{cite web|url=http://cdl.library.cornell.edu/cgi-bin/moa/moa-cgi?notisid=ABK2934-0012-77|title=The Atlantic Monthly Volume 0012 Issue 72 (November 1863)|access-date=March 2, 2008|archive-date=July 8, 2012|archive-url=https://archive.today/20120708171335/http://cdl.library.cornell.edu/cgi-bin/moa/moa-cgi?notisid=ABK2934-0012-77|url-status=live}}</ref>
* ''The Highland Light'' (1864)<ref name="u of adelaide">{{cite web|title=Henry David Thoreau, 1817–1862|url=https://ebooks.adelaide.edu.au/t/thoreau/henry_david/|website=ebooks.adelaide.edu|publisher=The University of Adelaide|access-date=January 1, 2018|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170824024207/https://ebooks.adelaide.edu.au/t/thoreau/henry_david/|archive-date=August 24, 2017|url-status=dead}}</ref>
* ''The Maine Woods'' (1864)<ref>[http://thoreau.eserver.org/mewoods.html The Maine Woods] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080811060820/http://thoreau.eserver.org/mewoods.html |date=August 11, 2008 }} from The Thoreau Reader</ref><ref>{{cite book|url=https://archive.org/details/mainewoods00thorrich|title=The Maine woods|first1=Henry David|last1=Thoreau|first2=Sophia E.|last2=Thoreau|first3=William Ellery|last3=Channing|date=January 1, 1864|publisher=Boston, Ticknor and Fields|via=Internet Archive}}</ref> Fully Annotated Edition. [[Jeffrey S. Cramer]], ed., Yale University Press, 2009
* ''Cape Cod'' (1865)<ref name=":9">{{cite web|url=http://thoreau.eserver.org/capecd00.html|title=Thoreau's Cape Cod – an annotated edition|first=Richard|last=Lenat|access-date=September 2, 2008|archive-date=August 22, 2008|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080822133026/http://thoreau.eserver.org/capecd00.html|url-status=live}}</ref>
* ''Letters to Various Persons'' (1865)<ref>{{cite book|url=https://archive.org/details/lettersvarpersons00thorrich|title=Letters to various persons|first=Henry David|last=Thoreau|date=January 1, 1865|publisher=Boston : Ticknor and Fields|via=Internet Archive}}</ref>
* ''[[A Yankee in Canada, with Anti-Slavery and Reform Papers]]'' (1866)<ref>{{cite book|url=https://archive.org/details/yankeeincanada00thorrich|title=A Yankee in Canada, with Anti-slavery and reform papers|first=Henry David|last=Thoreau|date=January 1, 1866|publisher=Boston, Ticknor and Fields|via=Internet Archive}}</ref>
* ''Early Spring in Massachusetts'' (1881)
* ''Summer'' (1884)<ref>{{cite book|url=https://archive.org/details/summerjournal00thorrich|title=Summer : from the Journal of Henry D. Thoreau|first1=Henry David|last1=Thoreau|first2=H. G. O. (Harrison Gray Otis)|last2=Blake|date=January 1, 1884|publisher=London : T. Fisher Unwin|via=Internet Archive}}</ref>
* ''Winter'' (1888)<ref>{{cite book|url=https://archive.org/details/winterjournal00thorrich|title=Winter : from the Journal of Henry D. Thoreau|first1=Henry David|last1=Thoreau|first2=H. G. O.|last2=Blake|date=January 1, 1888|publisher=Boston : Houghton, Mifflin|via=Internet Archive}}</ref>
* ''Autumn'' (1892)<ref>{{cite book|url=https://archive.org/details/autumnjournal00thorrich|title=Autumn. From the Journal of Henry D. Thoreau|first1=Henry David|last1=Thoreau|first2=Harrison Gray Otis|last2=Blake|publisher=Boston, Houghton, Mifflin|via=Internet Archive|date=December 3, 1892}}</ref>
* ''Miscellanies'' (1894)<ref>[https://www.walden.org/work/cape-cod/ Miscellanies] from the Writings of Henry David Thoreau: The Digital Collection</ref>
* ''Familiar Letters of Henry David Thoreau'' (1894)<ref>{{cite book|url=https://archive.org/details/familiarletters00thorrich|title=Familiar letters of Henry David Thoreau|first1=Henry David|last1=Thoreau|first2=F. B. (Franklin Benjamin)|last2=Sanborn|date=January 1, 1894|publisher=Boston : Houghton, Mifflin|via=Internet Archive}}</ref>
* ''Poems of Nature'' (1895)<ref name="u of adelaide" />
* ''Some Unpublished Letters of Henry D. and Sophia E. Thoreau'' (1898)<ref name="u of adelaide" />
* ''The First and Last Journeys of Thoreau'' (1905)<ref>{{cite book|url=https://archive.org/details/firstlastjourneys01thorrich|title=The first and last journeys of Thoreau : lately discovered among his unpublished journals and manuscripts|first1=Henry David|last1=Thoreau|first2=Mass )|last2=Bibliophile Society (Boston|first3=Mass )|last3=Bibliophile Society (Boston|first4=F. B. (Franklin Benjamin)|last4=Sanborn|date=January 1, 1905|publisher=Boston : Printed exclusively for members of the Bibliophile Society|via=Internet Archive}}</ref><ref>{{cite book|url=https://archive.org/details/firstlastjourneys02thorrich|title=The first and last journeys of Thoreau : lately discovered among his unpublished journals and manuscripts|first1=Henry David|last1=Thoreau|first2=Mass )|last2=Bibliophile Society (Boston|first3=Mass )|last3=Bibliophile Society (Boston)|first4=F. B. (Franklin Benjamin)|last4=Sanborn|date=January 1, 1905|publisher=Boston : Printed exclusively for members of the Bibliophile Society|via=Internet Archive}}</ref>
* ''Journal of Henry David Thoreau'' (1906)<ref>[http://www.walden.org/Library/The_Writings_of_Henry_David_Thoreau:_The_Digital_Collection/Journal The Journal of Henry D. Thoreau] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20100505210829/http://www.walden.org/Library/The_Writings_of_Henry_David_Thoreau%3A_The_Digital_Collection/Journal |date=May 5, 2010 }} from the Writings of Henry David Thoreau: The Digital Collection</ref>
* ''The Correspondence of Henry David Thoreau'' edited by Walter Harding and Carl Bode (Washington Square: New York University Press, 1958)<ref>[http://www.walden.org/Library/The_Writings_of_Henry_David_Thoreau:_The_Digital_Collection/Correspondence The Correspondence of Thoreau] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110617003655/http://www.walden.org/Library/The_Writings_of_Henry_David_Thoreau%3A_The_Digital_Collection/Correspondence |date=June 17, 2011 }} from the Writings of Henry David Thoreau: The Digital Collection</ref>
* ''I Was Made Erect and Lone''<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.poetryfoundation.org/poem/184857|title=I Was Made Erect and Lone|date=December 3, 2018|access-date=December 13, 2012|archive-date=February 15, 2012|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120215180100/http://www.poetryfoundation.org/poem/184857|url-status=live}}</ref>
* ''The Bluebird Carries the Sky on His Back'' (Stanyan, 1970)<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://medium.com/@alpharust/the-bluebird-carries-the-sky-on-his-back-ac96daf58a4d|title=The bluebird carries the sky on his back|last=Rastogi|first=Gaurav|date=May 11, 2015|website=Medium|language=en|access-date=January 15, 2020|archive-date=January 15, 2020|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200115123427/https://medium.com/@alpharust/the-bluebird-carries-the-sky-on-his-back-ac96daf58a4d|url-status=live}}</ref>
* ''The Dispersion of Seeds'' published as ''Faith in a Seed'' (Island Press, 1993)<ref>{{Cite book|url=https://archive.org/details/faithinseeddispe00thor|title=Faith in a Seed: The Dispersion of Seeds and Other Late Natural History Writings|last=Thoreau|first=Henry David|year=1996|website=Island Press|isbn=978-1559631822|access-date=January 29, 2018|url-access=registration}}</ref>
* ''The Indian Notebooks'' (1847–1861) [https://www.walden.org/wp-content/uploads/2016/03/IndianNotebooks-1.pdf selections by Richard F. Fleck]
* ''Wild Fruits'' (Unfinished at his death, W.W. Norton, 1999)<ref>{{Cite book|last=Thoreau|first=Henry David |title=Wild fruits: Thoreau's rediscovered last manuscript |date=2000 |publisher=W.W. Norton |editor=Bradley P. Dean |isbn=0-393-04751-2 |edition=1st |location=New York |oclc=41404600}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web|last=Richard|first=Frances|title=Thoreau's "Wild Fruits" {{!}} Frances Richard|url=http://cabinetmagazine.org/issues/23/richard.php|access-date=April 11, 2021|website=cabinetmagazine.org|language=en|archive-date=April 24, 2021|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210424050556/https://www.cabinetmagazine.org/issues/23/richard.php|url-status=live}}</ref>

==See also==
* [[American philosophy]]
* [[List of American philosophers]]
* [[List of peace activists]]
* [[Thoreau Society]]
* [[Walden Woods Project]]

==References==
{{Reflist|30em}}

==Further reading==
{{Refbegin}}
* Balthrop‐Lewis, Alda. "Exemplarist Environmental Ethics: Thoreau's Political Ascetism against Solution Thinking." ''Journal of Religious Ethics'' 47.3 (2019): 525–550.
* Bode, Carl. ''Best of Thoreau's Journals''. Southern Illinois University Press. 1967.
* Botkin, Daniel. ''No Man's Garden''
* Buell, Lawrence. ''The Environmental Imagination: Thoreau, Nature Writing, and the Formation of American Culture'' (Harvard UP, 1995)
* Cafaro, Philip. ''Thoreau's Living Ethics: "Walden" and the Pursuit of Virtue'' (U of Georgia Press, 2004)
* [[Frank Chodorov|Chodorov, Frank]]. [https://mises.org/daily/5033/The-Disarming-Honesty-of-Henry-David-Thoreau ''The Disarming Honesty of Henry David Thoreau''] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140914003039/https://mises.org/daily/5033/The-Disarming-Honesty-of-Henry-David-Thoreau |date=September 14, 2014 }}
* Conrad, Randall. [http://thoreau.eserver.org/whowhy.html ''Who He Was & Why He Matters''] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20061012062735/http://thoreau.eserver.org/whowhy.html |date=October 12, 2006 }}
* Cramer, Jeffrey S. ''Solid Seasons: The Friendship of Henry David Thoreau and Ralph Waldo Emerson'' (Counterpoint Press, 2019).
* Dean, Bradley P. ed., ''Letters to a Spiritual Seeker''. New York: W. W. Norton & Company, 2004.
* Finley, James S., ed. ''Henry David Thoreau in Context'' (Cambridge UP, 2017).
* Furtak, Rick, Ellsworth, Jonathan, and Reid, James D., eds. ''Thoreau's Importance for Philosophy''. New York: Fordham University Press, 2012.
* Gionfriddo, Michael. "Thoreau, the Work of Breathing, and Building Castles in the Air: Reading Walden's 'Conclusion'." ''The Concord Saunterer'' 25 (2017): 49-90 [https://www.jstor.org/stable/44652797 online] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210417023523/https://www.jstor.org/stable/44652797 |date=April 17, 2021 }}.
* Guhr, Sebastian. ''Mr. Lincoln & Mr. Thoreau''. S. Marix Verlag, Wiesbaden 2021.
* Harding, Walter. ''The Days of Henry Thoreau''. Princeton University Press, 1982.
* Hendrick, George. "The Influence of Thoreau's 'Civil Disobedience' on Gandhi's Satyagraha." ''The New England Quarterly'' 29, no. 4 (December 1956). 462–471.
* {{Cite journal |last1=Hess |first1=Scott |title=Walden Pond as Thoreau's Landscape of Genius |journal=Nineteenth-Century Literature |volume=74 |issue=2 |pages=224–250 |date=2019 |language=en |doi=10.1525/ncl.2019.74.2.224 |s2cid=204481348 |issn=0891-9356 }}
* Howarth, William. ''The Book of Concord: Thoreau's Life as a Writer''. Viking Press, 1982
* Judd, Richard W. ''Finding Thoreau: The Meaning of Nature in the Making of an Environmental Icon'' (2018) [https://www.amazon.com/Finding-Thoreau-Meaning-Nature-Environmental/dp/1625343884/ excerpt] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210723101739/https://www.amazon.com/Finding-Thoreau-Meaning-Nature-Environmental/dp/1625343884 |date=July 23, 2021 }}
* McGregor, Robert Kuhn. ''A Wider View of the Universe: Henry Thoreau's Study of Nature'' (U of Illinois Press, 1997).
* [[Annie Russell Marble|Marble, Annie Russell]]. ''Thoreau: His Home, Friends and Books''. New York: AMS Press. 1969 [1902]
* Myerson, Joel et al. ''The Cambridge Companion to Henry David Thoreau''. Cambridge University Press. 1995
* Nash, Roderick. ''Henry David Thoreau, Philosopher''
* Paolucci, Stefano. [https://www.academia.edu/16692328/The_Foundations_of_Thoreaus_Castles_in_the_Air_ "The Foundations of Thoreau's 'Castles in the Air'"] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210827194255/https://www.academia.edu/16692328/The_Foundations_of_Thoreaus_Castles_in_the_Air_ |date=August 27, 2021 }}, ''Thoreau Society Bulletin'', No. 290 (Summer 2015), 10. (See also the [https://www.academia.edu/25773131/Stefano_Paolucci_The_Foundations_of_Thoreaus_Castles_in_the_Air_Full_Uncensored_Version_ Full Unedited Version] of the same article.)
* Parrington, Vernon. ''[http://xroads.virginia.edu/~HYPER/parrington/vol2/bk03_03_ch03.html Main Current in American Thought] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20060901091713/http://xroads.virginia.edu/~Hyper/Parrington/vol2/bk03_03_ch03.html |date=September 1, 2006 }}''. V 2 online. 1927
* Parrington, Vernon L. [http://thoreau.eserver.org/currents.html ''Henry Thoreau: Transcendental Economist''] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070612042458/http://thoreau.eserver.org/currents.html |date=June 12, 2007 }}
* Petroski, Henry. "H. D. Thoreau, Engineer." ''American Heritage of Invention and Technology'', Vol. 5, No. 2, pp.&nbsp;8–16
* Petrulionis, Sandra Harbert, ed., ''Thoreau in His Own Time: A Biographical Chronicle of His Life, Drawn From Recollections, Interviews, and Memoirs by Family, Friends, and Associates.'' Iowa City: University of Iowa Press, 2012. {{ISBN|1-60938-087-8}}
* Richardson, Robert D. ''Henry Thoreau: A Life of the Mind''. University of California Press Berkeley and Los Angeles. 1986. {{ISBN|0-520-06346-5}}
* {{cite encyclopedia |last=Riggenbach |first=Jeff |title=Thoreau, Henry David (1817–1862) |editor-first=Ronald |editor-last=Hamowy |editor-link=Ronald Hamowy |encyclopedia=The Encyclopedia of Libertarianism |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=yxNgXs3TkJYC |date=2008 |publisher=[[SAGE Publishing|Sage]]; [[Cato Institute]] |location=[[Thousand Oaks, California]] |doi=10.4135/9781412965811.n309 |isbn=978-1412965804 |oclc=750831024 |lccn=2008009151 |pages=506–507 |access-date=June 20, 2015 |archive-date=September 30, 2020 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200930100756/https://books.google.com/books?id=yxNgXs3TkJYC%2F |url-status=live }}
* {{Cite journal|last=Riggenbach|first=Jeff|title=Henry David Thoreau: Founding Father of American Libertarian Thought|journal=Mises Daily|date=July 15, 2010|url=https://mises.org/daily/4562/Henry-David-Thoreau-Founding-Father-of-American-Libertarian-Thought|access-date=September 13, 2014|archive-date=September 14, 2014|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140914000502/https://mises.org/daily/4562/Henry-David-Thoreau-Founding-Father-of-American-Libertarian-Thought|url-status=live}}
* Ridl, Jack. "[http://magazine.scintillapress.com/moose-indian.html Moose. Indian.] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210827194541/https://www.facebook.com/v2.3/plugins/share_button.php?app_id=249643311490&channel=https%3A%2F%2Fstaticxx.facebook.com%2Fx%2Fconnect%2Fxd_arbiter%2F%3Fversion%3D46%23cb%3Df1bcdc517dd912c%26domain%3Dmagazine.scintillapress.com%26is_canvas%3Dfalse%26origin%3Dhttp%253A%252F%252Fmagazine.scintillapress.com%252Ff3686018c8f8d2%26relation%3Dparent.parent&container_width=0&href=http%3A%2F%2Fmagazine.scintillapress.com%2Fmoose-indian.html&layout=button_count&locale=en_US&sdk=joey |date=August 27, 2021 }}" Scintilla (poem on Thoreau's last words)
* Schneider, Richard ''Civilizing Thoreau: Human Ecology and the Emerging Social Sciences in the Major Works'' [[Rochester, New York]]. Camden House. 2016. {{ISBN|978-1-57113-960-3}}
* Smith, David C. "The Transcendental Saunterer: Thoreau and the Search for Self." [[Savannah, Georgia]]: Frederic C. Beil, 1997. {{ISBN|0-913720-74-7}}
* Sullivan, Mark W. "Henry David Thoreau in the American Art of the 1950s." ''The Concord Saunterer: A Journal of Thoreau Studies'', New Series, Vol. 18 (2010), pp.&nbsp;68–89.
* Sullivan, Mark W. ''Picturing Thoreau: Henry David Thoreau in American Visual Culture.'' [[Lanham, Maryland]]: Lexington Books, 2015
* [[Alfred I. Tauber|Tauber, Alfred I]]. ''Henry David Thoreau and the Moral Agency of Knowing''. University of California, Berkeley. 2001. {{ISBN|0-520-23915-6}}
* [http://www.iep.utm.edu/thoreau/ Henry David Thoreau] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160304121233/http://www.iep.utm.edu/thoreau/ |date=March 4, 2016 }}{{nbsp}}– ''[[Internet Encyclopedia of Philosophy]]''
* [http://plato.stanford.edu/entries/thoreau/ Henry David Thoreau] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20101204075542/http://plato.stanford.edu/entries/thoreau/ |date=December 4, 2010 }}{{nbsp}}– ''[[Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy]]''
* Thorson, Robert M. ''The Boatman: Henry David Thoreau's River Years'' (Harvard UP, 2017), on his scientific study of the Concord River in the late 1850s.
* Thorson, Robert M. ''Walden's Shore: Henry David Thoreau and Nineteenth-Century Science'' (2015).
* Thorson, Robert M. ''The Guide to Walden Pond: An Exploration of the History, Nature, Landscape, and Literature of One of America's Most Iconic Places'' (2018).
* {{cite journal|last1=Traub|first1=Courtney|title='First-Rate Fellows': Excavating Thoreau's Radical Egalitarian Reflections in a Late Draft of "Allegash"|journal=The Concord Saunterer: A Journal of Thoreau Studies|date=2015|volume=23|pages=74–96}}
* [[Laura Walls|Walls, Laura Dassow]]. ''Seeing New Worlds: Henry David Thoreau and 19th Century Science''. University of Wisconsin. 1995. {{ISBN|0-299-14744-4}}
* [[Laura Walls|Walls, Laura Dassow]]. ''Henry David Thoreau: A Life''. The University of Chicago Press. 2017. {{ISBN|978-0-226-34469-0}}
{{Refend}}
* [[John William Ward (professor)|Ward, John William]]. 1969 ''Red, White, and Blue: Men, Books, and Ideas in American Culture''. New York: Oxford University Press

==External links==
{{Wikisource author}}
{{Wikiquote}}
{{Commons}}
{{EB1911 Poster|Thoreau, Henry David}}
{{Library resources box|onlinebooks=yes|by=yes}}
* [http://www.thoreausociety.org/ The Thoreau Society]
* [http://www.library.ucsb.edu/thoreau/ The Thoreau Edition]
* [http://www.c-span.org/video/?164015-1/writings-emerson-thoreau "Writings of Emerson and Thoreau"] from [[C-SPAN]]'s ''[[American Writers: A Journey Through History]]''

===Texts===
* {{StandardEbooks|Standard Ebooks URL=https://standardebooks.org/ebooks/henry-david-thoreau}}
* {{Gutenberg author | id=54 | name=Henry David Thoreau}}
* {{FadedPage|id=Thoreau, Henry D.|name=Henry D. Thoreau|author=yes}}
* {{Internet Archive author |sname=Henry David Thoreau}}
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* [https://openlibrary.org/search?q=henry+david+thoreau&author_key=OL19690A Works by Thoreau] at Open Library
* [https://www.poets.org/poetsorg/poems/45769 Poems by Thoreau] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20171019154300/https://www.poets.org/poetsorg/poems/45769 |date=October 19, 2017 }} at the Academy of American Poets
* [http://thoreau.eserver.org/ The Thoreau Reader] by ''[[Thoreau Society|The Thoreau Society]]''
* [https://www.walden.org/thoreau/the-writings-of-henry-david-thoreau-the-digital-collection/ The Writings of Henry David Thoreau] at ''The Walden Woods Project''
* [http://www.concordlibrary.org/scollect/Thoreau_Surveys/Thoreau_Surveys.htm Scans of Thoreau's Land Surveys] at the Concord Free Public Library
* [http://www.thoreau-online.org/ Henry David Thoreau Online]{{nbsp}}– The Works and Life of Henry D. Thoreau

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'{{Short description|American essayist, poet, and philosopher (1817–1862)}} {{redirect|Thoreau}} {{pp-pc1|small=yes}} {{Use mdy dates|date=May 2022}} {{Infobox philosopher |region = [[Western philosophy]] |era = [[19th-century philosophy]] |image = Benjamin D. Maxham - Henry David Thoreau - Restored - greyscale - straightened.jpg |caption = Thoreau in 1856 |name = Henry David Thoreau |birth_name = David Henry Thoreau |birth_date = {{birth date|1817|07|12}} |birth_place = [[Concord, Massachusetts]], U.S. |death_date = {{death date and age|1862|05|06|1817|07|12}} |death_place = Concord, Massachusetts, U.S. |signature = Henry David Thoreau Signature SVG.svg |school_tradition = [[Transcendentalism]]<ref name=":6"/> |alma_mater = [[Harvard College]] |main_interests = {{hlist|[[Ethics]]|[[poetry]]|[[religion]]|[[politics]]|[[biology]]|[[philosophy]]|[[history]]}} |notable_ideas = {{hlist|[[Abolitionism in the United States|Abolitionism]]|[[tax resistance]]|[[development criticism]]|[[civil disobedience]]|[[conscientious objector|conscientious objection]]|[[direct action]]|[[environmentalism]]|[[anarchism]]|[[simple living]]}} |influences = {{hlist|[[Indian philosophy]]|[[Aristotle]]|[[Homer]]|[[Aeschylus]]|[[Pindar]]|[[Cato the Elder]]|[[Étienne de La Boétie]]|[[Ralph Waldo Emerson]]|[[Thomas Carlyle]]|[[Charles Darwin]]|[[Alexander von Humboldt]]<ref>{{cite journal|last=Seelinger|first=Robert A. |title=Stolen Fire: Aeschylean imagery and Thoreau's identification of the Graius homo of Lucretius with Prometheus |journal=Studia Humaniora Tartuensia |volume=14 |year=2013 |pages=1–20 |doi=10.12697/sht.2013.14.A.2 |doi-access=free }}</ref>}} |influenced = {{hlist|[[Mahatma Gandhi]]|[[John F. Kennedy]]|[[Martin Luther King Jr.]]|[[Walt Whitman]]|[[Leo Tolstoy]]|[[Marcel Proust]]|[[W.&nbsp;B. Yeats]]|[[Sinclair Lewis]]|[[Ernest Hemingway]]|[[Upton Sinclair]]|[[Emma Goldman]]|[[E.&nbsp;B. White]]|[[E.&nbsp;O. Wilson]]|[[Christopher McCandless]]|[[B.&nbsp;F. Skinner]]|[[George Bernard Shaw]]|[[John Zerzan]]|[[John Muir]]|[[Glenn Gould]]|[[Stanley Cavell]]|[[John Cage]]|[[Jonas Mekas]]}} }} {{Libertarianism sidebar}} {{Libertarianism in the United States sidebar}} '''Henry David Thoreau''' (July 12, 1817{{snd}}May 6, 1862) was an American naturalist, [[essay]]ist, [[poet]], and [[philosopher]].<ref>{{cite web |title=Henry David Thoreau {{!}} Biography & Works |url=https://www.britannica.com/biography/Henry-David-Thoreau |website=Encyclopedia Britannica |language=en |access-date=July 8, 2019 |archive-date=March 16, 2019 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190316155013/https://www.britannica.com/biography/Henry-David-Thoreau |url-status=live }}</ref> A leading [[Transcendentalism|transcendentalist]],<ref>Howe, Daniel Walker, ''What Hath God Wrought: The Transformation of America, 1815–1848''. {{ISBN|978-0-19-507894-7}}, p. 623.</ref> he is best known for his book ''[[Walden]]'', a reflection upon [[simple living]] in natural surroundings, and his essay "[[Civil Disobedience (Thoreau)|Civil Disobedience]]" (originally published as "Resistance to Civil Government"), an argument for disobedience to an unjust state. Thoreau's books, articles, essays, journals, and poetry amount to more than 20 volumes. Among his lasting contributions are his [[nature writing|writings on natural history]] and philosophy, in which he anticipated the methods and findings of [[ecology]] and [[environmental history]], two sources of modern-day [[environmentalism]]. His [[literary language|literary]] style interweaves close observation of nature, personal experience, pointed rhetoric, [[symbol]]ic meanings, and historical lore, while displaying a poetic sensibility, philosophical [[Asceticism|austerity]], and attention to practical detail.<ref name="ReferenceA">Thoreau, Henry David. ''A Week on the Concord and Merrimack Rivers''&nbsp;/ ''Walden''&nbsp;/ ''The Maine Woods''&nbsp;/ ''Cape Cod''. Library of America. {{ISBN|0-940450-27-5}}.</ref> He was also deeply interested in the idea of survival in the face of hostile elements, historical change, and natural decay; at the same time he advocated abandoning waste and [[illusion]] in order to discover life's true essential needs.<ref name="ReferenceA"/> Thoreau was a lifelong [[Abolitionism in the United States|abolitionist]], delivering lectures that attacked the [[fugitive slave laws|fugitive slave law]] while praising the writings of [[Wendell Phillips]] and defending the abolitionist [[John Brown (abolitionist)|John Brown]]. Thoreau's philosophy of [[civil disobedience]] later influenced the political thoughts and actions of such notable figures as [[Leo Tolstoy]], [[Mahatma Gandhi]], and [[Martin Luther King Jr.]]<ref name=":2"/> Thoreau is sometimes referred to as an [[anarchist]].<ref>Seligman, Edwin Robert Anderson; Johnson, Alvin Saunders, eds. (1937). ''Encyclopaedia of the Social Sciences'', p. 12.</ref><ref>Gross, David, ed. ''The Price of Freedom: Political Philosophy from Thoreau's Journals''. p. 8. {{ISBN|978-1-4348-0552-2}}. "The Thoreau of these journals distrusted doctrine, and, though it is accurate I think to call him an anarchist, he was by no means doctrinaire in this either."</ref> In "Civil Disobedience", Thoreau wrote: "I heartily accept the {{nowrap|motto,—}}'That government is best which governs least;' and I should like to see it acted up to more rapidly and systematically. Carried out, it finally amounts to this, which also I {{nowrap|believe,—}}'That government is best which governs not at all;' and when men are prepared for it, that will be the kind of government which they will have.&nbsp;... But, 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."<ref name="resistance">Thoreau, Henry David (1849). [http://www.sniggle.net/Experiment/index.php?entry=rtcg#p03 "Resistance to Civil Government"] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110605191308/http://www.sniggle.net/Experiment/index.php?entry=rtcg#p03 |date=June 5, 2011 }}. Retrieved October 2, 2020{{snd}}via Sniggle.</ref> ==Pronunciation of his name== [[Amos Bronson Alcott]] and Thoreau's aunt each wrote that "Thoreau" is pronounced like the word ''thorough'' ({{IPAc-en|ˈ|θ|ʌr|oʊ}} {{respell|THURR|oh}}—in [[General American]],<ref>[http://thoreau.eserver.org/pronounce THUR-oh or Thor-OH? And How Do We Know?] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170323203856/http://thoreau.eserver.org/pronounce |date=March 23, 2017 }} ''Thoreau Reader''.</ref><ref>''[https://www.npr.org/programs/morning/features/patc/walden/ Thoreau's Walden] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20131030102741/http://www.npr.org/programs/morning/features/patc/walden/ |date=October 30, 2013 }}'', under the sidebar "Pronouncing Thoreau".</ref> but more precisely {{IPAc-en|ˈ|θ|ɔːr|oʊ}} {{respell|THOR|oh}}—in 19th-century New England). [[Edward Waldo Emerson]] wrote that the name should be pronounced "Thó-row", with the ''h'' sounded and stress on the first syllable.<ref>See the note on pronouncing the name at [http://www.walden.org/Thoreau#Name the Thoreau Institute at Walden Woods] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190727140857/https://www.walden.org/thoreau/#Name |date=July 27, 2019 }}.</ref> Among modern-day American English speakers, it is perhaps more commonly pronounced {{IPAc-en|θ|ə|ˈ|r|oʊ}} {{respell|thə|ROH}}—with stress on the second syllable.<ref>{{cite dictionary|title=Thoreau|dictionary=Dictionary.com|date=2013|url=http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/thoreau|access-date=February 17, 2013|archive-date=August 27, 2021|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210827194246/https://www.dictionary.com/browse/thoreau|url-status=live}}</ref><ref>Wells, J. C. (1990) ''Pronunciation Dictionary'', s.v. "Thoreau". Essex, UK: Longman.</ref> ==Physical appearance== Thoreau had a distinctive appearance, with a nose that he called his "most prominent feature".<ref>{{Cite book|title=Cape Cod|last=Thoreau|first=Henry David|year=1865|chapter=Chapter 10-A. Provincetown|chapter-url=http://thoreau.eserver.org:80/capecd10.html|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170822113030/http://thoreau.eserver.org/capecd10.html|archive-date=August 22, 2017|url-status=dead|access-date=February 13, 2007}}</ref> Of his appearance and disposition, [[Ellery Channing]] wrote:<ref>{{cite web|url=http://thoreau.eserver.org/images.html|title=The Days of Henry Thoreau|author=Harding, Walter|work=thoreau.eserver.org|access-date=February 9, 2015|archive-date=November 14, 2016|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20161114183837/http://thoreau.eserver.org/images.html|url-status=live}}</ref> <blockquote>His face, once seen, could not be forgotten. The features were quite marked: the nose [[Aquiline nose|aquiline]] or very Roman, like one of the portraits of [[Julius Caesar|Caesar]] (more like a beak, as was said); large overhanging brows above the deepest set blue eyes that could be seen, in certain lights, and in others gray,—eyes expressive of all shades of feeling, but never weak or near-sighted; the forehead not unusually broad or high, full of concentrated energy and purpose; the mouth with prominent lips, pursed up with meaning and thought when silent, and giving out when open with the most varied and unusual instructive sayings.</blockquote> ==Life== ===Early life and education, 1817–1837=== [[File:Wheeler-Minot Farmhouse, Concord MA.jpg|thumb|Thoreau's birthplace, the [[Wheeler-Minot Farmhouse]] in [[Concord, Massachusetts]]]] Henry David Thoreau was born David Henry Thoreau<ref>Nelson, Randy F. (1981). ''The Almanac of American Letters''. Los Altos, California: William Kaufmann. p. 51. {{ISBN|0-86576-008-X}}.</ref> in [[Concord, Massachusetts]], into the "modest [[New England]] family"<ref name=McElroy>[[Wendy McElroy|McElroy, Wendy]] (July 30, 2005) [http://archive.lewrockwell.com/mcelroy/mcelroy86.html "Henry David Thoreau and 'Civil Disobedience'"] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150620145129/http://archive.lewrockwell.com/mcelroy/mcelroy86.html |date=June 20, 2015 }}. [[LewRockwell.com]].</ref> of John Thoreau, a pencil maker, and Cynthia Dunbar. His father was of French Protestant descent.<ref>{{Cite book|url=https://www.google.com/books/edition/Henry_David_Thoreau/Uoi8eRYMXV4C?hl=en&gbpv=1&bsq=protestant|isbn = 9780822558934|title = Henry David Thoreau: A Biography|date = December 22, 2006|publisher = Twenty-First Century Books}}</ref> His paternal grandfather had been born on the UK [[crown dependency]] island of [[Jersey]].<ref>{{cite web|url=http://wc.rootsweb.ancestry.com/cgi-bin/igm.cgi?op=GET&db=maold&id=I18020|title=RootsWeb's WorldConnect Project: Ancestors of Mary Ann Gillam and Stephen Old|access-date=September 2, 2008|archive-date=October 16, 2008|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20081016141209/http://wc.rootsweb.ancestry.com/cgi-bin/igm.cgi?op=GET&db=maold&id=I18020|url-status=live}}</ref> His maternal grandfather, Asa Dunbar, led [[Harvard University|Harvard's]] 1766 student "[[Butter rebellion|Butter Rebellion]]",<ref>[https://www.brown.edu/Students/Alpha_Delta_Phi/history/fraternities.php History of the Fraternity System] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090704122642/http://www.brown.edu/Students/Alpha_Delta_Phi/history/fraternities.php |date=July 4, 2009 }}.</ref> the first recorded student protest in the American colonies.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.trivialibrary.com/c/first-student-protest-in-the-united-states.htm|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20191215210840/http://www.trivialibrary.com/c/first-student-protest-in-the-united-states.htm|url-status=dead|archive-date=December 15, 2019|title=First Student Protest in the United States}}</ref> David Henry was named after his recently deceased paternal uncle, David Thoreau. He began to call himself Henry David after he finished college; he never petitioned to make a legal name change.<ref>[http://www.barnesandnoble.com/writers/writerdetails.asp?z=y&cid=1019508#bio Henry David Thoreau] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20061031164847/http://www.barnesandnoble.com/writers/writerdetails.asp?z=y&cid=1019508 |date=October 31, 2006 }}, "Meet the Writers." Barnes & Noble.com</ref> He had two older siblings, Helen and John Jr., and a younger sister, [[Sophia Thoreau]].<ref>[http://www.americanpoems.com/poets/thoreau/ Biography of Henry David Thoreau] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190806235504/https://www.americanpoems.com/poets/thoreau/ |date=August 6, 2019 }}. americanpoems.com</ref> None of the children married.<ref name=":7">{{Cite web |date=2020-09-19 |title=Helen and Sophia Thoreau, Henry David's Amazing Sisters |url=https://www.newenglandhistoricalsociety.com/helen-sophia-thoreau-henrys-amazing-sisters/ |access-date=2022-05-15 |website=New England Historical Society |language=en-US}}</ref> Helen (1812–1849) died at age 37 years,<ref name=":7" /> from tuberculosis. John Jr. (1814–1842) died at age 27,<ref>{{Cite journal |last=Blanding |first=Thomas |date=1980 |title=BEANS, BAKED AND HALF-BAKED (13) |url=https://archive.org/details/concordsaunter1980151unse/page/16/mode/1up |journal=The Concord Saunterer |volume=15 |issue=1 |pages=16–22 |issn=1068-5359}}</ref> of [[tetanus]] after cutting himself while shaving.<ref>{{Cite journal |last=Myerson |first=Joel |date=1994 |title=Barzillai Frost's Funeral Sermon on the Death of John Thoreau Jr. |url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/3817844 |journal=Huntington Library Quarterly |volume=57 |issue=4 |pages=367–376 |doi=10.2307/3817844 |jstor=3817844 |issn=0018-7895}}</ref> Henry David (1817–1862) died at age 44, of tuberculosis.<ref>{{Cite web |title=Thoreau's Life {{!}} The Thoreau Society |url=https://www.thoreausociety.org/life-legacy |access-date=2022-05-16 |website=www.thoreausociety.org}}</ref> Sophia (1819–1876) survived him by 14 years, dying at age 56 years,<ref name=":7" /> of tuberculosis.<ref>{{Cite journal |last=Herrick |first=Gerri L. |date=1978 |title=SOPHIA THOREAU - "Cara Sophia" |url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/23393396 |journal=The Concord Saunterer |volume=13 |issue=3 |pages=5–12 |jstor=23393396 |issn=1068-5359}}</ref> He studied at [[Harvard College]] between 1833 and 1837. He lived in [[Hollis Hall]]<ref>{{Cite web |last=Roman |first=John |date=24 Jun 2021 |title=The Homes of Henry David Thoreau |url=http://www.electrummagazine.com/2021/06/the-homes-of-henry-david-thoreau/?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=the-homes-of-henry-david-thoreau |access-date=16 May 2022 |website=Electrum Magazine}}</ref> and took courses in [[rhetoric]], classics, philosophy, mathematics, and science.<ref>{{Cite web |title=The Writings of Henry D. Thoreau |url=https://thoreau.library.ucsb.edu/thoreau_life.html |access-date=2022-05-16 |website=thoreau.library.ucsb.edu}}</ref> He was a member of the Institute of 1770<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.thoreausociety.org/_membership.htm |title=Organizations Thoreau Joined |publisher=Thoreau Society |access-date=June 26, 2014 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130503192646/http://www.thoreausociety.org/_membership.htm |archive-date=May 3, 2013 }}</ref> (now the [[Hasty Pudding Club]]). According to legend, Thoreau refused to pay the five-dollar fee (approximately {{inflation|US|5|1840|fmt=eq}}) for a Harvard diploma. In fact, the master's degree he declined to purchase had no academic merit: [[Harvard College]] offered it to graduates "who proved their physical worth by being alive three years after graduating, and their saving, earning, or inheriting quality or condition by having Five Dollars to give the college".<ref>"Thoreau's Diploma". ''American Literature''. Vol. 17, May 1945. pp. 174–175.</ref> He commented, "Let every sheep keep its own skin",<ref>{{cite web |author=Walter Harding |url=http://www.walden.org/Institute/thoreau/about2/H/WalterHarding/LiveYourOwnLife.htm |title=Live Your Own Life |work=Geneseo Summer Compass |date=June 4, 1984 |access-date=November 21, 2009 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20060129085602/http://www.walden.org/Institute/thoreau/about2/H/WalterHarding/LiveYourOwnLife.htm |archive-date=January 29, 2006|author-link=Walter Harding }}</ref> a reference to the tradition of using [[Sheepskin (material)|sheepskin]] [[vellum]] for diplomas. [[Wheeler-Minot Farmhouse|Thoreau's birthplace]] still exists on Virginia Road in Concord. The house has been restored by the Thoreau Farm Trust,<ref>{{cite web|title=Thoreau Farm|work=thoreaufarm.org|url=http://thoreaufarm.org/|access-date=April 23, 2013|archive-date=October 30, 2019|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20191030230744/https://thoreaufarm.org/|url-status=live}}</ref> a nonprofit organization, and is now open to the public. ===Return to Concord, 1837–1844=== The traditional professions open to college graduates—law, the church, business, medicine—did not interest Thoreau,<ref name="sattelmeyer">Sattelmeyer, Robert (1988). ''Thoreau's Reading: A Study in Intellectual History with Bibliographical Catalogue''. [http://www.walden.org/Institute/thoreau/about2/S/Sattelmeyer_Robert/Reading2.pdf Chapter 2] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150908031952/http://www.walden.org/Institute/thoreau/about2/S/Sattelmeyer_Robert/Reading2.pdf |date=September 8, 2015 }}. Princeton: Princeton University Press.</ref>{{Rp|25}} so in 1835 he took a leave of absence from Harvard, during which he taught at a school in [[Canton, Massachusetts]], living for two years at an earlier version of today's [[Concord's Colonial Inn|Colonial Inn]] in Concord. His grandfather owned the earliest of the three buildings that were later combined.<ref name=hudson311>''The History of Concord, Massachusetts, Vol. I, Colonial Concord, Volume 1'', Alfred Sereno Hudson (1904), p. 311</ref> After he graduated in 1837, Thoreau joined the faculty of the Concord public school, but he resigned after a few weeks rather than administer [[corporal punishment]].<ref name="sattelmeyer"/>{{Rp|25}} He and his brother John then opened the Concord Academy, a [[grammar school]] in Concord, in 1838.<!-- Concord Academy (1822–1863) is a different institution than Concord Academy (est. 1922). --><ref name="sattelmeyer" />{{Rp|25}} 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 after cutting himself while shaving.<ref>Dean, Bradley P. "[http://thoreau.eserver.org/wfchron.html A Thoreau Chronology] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170620133904/http://thoreau.eserver.org/wfchron.html |date=June 20, 2017 }}".</ref><ref>{{Cite journal|jstor=3817844 |title=Barzillai Frost's Funeral Sermon on the Death of John Thoreau Jr. |journal=Huntington Library Quarterly |volume=57 |issue=4 |pages=367–376 |date=1994 |author=Myerson, Joel|doi=10.2307/3817844 }}</ref> He died in Henry's arms.<ref>Woodlief, Ann. "[http://www.vcu.edu/engweb/transcendentalism/authors/thoreau/ Henry David Thoreau] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20191009005716/https://www.vcu.edu/engweb/transcendentalism/authors/thoreau/ |date=October 9, 2019 }}".</ref> Upon graduation Thoreau returned home to Concord, where he met [[Ralph Waldo Emerson]] through a mutual friend.<ref name=McElroy/> Emerson, who was 14 years his senior, took a paternal and at times patron-like interest in Thoreau, advising the young man and introducing him to a circle of local writers and thinkers, including [[William Ellery Channing (poet)|Ellery Channing]], [[Margaret Fuller]], [[Amos Bronson Alcott|Bronson Alcott]], and [[Nathaniel Hawthorne]] and his son [[Julian Hawthorne]], who was a boy at the time. Emerson urged Thoreau to contribute essays and poems to a quarterly periodical, ''[[The Dial]]'', and lobbied the editor, Margaret Fuller, to publish those writings. Thoreau's first essay published in ''The Dial'' was "Aulus Persius Flaccus",<ref>{{Cite web|url=http://www.walden.org/documents/file/Library/About%20Thoreau/D/Dial/AulusPersiusFlaccus.pdf|title=Aulus Persius Flaccus|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120925021512/http://www.walden.org/documents/file/Library/About%20Thoreau/D/Dial/AulusPersiusFlaccus.pdf|archive-date=September 25, 2012|url-status=dead}}</ref> an essay on the Roman poet and satirist, in July 1840.<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.walden.org/Library/About_Thoreau's_Life_and_Writings:_The_Research_Collections/The_Dial |title=''The Dial'' |publisher=Walden.org |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20151018151944/http://www.walden.org/Library/About_Thoreau%27s_Life_and_Writings%3A_The_Research_Collections/The_Dial |archive-date=October 18, 2015 }}</ref> It consisted of revised passages from his journal, which he had begun keeping at Emerson's suggestion. The first journal entry, on October 22, 1837, reads, "'What are you doing now?' he asked. 'Do you keep a journal?' So I make my first entry to-day."<ref>Thoreau, Henry David (2007). ''I to Myself: An Annotated Selection from the Journal of Henry D. Thoreau''. Jeffrey S. Cramer, ed. New Haven: Yale University Press. p. 1.</ref> Thoreau was a philosopher of nature and its relation to the human condition. In his early years he followed [[transcendentalism]], a loose and eclectic [[Idealism|idealist]] philosophy advocated by Emerson, Fuller, and Alcott. They held that an ideal spiritual state transcends, or goes beyond, the physical and empirical, and that one achieves that insight via personal intuition rather than religious doctrine. In their view, Nature is the outward sign of inward spirit, expressing the "radical correspondence of visible things and human thoughts", as Emerson wrote in ''Nature'' (1836). [[File:Thoreau1967stamp.jpg|thumb|right|1967 U.S. postage stamp honoring Thoreau, designed by [[Leonard Baskin]]]] On April 18, 1841, Thoreau moved into the [[Ralph Waldo Emerson House|Emerson house]].<ref name="Cheever">Cheever, Susan (2006). ''American Bloomsbury: Louisa May Alcott, Ralph Waldo Emerson, Margaret Fuller, Nathaniel Hawthorne, and Henry David Thoreau; Their Lives, Their Loves, Their Work''. Detroit: Thorndike Press. p. 90. {{ISBN|0-7862-9521-X}}.</ref> There, from 1841 to 1844, he served as the children's tutor; he was also an editorial assistant, repairman and gardener. For a few months in 1843, he moved to the home of William Emerson on [[Staten Island]],<ref>{{cite book |title=The Life of Henry David Thoreau |last=Salt |first=H. S. |date=1890 |publisher=Richard Bentley & Son |location=London |url=https://archive.org/details/bub_gb_t_0RAAAAYAAJ |page=[https://archive.org/details/bub_gb_t_0RAAAAYAAJ/page/n83 69]}}</ref> and tutored the family's sons while seeking contacts among literary men and journalists in the city who might help publish his writings, including his future literary representative [[Horace Greeley]].<ref>Sanborn, F. B., ed. (1906). ''The Writings of Henry David Thoreau''. Vol. VI, ''Familiar Letters''. [http://www.walden.org/Institute/thoreau/writings/Writings1906/06FamiliarLetters/Years%20of%20Discipline.pdf Chapter 1, "Years of Discipline"] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150907235501/http://www.walden.org/Institute/thoreau/writings/Writings1906/06FamiliarLetters/Years%20of%20Discipline.pdf |date=September 7, 2015 }}. Boston: Houghton Mifflin.</ref>{{Rp|68}} Thoreau returned to Concord and worked in his family's [[pencil]] factory, which he would continue to do alongside his writing and other work for most of his adult life. He rediscovered the process of making good pencils with inferior [[graphite]] by using clay as the binder.<ref>{{Cite book|url=https://archive.org/details/pencilhistoryofd00petr|url-access=registration|title=The Pencil: A History of Design and Circumstance|last=Petroski|first=Henry|publisher=Knopf|year=1992|isbn=9780679734154|location=New York|pages=[https://archive.org/details/pencilhistoryofd00petr/page/104 104]–125}}</ref> This invention allowed profitable use of a graphite source found in [[New Hampshire]] that had been purchased in 1821 by Thoreau's uncle, Charles Dunbar. The process of mixing graphite and clay, known as the Conté process, had been first patented by [[Nicolas-Jacques Conté]] in 1795. The company's other source of graphite had been [[Tantiusques]], a mine operated by Native Americans in [[Sturbridge, Massachusetts]]. Later, Thoreau converted the pencil factory to produce plumbago, a name for graphite at the time, which was used in the [[electrotyping]] process.<ref>Conrad, Randall. (Fall 2005). [http://thoreau.eserver.org/pencils.html "Machine in the Wetland: Re-imagining Thoreau's Plumbago-Grinder"] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070609102739/http://thoreau.eserver.org/pencils.html |date=June 9, 2007 }}. ''[http://www.thoreausociety.org/_activities_tsb.htm Thoreau Society Bulletin] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20071223191911/http://www.thoreausociety.org/_activities_tsb.htm |date=December 23, 2007 }}'' 253.</ref> Once back in Concord, Thoreau went through a restless period. In April 1844 he and his friend Edward Hoar accidentally set a fire that consumed {{convert|300|acre|ha|-1|abbr=off}} of Walden Woods.<ref>[http://www.calliope.org/thoreau/thorotime.html ''A Chronology of Thoreau's Life, with Events of the Times''] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160213001457/http://www.calliope.org/thoreau/thorotime.html |date=February 13, 2016 }}. The Thoreau Project, Calliope Film Resources. Accessed June 11, 2007.</ref> ==="Civil Disobedience" and the Walden years, 1845–1850=== [[File:Thoreau sites in Walden Pond.svg|thumb|left|Thoreau sites at Walden Pond]] {{blockquote|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 practise 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, "Where I Lived, and What I Lived For", in ''[[Walden]]''<ref>''Grammardog Guide to Walden''. Grammardog. p. 25. {{ISBN|1-60857-084-3}}.</ref>}} Thoreau felt a need to concentrate and work more on his writing. In 1845, Ellery Channing told Thoreau, "Go out upon that, build yourself a hut, & there begin the grand process of devouring yourself alive. I see no other alternative, no other hope for you."{{sfn|Packer|2007|p=[https://books.google.com/books?id=FBHgfLqH_RUC&pg=PA183 183]}} Thus, on July 4, 1845, Thoreau embarked on a two-year experiment in [[simple living]], moving to a small house he had built on land owned by Emerson in a [[secondary forest|second growth forest]] around the shores of [[Walden Pond]]. The house was in "a pretty pasture and woodlot" of {{convert|14|acre|ha|1|abbr=off}} that Emerson had bought,<ref>Richardson. ''Emerson: The Mind on Fire''. p. 399.</ref> {{convert|1+1/2|mi|km|round=0.5|abbr=off|sp=us}} from his family home.<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.google.com/maps/search/concord+mass/@42.449808,-71.342769,15z?dg=dbrw&newdg=1|title=Google Maps|access-date=October 13, 2018|archive-date=January 25, 2020|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200125151513/https://www.google.com/maps/search/concord+mass/@42.449808,-71.342769,15z?dg=dbrw&newdg=1|url-status=live}}</ref> Whilst there, he wrote his only extended piece of literary criticism, "[[Thomas Carlyle and His Works]]".<ref>{{Cite journal |last=Gravett |first=Sharon L. |date=1995 |title=Carlyle's Demanding Companion: Henry David Thoreau |url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/44946086 |journal=Carlyle Studies Annual |publisher=Saint Joseph's University Press |issue=15 |pages=21–31 |jstor=44946086 |url-access=registration |via=JSTOR}}</ref> [[File:Walden Thoreau.jpg|thumb|Original title page of ''Walden'', with an illustration from a drawing by Thoreau's sister Sophia]] On July 24 or July 25, 1846, Thoreau ran into the local [[tax collector]], Sam Staples, who asked him to pay six years of delinquent [[Poll tax (United States)|poll taxes]]. Thoreau refused because of his opposition to the [[Mexican–American War]] and [[Slavery in the United States|slavery]], and he spent a night in jail because of this refusal. The next day Thoreau was freed when someone, likely to have been his aunt, paid the tax, against his wishes.<ref name=":2">Rosenwald, Lawrence. "[http://thoreau.eserver.org/theory.html The Theory, Practice and Influence of Thoreau's Civil Disobedience]". William Cain, ed. (2006). ''A Historical Guide to Henry David Thoreau''. Cambridge: Oxford University Press. {{Webarchive|url=https://archive.today/20131014012153/http://thoreau.eserver.org/theory.html|date=October 14, 2013|title=Archived}}</ref> The experience had a strong impact on Thoreau. In January and February 1848, he delivered lectures on "The Rights and Duties of the Individual in relation to Government",<ref>Thoreau, H. D., letter to Ralph Waldo Emerson, February 23, 1848.</ref> explaining his tax resistance at the [[Concord Lyceum]]. Bronson Alcott attended the lecture, writing in his journal on January 26: {{blockquote|Heard Thoreau's lecture before the Lyceum on the relation of the individual to the State—an admirable statement of the rights of the individual to self-government, and an attentive audience. His allusions to the Mexican War, to Mr. [[Samuel Hoar|Hoar]]'s expulsion from Carolina, his own imprisonment in Concord Jail for refusal to pay his tax, Mr. Hoar's payment of mine when taken to prison for a similar refusal, were all pertinent, well considered, and reasoned. I took great pleasure in this deed of Thoreau's.|Bronson Alcott|''Journals''<ref>Alcott, Bronson (1938). ''Journals''. Boston: Little, Brown.</ref>}} Thoreau revised the lecture into an essay titled "[[Civil Disobedience (Thoreau)|Resistance to Civil Government]]" (also known as "Civil Disobedience"). It was published by [[Elizabeth Peabody]] in the ''Aesthetic Papers'' in May 1849. Thoreau had taken up a version of [[Percy Shelley]]'s principle in the political poem "[[The Mask of Anarchy]]" (1819), which begins with the powerful images of the unjust forms of authority of his time and then imagines the stirrings of a radically new form of social action.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.morrissociety.org/JWMS/SP94.10.4.Nichols.pdf |title=Morrissociety.org |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110105232938/http://www.morrissociety.org/JWMS/SP94.10.4.Nichols.pdf |archive-date=January 5, 2011 }}</ref> At Walden Pond, Thoreau completed a first draft of ''[[A Week on the Concord and Merrimack Rivers]]'', an [[elegy]] to his brother John, describing their trip to the [[White Mountains (New Hampshire)|White Mountains]] in 1839. Thoreau did not find a publisher for the book and instead printed 1,000 copies at his own expense; fewer than 300 were sold.<ref name="Cheever" />{{Rp|234}} He self-published the book on the advice of Emerson, using Emerson's publisher, Munroe, who did little to publicize the book. {{multiple image | align = left | direction = vertical | caption_align = center | width = 225 | image1 = Thoreau's cabin inside.jpg | alt1 = | caption1 = Reconstruction of the interior of Thoreau's cabin | image2 = Replica of Thoreau's cabin near Walden Pond and his statue.jpg | alt2 = | caption2 = Replica of Thoreau's cabin and a statue of him near Walden Pond }} In August 1846, Thoreau briefly left Walden to make a trip to [[Mount Katahdin]] in [[Maine]], a journey later recorded in "Ktaadn", the first part of ''The Maine Woods''. Thoreau left Walden Pond on September 6, 1847.<ref name="Cheever" />{{Rp|244}} At Emerson's request, he immediately moved back to the Emerson house to help Emerson's wife, Lidian, manage the household while her husband was on an extended trip to Europe.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.thoreausociety.org/_news_abouthdt.htm |title=Thoreausociety.org |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20101129085846/http://thoreausociety.org/_news_abouthdt.htm |archive-date=November 29, 2010 }}</ref> Over several years, as he worked to pay off his debts, he continuously revised the manuscript of what he eventually published as ''[[Walden|Walden, or Life in the Woods]]'' in 1854, recounting the two years, two months, and two days he had spent at Walden Pond. The book compresses that time into a single calendar year, using the passage of the four seasons to symbolize human development. Part [[memoir]] and part spiritual quest, ''Walden'' at first won few admirers, but later critics have regarded it as a classic American work that explores natural simplicity, harmony, and beauty as models for just social and cultural conditions. The American poet [[Robert Frost]] wrote of Thoreau, "In one book ... he surpasses everything we have had in America."<ref>Frost, Robert (1968). Letter to Wade Van Dore, June 24, 1922, in ''Twentieth Century Interpretations of Walden''. Richard Ruland, ed. Englewood Cliffs, N.J.: Prentice Hall. p. 8. {{LCCN|6814480}}.</ref> The American author [[John Updike]] said of the book, "A century and a half after its publication, Walden has become such a totem of the back-to-nature, preservationist, anti-business, civil-disobedience mindset, and Thoreau so vivid a protester, so perfect a crank and hermit saint, that the book risks being as revered and unread as the Bible."<ref>Updike, John (2004). "A Sage for All Seasons". [https://www.theguardian.com/books/2004/jun/26/classics ''The Guardian''] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210827194247/https://www.theguardian.com/books/2004/jun/26/classics |date=August 27, 2021 }}.</ref> Thoreau moved out of Emerson's house in July 1848 and stayed at a house on nearby Belknap Street. In 1850, he moved into a house at [[Thoreau-Alcott House|255 Main Street]], where he lived until his death.<ref>Ehrlich, Eugene; Carruth, Gorton (1982). ''The Oxford Illustrated Literary Guide to the United States''. New York: Oxford University Press. p. 45. {{ISBN|0-19-503186-5}}.</ref> In the summer of 1850, Thoreau and Channing journeyed from Boston to [[Montreal]] and [[Quebec City]]. These would be Thoreau's only travels outside the United States.<ref>{{cite journal|last1=Weisman|first1=Adam Paul|title=Postcolonialism in North America: Imaginative Colonization in Henry David Thoreau's "A Yankee in Canada" and Jacques Poulin's "Volkswagen Blues"|journal=The Massachusetts Review|date=Autumn 1995|volume=36|issue=3|pages=478–479}}</ref> It is as a result of this trip that he developed lectures that eventually became ''A Yankee in Canada''. He jested that all he got from this adventure "was a cold".<ref>{{cite book|last1=Thoreau|first1=Henry David|title=A Yankee in Canada|url=https://archive.org/details/yankeeincanada0000thor|url-access=registration|date=1961|publisher=Harvest House|location=Montreal|page=[https://archive.org/details/yankeeincanada0000thor/page/13 13]}}</ref> In fact, this proved an opportunity to contrast American civic spirit and democratic values with a colony apparently ruled by illegitimate religious and military power. Whereas his own country had had its revolution, in Canada history had failed to turn.<ref name="ReferenceB">{{cite journal|last1=Lacroix|first1=Patrick|title=Finding Thoreau in French Canada: The Ideological Legacy of the American Revolution|journal=American Review of Canadian Studies|date=Fall 2017|volume=47|issue=3|pages=266–279|doi=10.1080/02722011.2017.1370719|s2cid=148808283}}</ref> ===Later years, 1851–1862=== [[File:VII. Rowse.jpg|thumb|Thoreau in 1854]] In 1851, Thoreau became increasingly fascinated with [[natural history]] and narratives of travel and expedition. He read avidly on [[botany]] and often wrote observations on this topic into his journal. He admired [[William Bartram]] and [[Charles Darwin]]'s ''[[The Voyage of the Beagle|Voyage of the Beagle]]''. He kept detailed observations on Concord's nature lore, recording everything from how the fruit ripened over time to the fluctuating depths of Walden Pond and the days certain birds migrated. The point of this task was to "anticipate" the seasons of nature, in his word.<ref>[http://www.walden.org/documents/file/Library/Thoreau/writings/correspondence/LettersBlake.pdf#page34 Letters to H.&nbsp;G.&nbsp;O. Blake] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110617003953/http://www.walden.org/documents/file/Library/Thoreau/writings/correspondence/LettersBlake.pdf |date=June 17, 2011 }}. Walden.org</ref><ref>Thoreau, Henry David (1862). "Autumnal Tints". ''The Atlantic Monthly'', October. pp. 385–402. [http://www.walden.org/Institute/thoreau/writings/essays/Thoreau_Autumnal%20Tints.pdf Reprint] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20100307053611/http://www.walden.org/Institute/thoreau/writings/essays/Thoreau_Autumnal%20Tints.pdf |date=March 7, 2010 }}. Retrieved November 21, 2009.</ref> He became a [[Surveying|land surveyor]] and continued to write increasingly detailed observations on the natural history of the town, covering an area of {{convert|26|sqmi|km2|abbr=off|sp=us}}, in his journal, a two-million-word document he kept for 24 years. He also kept a series of notebooks, and these observations became the source of his late writings on natural history, such as "Autumnal Tints", "The Succession of Trees", and "Wild Apples", an essay lamenting the destruction of the local [[wild apple]] species. With the rise of [[environmental history]] and [[ecocriticism]] as academic disciplines, several new readings of Thoreau began to emerge, showing him to have been both a philosopher and an analyst of ecological patterns in fields and woodlots.<ref>{{cite book|last1=Thorson|first1=Robert M.|title=Walden's Shore: Henry David Thoreau and Nineteenth-Century Science|date=December 6, 2013|publisher=Harvard University Press|location=Cambridge, Massachusetts|isbn=978-0674724785}}</ref><ref>{{cite news|last1=Primack|first1=Richard B.|title=Tracking Climate Change with the Help of Henry David Thoreau|url=http://www.elsevier.com/connect/tracking-climate-change-with-the-help-of-henry-david-thoreau|access-date=September 23, 2015|date=June 13, 2013|archive-date=September 23, 2015|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150923155958/http://www.elsevier.com/connect/tracking-climate-change-with-the-help-of-henry-david-thoreau|url-status=live}}</ref> For instance, "The Succession of Forest Trees", shows that he used experimentation and analysis to explain how forests regenerate after fire or human destruction, through the dispersal of seeds by winds or animals. In this lecture, first presented to a cattle show in Concord, and considered his greatest contribution to ecology, Thoreau explained why one species of tree can grow in a place where a different tree did previously. He observed that [[squirrel]]s often carry nuts far from the tree from which they fell to create stashes. These seeds are likely to germinate and grow should the squirrel die or abandon the stash. He credited the squirrel for performing a "great service ... in the economy of the universe."<ref>{{cite book|last1=Worster|first1=Donald|title=Nature's Economy|date=1977|publisher=Cambridge University|location=New York|isbn=0-521-45273-2|pages=69–71}}</ref> [[File:Walden Pond, 2010.jpg|thumb|left|[[Walden Pond]]]] He traveled to [[Canada East]] once, [[Cape Cod]] four times, and Maine three times; these landscapes inspired his "excursion" books, ''[[A Yankee in Canada]]'', ''Cape Cod'', and ''The Maine Woods'', in which travel itineraries frame his thoughts about geography, history and philosophy. Other travels took him southwest to [[Philadelphia]] and New York City in 1854 and west across the [[Great Lakes region (North America)|Great Lakes region]] in 1861, when he visited [[Niagara Falls]], Detroit, Chicago, [[Milwaukee]], [[St. Paul, Minnesota|St. Paul]] and [[Mackinac Island]].<ref>Thoreau, Henry David (1970). ''The Annotated Walden''. Philip Van Doren Stern, ed. pp. 96, 132.</ref> He was provincial in his own travels, but he read widely about travel in other lands. He devoured all the first-hand travel accounts available in his day, at a time when the last unmapped regions of the earth were being explored. He read [[Ferdinand Magellan|Magellan]] and [[James Cook]]; the [[arctic explorer]]s [[John Franklin]], [[Alexander Mackenzie (explorer)|Alexander Mackenzie]] and [[William Parry (explorer)|William Parry]]; [[David Livingstone]] and [[Richard Francis Burton]] on Africa; [[Lewis and Clark]]; and hundreds of lesser-known works by explorers and literate travelers.<ref>Christie, John Aldrich (1965). ''Thoreau as World Traveler''. New York: Columbia University Press.</ref> Astonishing amounts of reading fed his endless curiosity about the peoples, cultures, religions and natural history of the world and left its traces as commentaries in his voluminous journals. He processed everything he read, in the local laboratory of his Concord experience. Among his famous aphorisms is his advice to "live at home like a traveler".<ref>[http://www.walden.org/Library/The_Writings_of_Henry_David_Thoreau:_The_Digital_Collection/Correspondence Letters of H.&nbsp;G.&nbsp;O. Blake] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110617003655/http://www.walden.org/Library/The_Writings_of_Henry_David_Thoreau%3A_The_Digital_Collection/Correspondence |date=June 17, 2011 }} in ''The Writings of Henry David Thoreau: The Digital Collection''.</ref> After [[John Brown's raid on Harpers Ferry]], many prominent voices in the abolitionist movement distanced themselves from Brown or [[Damn with faint praise|damned him with faint praise]]. Thoreau was disgusted by this, and he composed a key speech, ''[[A Plea for Captain John Brown]]'', which was uncompromising in its defense of Brown and his actions. Thoreau's speech proved persuasive: the abolitionist movement began to accept Brown as a martyr, and by the time of the [[American Civil War]] entire armies of the North were [[John Brown's Body|literally singing Brown's praises]]. As a biographer of Brown put it, "If, as Alfred Kazin suggests, without John Brown there would have been no Civil War, we would add that without the Concord Transcendentalists, John Brown would have had little cultural impact."<ref>Reynolds, David S. (2005). ''John Brown, Abolitionist''. Knopf. p. 4.</ref> [[File:Henry David Thoreau - Dunshee ambrotpe 1861.jpg|thumb|left|Thoreau in his second and final photographic sitting, August 1861]] ===Death=== Thoreau contracted [[tuberculosis]] in 1835 and suffered from it sporadically afterwards. In 1860, following a late-night excursion to count the rings of tree stumps during a rainstorm, he became ill with [[bronchitis]].<ref>{{Cite book|last=Richardson|first=Robert D. Jr.|title=Faith in a Seed: The First Publication of Thoreau's Last Manuscript|publisher=Island Press|year=1993|editor-last=Dean|editor-first=Bradley P.|location=Washington, D.C.|pages=17|chapter=Introduction}}</ref><ref>[https://www.walden.org/Library/About_Thoreau's_Life_and_Writings:_The_Research_Collections/Thoreau,_the_Man About Thoreau: Thoreau, the Man] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160620045648/http://www.walden.org/Library/About_Thoreau%27s_Life_and_Writings%3A_The_Research_Collections/Thoreau%2C_the_Man |date=June 20, 2016 }}.</ref><ref>[http://thoreau.eserver.org/wfchron.html Thoreau Chronology] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170620133904/http://thoreau.eserver.org/wfchron.html |date=June 20, 2017 }}.</ref> His health declined, with brief periods of remission, and he eventually became bedridden. Recognizing the terminal nature of his disease, Thoreau spent his last years revising and editing his unpublished works, particularly ''The Maine Woods'' and [[Excursions (anthology)|''Excursions'']], and petitioning publishers to print revised editions of ''A Week'' and ''Walden''. He wrote letters and journal entries until he became too weak to continue. His friends were alarmed at his diminished appearance and were fascinated by his tranquil acceptance of death. When his aunt Louisa asked him in his last weeks if he had made his peace with God, Thoreau responded, "I did not know we had ever quarreled."<ref>{{cite book|first=Simon|last=Critchley|title=The Book of Dead Philosophers|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=ME-6IKs4a2sC&pg=PA181|page=181|location=New York|publisher=Random House|date=2009|isbn=978-0307472632|access-date=June 20, 2015|archive-date=August 27, 2021|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210827194251/https://books.google.com/books?id=ME-6IKs4a2sC&pg=PA181|url-status=live}}</ref> [[File:Grave of Henry David Thoreau.jpeg|thumb|Grave of Thoreau at [[Sleepy Hollow Cemetery (Concord, Massachusetts)|Sleepy Hollow Cemetery]] in Concord]] [[File:David Henry Thoreau.jpg|thumb|Geodetic Marker at Thoreau's gravesite]] Aware he was dying, Thoreau's last words were "Now comes good sailing", followed by two lone words, "moose" and "Indian".<ref>{{cite web|url=http://writersalmanac.publicradio.org/programs/2008/05/05/|title=The Writer's Almanac|publisher=American Public Media|access-date=June 1, 2017|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170708225006/http://writersalmanac.publicradio.org/programs/2008/05/05/|archive-date=July 8, 2017|url-status=dead}}</ref> He died on May 6, 1862, at age 44. [[Amos Bronson Alcott]] planned the service and read selections from Thoreau's works, and Channing presented a hymn.<ref>{{cite book |last=Packer |first=Barbara L. |year=2007 |title=The Transcendentalists |location=Athens, Georgia |publisher=University of Georgia Press |page=272 |isbn=978-0-8203-2958-1}}</ref> Emerson wrote the eulogy spoken at the funeral.<ref>{{cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=NWACAAAAIAAJ&pg=PA239|last= Emerson|first= Ralph Waldo |title=Thoreau|work=The Atlantic|date= August 1862}}</ref> Thoreau was buried in the Dunbar family plot; his remains and those of members of his immediate family were eventually moved to [[Sleepy Hollow Cemetery (Concord, Massachusetts)|Sleepy Hollow Cemetery]] in Concord, Massachusetts. ===Nature and human existence=== {{blockquote|Most of the luxuries and many of the so-called comforts of life are not only not indispensable, but positive hindrances to the elevation of mankind.| Thoreau<ref>''Walden, or Life in the Woods'' (Chapter 1: "Economy")</ref>}} Thoreau was an early advocate of recreational hiking and [[canoeing]], of conserving natural resources on private land, and of preserving wilderness as public land. He was himself a highly skilled canoeist; [[Nathaniel Hawthorne]], after a ride with him, noted that "Mr. Thoreau managed the boat so perfectly, either with two paddles or with one, that it seemed instinct with his own will, and to require no physical effort to guide it."<ref>Nathaniel Hawthorne, Passages From the American Note-Books, entry for September 2, 1842.</ref> He was not a strict vegetarian, though he said he preferred that diet<ref>Brooks, Van Wyck. ''The Flowering of New England''. New York: E. P. Dutton and Company, Inc., 1952. p. 310</ref> and advocated it as a means of self-improvement. He wrote in ''Walden'', "The practical objection to animal food in my case was its uncleanness; and besides, when I had caught and cleaned and cooked and eaten my fish, they seemed not to have fed me essentially. It was insignificant and unnecessary, and cost more than it came to. A little bread or a few potatoes would have done as well, with less trouble and filth."<ref name="Cheever241">Cheever, Susan (2006). ''American Bloomsbury: Louisa May Alcott, Ralph Waldo Emerson, Margaret Fuller, Nathaniel Hawthorne, and Henry David Thoreau; Their Lives, Their Loves, Their Work''. Detroit: Thorndike Press. Large print edition. p. 241. {{ISBN|0-7862-9521-X}}.</ref> [[File:Thoreaus quote near his cabin site, Walden Pond.jpg|thumb|Thoreau's famous quotation, near his cabin site at Walden Pond]] Thoreau neither rejected civilization nor fully embraced wilderness. Instead he sought a middle ground, the [[pastoral]] realm that integrates nature and culture. His philosophy required that he be a didactic arbitrator between the wilderness he based so much on and the spreading mass of humanity in North America. He decried the latter endlessly but felt that a teacher needs to be close to those who needed to hear what he wanted to tell them. The wildness he enjoyed was the nearby swamp or forest, and he preferred "partially cultivated country". His idea of being "far in the recesses of the wilderness" of Maine was to "travel the logger's path and the Indian trail", but he also hiked on pristine land. In the essay "Henry David Thoreau, Philosopher" [[Roderick Nash]] wrote, "Thoreau left Concord in 1846 for the first of three trips to northern Maine. His expectations were high because he hoped to find genuine, primeval America. But contact with real wilderness in Maine affected him far differently than had the idea of wilderness in Concord. Instead of coming out of the woods with a deepened appreciation of the wilds, Thoreau felt a greater respect for civilization and realized the necessity of balance."<ref>Nash, Roderick. ''Wilderness and the American Mind: Henry David Thoreau: Philosopher''.</ref> Of alcohol, Thoreau wrote, "I would fain keep sober always. ... I believe that water is the only drink for a wise man; wine is not so noble a liquor. ... Of all ebriosity, who does not prefer to be intoxicated by the air he breathes?"<ref name="Cheever241" /> ===Sexuality=== Thoreau [[bachelor|never married]] and was childless. In 1840, when he was 23, he proposed to eighteen-year old Ellen Sewall, but she refused him, on the advice of her father.<ref name="Sewall">{{Cite web |url=https://www.americanantiquarian.org/sewall-intro |title=Introduction |last=Knoles |first=Thomas |work=American Antiquarian Society |quote= She was in Watertown when Henry wrote to her with his own proposal, probably in early November [1840]...'I wrote to H. T. that evening. I never felt so badly at sending a letter in my life.' |date=2016 |access-date=December 17, 2021}}</ref> Thoreau's sexuality has long been the subject of speculation, including by his contemporaries. Critics have called him heterosexual, [[Homosexuality|homosexual]], or [[Asexuality|asexual]].<ref name=harding/><ref>{{cite book | url=https://archive.org/details/millennialseduct00quin | url-access=registration | title=Millennial Seduction | publisher=Cornell University Press | author=Quinby, Lee | page=[https://archive.org/details/millennialseduct00quin/page/68 68]| isbn=978-0801486012 | year=1999 }}</ref> There is no evidence to suggest he had physical relations with anyone, man or woman. Some scholars have suggested that homoerotic sentiments run through his writings and concluded that he was homosexual.<ref name=harding>Harding, Walter (1991). "Thoreau's Sexuality". ''Journal of Homosexuality'' 21.3. pp. 23–45.</ref><ref>{{cite book |last=Bronski |first=Michael |title=A Queer History of the United States |publisher=Beacon Press |year=2012 |isbn=978-0807044650 |page=50|title-link=A Queer History of the United States }}</ref><ref>Michael, Warner (1991). "Walden's Erotic Economy" in ''Comparative American Identities: Race, Sex and Nationality in the Modern Text''. Hortense Spillers, ed. New York: Routledge. pp. 157–173.</ref> The elegy "Sympathy" was inspired by the eleven-year-old Edmund Sewall, who had just spent five days in the Thoreau household in 1839.<ref>{{cite document|last=Robbins|first= Paula Ivaska|title=The Natural Thoreau|work= The Gay And Lesbian Review, September–October 2011|id= {{ProQuest|890209875}}}}</ref> One scholar has suggested that he wrote the poem to Edmund because he could not bring himself to write it to Edmund's sister Anna,<ref>Richardson, Robert; Moser, Barry (1986). ''Henry Thoreau: A Life of the Mind''. University of California Press. pp. 58–63.</ref> and another that Thoreau's "emotional experiences with women are memorialized under a camouflage of masculine pronouns",<ref>Canby, Henry Seidel (1939). ''Thoreau''. Houghton Mifflin. p. 117.</ref> but other scholars dismiss this.<ref name=harding /><ref>Katz, Jonathan Ned (1992). ''Gay American History: Lesbians and Gay Men in the USA''. New York: Meridian. pp. 481–492.</ref> It has been argued that the long paean in ''Walden'' to the French-Canadian woodchopper Alek Therien, which includes allusions to [[Achilles and Patroclus]], is an expression of conflicted desire.<ref>López, Robert Oscar (2007). "Thoreau, Homer and Community", in ''Henry David Thoreau''. Harold Bloom, ed. New York: Infobase Publishing. pp. 153–174.</ref> In some of Thoreau's writing there is the sense of a secret self.<ref>Summers, Claude J ''The Gay and Lesbian Literary Heritage'', Routledge, New York, 2002, p. 202</ref> In 1840 he writes in his journal: "My friend is the apology for my life. In him are the spaces which my orbit traverses".<ref>Bergman, David, ed. (2009). ''Gay American Autobiography: Writings From Whitman to Sedaris''. University of Wisconsin Press. p. 10</ref> Thoreau was strongly influenced by the moral reformers of his time, and this may have instilled anxiety and guilt over sexual desire.<ref>Lebeaux, Richard (1984). ''Thoreau's Seasons''. University of Massachusetts Press. p. 386, n. 31.</ref> ===Politics=== {{Green anarchism |expanded=People}} [[File:John Brown - Treason broadside, 1859.png|thumb|left|John Brown "Treason" Broadside, 1859]] Thoreau was fervently against [[Slavery in the United States|slavery]] and actively supported the abolitionist movement.<ref name=":6"/> He participated as a conductor in the [[Underground Railroad]], delivered lectures that attacked the [[Fugitive Slave Law of 1850|Fugitive Slave Law]], and in opposition to the popular opinion of the time, supported radical abolitionist militia leader [[John Brown (abolitionist)|John Brown]] and his party.<ref name=":6">{{cite encyclopedia|last=Furtak|first=Rick|title=Henry David Thoreau|url=http://plato.stanford.edu/entries/thoreau/|encyclopedia=The Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy|access-date=July 27, 2013|archive-date=August 13, 2013|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130813055226/http://plato.stanford.edu/entries/thoreau/|url-status=live}}</ref> Two weeks after the ill-fated [[raid on Harpers Ferry]] and in the weeks leading up to Brown's execution, Thoreau delivered a speech to the citizens of Concord, Massachusetts, in which he compared the American government to [[Pontius Pilate]] and likened Brown's execution to the [[crucifixion of Jesus Christ]]: {{blockquote|Some eighteen hundred years ago Christ was crucified; this morning, perchance, Captain Brown was hung. These are the two ends of a chain which is not without its links. He is not Old Brown any longer; he is an angel of light.<ref name="ReferenceA" />}} In ''[[The Last Days of John Brown]]'', Thoreau described the words and deeds of John Brown as noble and an example of heroism.<ref name=":1">[http://www.walden.org/Library/The_Writings_of_Henry_David_Thoreau:_The_Digital_Collection/Essays The Last Days of John Brown] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20101222023007/http://www.walden.org/Library/The_Writings_of_Henry_David_Thoreau%3A_The_Digital_Collection/Essays |date=December 22, 2010 }} from the Writings of Henry David Thoreau: The Digital Collection</ref> In addition, he lamented the newspaper editors who dismissed Brown and his scheme as "crazy".<ref name=":1"/> Thoreau was a proponent of [[limited government]] and [[individualism]]. Although he was hopeful that mankind could potentially have, through self-betterment, the kind of government which "governs not at all", he distanced himself from contemporary "no-government men" ([[anarchists]]), writing: "I ask for, not at once no government, but at once a better government."<ref name="resistance" /> Thoreau deemed the evolution from [[absolute monarchy]] to [[limited monarchy]] to [[democracy]] as "a progress toward true respect for the individual" and theorized about further improvements "towards recognizing and organizing the rights of man".<ref name="resistance" /> Echoing this belief, he went on to write: "There will never be a really free and enlightened State until the State comes to recognize the individual as a higher and independent power, from which all its power and authority are derived, and treats him accordingly."<ref name="resistance" /> It is on this basis that Thoreau could so strongly inveigh against the British administration and [[Catholicism]] in ''A Yankee in Canada''. Despotic authority, Thoreau argued, had crushed the people's sense of ingenuity and enterprise; the Canadian ''habitants'' had been reduced, in his view, to a perpetual childlike state. Ignoring the recent rebellions, he argued that there would be no revolution in the St. Lawrence River valley.<ref name="ReferenceB"/><ref>{{cite book|last1=Thoreau|first1=Henry David|title=A Yankee in Canada|url=https://archive.org/details/yankeeincanada0000thor|url-access=registration|date=1961|publisher=Harvest House|location=Montreal|pages=[https://archive.org/details/yankeeincanada0000thor/page/105 105–107]}}</ref> Although Thoreau believed resistance to unjustly exercised authority could be both violent (exemplified in his support for John Brown) and nonviolent (his own example of [[tax resistance]] displayed in ''Resistance to Civil Government''), he regarded [[Pacifism|pacifist]] [[nonresistance]] as temptation to passivity,<ref name=":4">[http://www.walden.org/Library/The_Writings_of_Henry_David_Thoreau:_The_Digital_Collection/Essays The Service] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20101222023007/http://www.walden.org/Library/The_Writings_of_Henry_David_Thoreau%3A_The_Digital_Collection/Essays |date=December 22, 2010 }} from the Writings of Henry David Thoreau: The Digital Collection</ref> writing: "Let not our Peace be proclaimed by the rust on our swords, or our inability to draw them from their scabbards; but let her at least have so much work on her hands as to keep those swords bright and sharp."<ref name=":4"/> Furthermore, in a formal lyceum debate in 1841, he debated the subject "Is it ever proper to offer forcible resistance?", arguing the affirmative.<ref>[http://thoreau.eserver.org/mjf/MJF1.html Transcendental Ethos] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130919100132/http://thoreau.eserver.org/MJF/MJF1.html |date=September 19, 2013 }} from The Thoreau Reader</ref> Likewise, his condemnation of the [[Mexican–American War]] did not stem from pacifism, but rather because he considered Mexico "unjustly overrun and conquered by a foreign army" as a means to expand the slave territory.<ref name=":5" /> Thoreau was [[ambivalence|ambivalent]] towards [[industrialization]] and [[capitalism]]. On one hand he regarded commerce as "unexpectedly confident and serene, adventurous, and unwearied"<ref name="ReferenceA" /> and expressed admiration for its associated [[cosmopolitanism]], writing: {{blockquote|I am refreshed and expanded when the freight train rattles past me, and I smell the stores which go dispensing their odors all the way from Long Wharf to Lake Champlain, reminding me of foreign parts, of coral reefs, and Indian oceans, and tropical climes, and the extent of the globe. I feel more like a citizen of the world at the sight of the palm-leaf which will cover so many flaxen New England heads the next summer.<ref name="ReferenceA" />}} On the other hand, he wrote disparagingly of the factory system: {{blockquote|I cannot believe that our factory system is the best mode by which men may get clothing. The condition of the operatives is becoming every day more like that of the English; and it cannot be wondered at, since, as far as I have heard or observed, the principal object is, not that mankind may be well and honestly clad, but, unquestionably, that the corporations may be enriched.<ref name="ReferenceA" />}} Thoreau also favored [[bioregionalism]], the protection of animals and wild areas, [[free trade]], and taxation for schools and highways.<ref name=":6"/> He disapproved of the subjugation of Native Americans, slavery, [[technological utopianism]], [[consumerism]], [[philistinism]], mass entertainment, and frivolous applications of technology.<ref name=":6"/> ===Intellectual interests, influences, and affinities=== ====Indian sacred texts and philosophy==== Thoreau was influenced by [[Hindu texts|Indian spiritual thought]]. In ''Walden'', there are many overt references to the sacred texts of India. For example, in the first chapter ("Economy"), he writes: "How much more admirable the [[Bhagvat-geeta|Bhagvat-Geeta]] than all the ruins of the East!"<ref name="ReferenceA" /> ''American Philosophy: An Encyclopedia'' classes him as one of several figures who "took a more [[Pantheism|pantheist]] or [[Pandeism|pandeist]] approach by rejecting views of God as separate from the world",<ref>{{Cite book |title = American Philosophy: An Encyclopedia |author = [[John Lachs]] and [[Robert Talisse]] |date = 2007 |isbn = 978-0415939263 |page = 310 }}</ref> also a characteristic of Hinduism. Furthermore, in "The Pond in Winter", he equates Walden Pond with the sacred [[Ganges in Hinduism|Ganges river]], writing: {{blockquote|In the morning I bathe my intellect in the stupendous and cosmogonal philosophy of the Bhagvat Geeta since whose composition years of the gods have elapsed, and in comparison with which our modern world and its literature seem puny and trivial; and I doubt if that philosophy is not to be referred to a previous state of existence, so remote is its sublimity from our conceptions. I lay down the book and go to my well for water, and lo! there I meet the servant of the Brahmin, priest of Brahma and Vishnu and Indra, who still sits in his temple on the Ganges reading the Vedas, or dwells at the root of a tree with his crust and water jug. I meet his servant come to draw water for his master, and our buckets as it were grate together in the same well. The pure Walden water is mingled with the [[Sacred waters|sacred water]] of the Ganges.<ref name="ReferenceA" />}} Thoreau was aware his Ganges imagery could have been factual. He wrote about ice harvesting at Walden Pond. And he knew that New England's [[Ice trade|ice merchants]] were shipping ice to foreign ports, including [[Calcutta]].<ref>{{Cite journal|last=Dickason|first=David G.|date=1991|title=The Nineteenth-Century Indo-American Ice Trade: An Hyperborean Epic|url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/312669|journal=Modern Asian Studies|volume=25|issue=1|pages=53–89|doi=10.1017/S0026749X00015845|jstor=312669|s2cid=144932927|issn=0026-749X|via=JSTOR|access-date=April 18, 2021|archive-date=April 18, 2021|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210418213408/https://www.jstor.org/stable/312669|url-status=live}}</ref> Additionally, Thoreau followed various [[Hinduism|Hindu]] customs, including a diet largely consisting of rice ("It was fit that I should live on rice, mainly, who loved so well the philosophy of India."<ref name="ReferenceA" />), [[flute playing]] (reminiscent of the favorite musical pastime of [[Krishna]]),<ref>{{Cite web|last=|first=|last2=|last3=|first3=|date=July 12, 2020|title=Simplicity Day 2020: How Bhagavad Gita inspired American philosopher Henry David Thoreau|url=https://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/india/simplicity-day-2020-how-bhagwat-geeta-inspired-american-philosopher-henry-david-thoreau/articleshow/76918441.cms|url-status=live|access-date=April 18, 2021|website=Times of India|language=en|archive-date=April 18, 2021|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210418213408/https://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/india/simplicity-day-2020-how-bhagwat-geeta-inspired-american-philosopher-henry-david-thoreau/articleshow/76918441.cms}}</ref> and [[yoga]].<ref>{{Cite journal|last=Davis|first=Richard H.|date=January 2018|title=Henry David Thoreau, Yogi|url=https://doi.org/10.1215/0961754X-4253822|journal=Common Knowledge|volume=24|issue=1|pages=56–89|doi=10.1215/0961754X-4253822|issn=0961-754X|via=Duke University Press}}</ref> In an 1849 letter to his friend H.G.O. Blake, he wrote about yoga and its meaning to him: {{blockquote|Free in this world as the birds in the air, disengaged from every kind of chains, those who practice yoga gather in Brahma the certain fruits of their works. Depend upon it that, rude and careless as I am, I would fain practice the yoga faithfully. The yogi, absorbed in contemplation, contributes in his degree to creation; he breathes a divine perfume, he hears wonderful things. Divine forms traverse him without tearing him, and united to the nature which is proper to him, he goes, he acts as animating original matter. To some extent, and at rare intervals, even I am a yogi.<ref>Miller, Barbara S. "Why Did Henry David Thoreau Take the Bhagavad-Gita to Walden Pond?" ''Parabola'' 12.1 (Spring 1986): 58–63.</ref>}} ====Biology==== [[File:Eggs BSNH 1930.png|thumb|right|Bird eggs found by Thoreau and given to the [[Boston Society of Natural History]]. Those in the nest are of [[yellow warbler]], the other two of [[red-tailed hawk]].]] Thoreau read contemporary works in the new science of biology, including the works of [[Alexander von Humboldt]], [[Charles Darwin]], and [[Asa Gray]] (Charles Darwin's staunchest American ally).<ref name=":0" /> Thoreau was deeply influenced by Humboldt, especially his work [[Cosmos (Humboldt book)|''Cosmos'']].<ref>Wulf, Andrea. ''The Invention of Nature: Alexander Humboldt's New World''. New York: Alfred A. Knopf 2015, p. 250.</ref> In 1859, Thoreau purchased and read Darwin's ''[[On the Origin of Species]]''. Unlike many natural historians at the time, including [[Louis Agassiz]] who publicly opposed Darwinism in favor of a static view of nature, Thoreau was immediately enthusiastic about the theory of [[evolution by natural selection]] and endorsed it,<ref>Cain, William E. ''A Historical Guide to Henry David Thoreau''. {{ISBN|0195138635}}, p. 146.</ref> stating: {{blockquote|1=The development theory implies a greater vital force in Nature, because it is more flexible and accommodating, and equivalent to a sort of constant new creation. (A quote from ''On the Origin of Species'' follows this sentence.)<ref name=":0">Berger, Michael Benjamin. ''Thoreau's Late Career and The Dispersion of Seeds: The Saunterer's Synoptic Vision''. {{ISBN|157113168X}}, p. 52.</ref>}} ==Influence== [[File:ThoreauBust.jpg|thumb|right|A [[Bust (sculpture)|bust]] of Thoreau from the [[Hall of Fame for Great Americans]] at the [[Bronx Community College]]]] {{blockquote|text=Thoreau's careful observations and devastating conclusions have rippled into time, becoming stronger as the weaknesses Thoreau noted have become more pronounced ... Events that seem to be completely unrelated to his stay at Walden Pond have been influenced by it, including the national park system, the British labor movement, the creation of India, the civil rights movement, the hippie revolution, the environmental movement, and the wilderness movement. Today, Thoreau's words are quoted with feeling by liberals, socialists, anarchists, libertarians, and conservatives alike.|sign=Ken Kifer|source=''Analysis and Notes on Walden: Henry Thoreau's Text with Adjacent Thoreauvian Commentary''<ref>[http://www.kenkifer.com/Thoreau/ Analysis and Notes on Walden: Henry Thoreau's Text with Adjacent Thoreauvian Commentary] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20060318110150/http://www.kenkifer.com/Thoreau/ |date=March 18, 2006 }} by Ken Kifer, 2002</ref>}} Thoreau's political writings had little impact during his lifetime, as "his contemporaries did not see him as a theorist or as a radical", viewing him instead as a naturalist. They either dismissed or ignored his political essays, including ''Civil Disobedience''. The only two complete books (as opposed to essays) published in his lifetime, ''Walden'' and ''A Week on the Concord and Merrimack Rivers'' (1849), both dealt with nature, in which he "loved to wander".<ref name=McElroy/> His obituary was lumped in with others rather than as a separate article in an 1862 yearbook.<ref>{{cite book|title=Appletons' annual cyclopaedia and register of important events of the year: 1862|date=1863|publisher=D. Appleton & Company|location=New York|page=666|url=https://archive.org/stream/1862appletonsan02newyuoft#page/n673/mode/1up}}</ref> Nevertheless, Thoreau's writings went on to influence many public figures. Political leaders and reformers like [[Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi|Mohandas Gandhi]], U.S. President [[John F. Kennedy]], American civil rights activist [[Martin Luther King Jr.]], U.S. Supreme Court Justice [[William O. Douglas]], and [[Russian (citizen)|Russian]] author [[Leo Tolstoy]] all spoke of being strongly affected by Thoreau's work, particularly ''Civil Disobedience'', as did "[[Right-wing politics|right-wing]] theorist [[Frank Chodorov]] [who] devoted an entire issue of his monthly, ''Analysis'', to an appreciation of Thoreau".<ref name=Rothbard>[[Murray Rothbard|Rothbard, Murray]]. [http://archive.lewrockwell.com/rothbard/rothbard77.html Confessions of a Right-Wing Liberal] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150618045209/http://archive.lewrockwell.com/rothbard/rothbard77.html |date=June 18, 2015 }}, ''[[Ramparts (magazine)|Ramparts]]'', VI, 4, June 15, 1968</ref> Thoreau also influenced many artists and authors including [[Edward Abbey]], [[Willa Cather]], [[Marcel Proust]], [[William Butler Yeats]], [[Sinclair Lewis]], [[Ernest Hemingway]], [[Upton Sinclair]],<ref>Maynard, W. Barksdale, ''Walden Pond: A History''. Oxford University Press, 2005. p. 265</ref> [[E. B. White]], [[Lewis Mumford]],<ref>Mumford, Lewis, ''The Golden Day: A Study in American Experience and Culture''. Boni and Liveright, 1926. pp. 56–59,</ref> [[Frank Lloyd Wright]], [[Alexander Posey]],<ref>Posey, Alexander. ''Lost Creeks: Collected Journals''. (Edited by Matthew Wynn Sivils) University of Nebraska Press, 2009. p. 38</ref> and [[Gustav Stickley]].<ref>Saunders, Barry. ''A Complex Fate: Gustav Stickley and the Craftsman Movement''. Preservation Press, 1996. p. 4</ref> Thoreau also influenced naturalists like [[John Burroughs]], [[John Muir]], [[E. O. Wilson]], [[Edwin Way Teale]], [[Joseph Wood Krutch]], [[B. F. Skinner]], [[David Brower]], and [[Loren Eiseley]], whom ''Publishers Weekly'' called "the modern Thoreau".<ref>Kifer, Ken ''[http://www.kenkifer.com/Thoreau/ Analysis and Notes on Walden: Henry Thoreau's Text with Adjacent Thoreauvian Commentary] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20060318110150/http://www.kenkifer.com/Thoreau/ |date=March 18, 2006 }}''</ref> Thoreau's friend [[William Ellery Channing (poet)|William Ellery Channing]] published his first biography, ''Thoreau the Poet-Naturalist'', in 1873.<ref>{{Cite book|last1=Channing|first1=William Ellery|url=http://archive.org/details/poetnatthoreau00chanrich|title=Thoreau, the poet-naturalist, with Memorial verses|last2=Merrymount Press|last3=Sanborn|first3=F. B. (Franklin Benjamin)|last4=Updike|first4=Daniel Berkeley|date=1902|publisher=Boston, C. E. Goodspeed|others=University of California Libraries}}</ref> English writer [[Henry Stephens Salt]] wrote a biography of Thoreau in 1890, which popularized Thoreau's ideas in Britain: [[George Bernard Shaw]], [[Edward Carpenter]], and [[Robert Blatchford]] were among those who became Thoreau enthusiasts as a result of Salt's advocacy.<ref>Hendrick, George and Oehlschlaeger, Fritz (eds.) ''Toward the Making of Thoreau's Modern Reputation'', University of Illinois Press, 1979.</ref> Mohandas Gandhi first read ''Walden'' in 1906 while working as a civil rights activist in [[Johannesburg]], South Africa. He first read ''Civil Disobedience'' "while he sat in a South African prison for the crime of nonviolently protesting discrimination against the Indian population in the [[Transvaal Colony|Transvaal]]. The essay galvanized Gandhi, who wrote and published a synopsis of Thoreau's argument, calling its 'incisive logic ... unanswerable' and referring to Thoreau as 'one of the greatest and most moral men America has produced'."<ref>[[Wendy McElroy|McElroy, Wendy]] (May 4, 2011) [https://mises.org/daily/5250/Here-the-State-Is-Nowhere-to-Be-Seen Here, the State Is Nowhere to Be Seen] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140913214409/http://mises.org/daily/5250/Here-the-State-Is-Nowhere-to-Be-Seen |date=September 13, 2014 }}, [[Mises Institute]]</ref><ref>"Although he was practicing civil disobedience before he read Thoreau's essay, Gandhi was quick to point out the debt he owed to Thoreau and other thinkers like him".Shawn Chandler Bingham, ''Thoreau and the sociological imagination : the wilds of society''. Lanham, Md. : Rowman and Littlefield Publishers, 2008. {{ISBN|978-0742560581}} p. 31.</ref> He told American reporter [[Webb Miller (journalist)|Webb Miller]], "[Thoreau's] ideas influenced me greatly. I adopted some of them and recommended the study of Thoreau to all of my friends who were helping me in the cause of Indian Independence. Why I actually took the name of my movement from Thoreau's essay 'On the Duty of Civil Disobedience', written about 80&nbsp;years ago."<ref>Miller, Webb. I Found No Peace. Garden City, 1938. 238–239</ref> [[Martin Luther King Jr.]] noted in his autobiography that his first encounter with the idea of nonviolent resistance was reading "On Civil Disobedience" in 1944 while attending [[Morehouse College]]. He wrote in his autobiography that it was, <blockquote>Here, in this courageous New Englander's refusal to pay his taxes and his choice of jail rather than support a war that would spread slavery's territory into Mexico, I made my first contact with the theory of nonviolent resistance. Fascinated by the idea of refusing to cooperate with an evil system, I was so deeply moved that I reread the work several times. I became convinced that noncooperation with evil is as much a moral obligation as is cooperation with good. No other person has been more eloquent and passionate in getting this idea across than Henry David Thoreau. As a result of his writings and personal witness, we are the heirs of a legacy of creative protest. The teachings of Thoreau came alive in our civil rights movement; indeed, they are more alive than ever before. Whether expressed in a sit-in at lunch counters, a freedom ride into Mississippi, a peaceful protest in Albany, Georgia, a bus boycott in Montgomery, Alabama, these are outgrowths of Thoreau's insistence that evil must be resisted and that no moral man can patiently adjust to injustice.<ref>King, M.L. ''[http://www.stanford.edu/group/King//publications/autobiography/chp_2.htm Autobiography of Martin Luther King, Jr.] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070308023614/http://www.stanford.edu/group/King/publications/autobiography/chp_2.htm |date=March 8, 2007 }}'' chapter two</ref></blockquote> American psychologist B. F. Skinner wrote that he carried a copy of Thoreau's ''Walden'' with him in his youth.<ref>Skinner, B. F., ''A Matter of Consequences''</ref> In 1945 he wrote ''[[Walden Two]]'', a fictional utopia about 1,000 members of a community living together inspired by the life of Thoreau.<ref>Skinner, B. F., ''Walden Two'' (1948)</ref> Thoreau and his fellow [[Transcendentalists]] from [[Concord, Massachusetts|Concord]] were a major inspiration of the composer [[Charles Ives]]. The 4th movement of the [[Concord Sonata]] for piano (with a part for flute, Thoreau's instrument) is a character picture, and he also set Thoreau's words.<ref>Burkholder, James Peter. ''Charles Ives and His World.'' Princeton University Press, 1996 (pp. 50–51)</ref> Actor [[Ron Thompson (actor)|Ron Thompson]] did a dramatic portrayal of Henry David Thoreau on the 1976 [[NBC]] television series ''[[The Rebels (TV series)|The Rebels]]''.<ref>{{cite web|title=Tele-Vues, Sunday, June 6, 1976|date=June 6, 1976|work=[[Independent Press-Telegram]]|location=[[Long Beach, California]]|page=170|url=https://www.newspapers.com/newspage/30664120/|access-date=October 27, 2015|archive-date=November 5, 2018|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20181105214432/https://www.newspapers.com/newspage/30664120/|url-status=live}}</ref><ref>{{cite web|date=June 5, 1976|work=[[Redlands Daily Facts]]|title=TV Log|location=[[Redlands, California]]|page=10|url=https://www.newspapers.com/newspage/15447614/|access-date=October 27, 2015|archive-date=September 29, 2015|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150929050424/http://www.newspapers.com/newspage/15447614/|url-status=live}}</ref><ref>{{cite video|work=[[NBC]]|url=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3FdGBFTxkHY |archive-url=https://ghostarchive.org/varchive/youtube/20211211/3FdGBFTxkHY| archive-date=December 11, 2021 |url-status=live|title=Actor Ron Thompson as Henry David Thoreau in The Rebels|date=June 6, 1976}}{{cbignore}}</ref> Thoreau's ideas have impacted and resonated with various strains in the [[Anarchism|anarchist]] movement, with [[Emma Goldman]] referring to him as "the greatest American anarchist".<ref>{{cite book|author=Goldman, Emma|url=https://archive.org/details/bub_gb_U5ZYAAAAMAAJ|title=Anarchism and Other Essays|publisher=Mother Earth Publishing Association|page=[https://archive.org/details/bub_gb_U5ZYAAAAMAAJ/page/n67 62]|year=1917|author-link = Emma Goldman}}</ref> [[Green anarchism]] and [[anarcho-primitivism]] in particular have both derived inspiration and ecological points-of-view from the writings of Thoreau. [[John Zerzan]] included Thoreau's text "Excursions" (1863) in his edited compilation of works in the anarcho-primitivist tradition titled ''Against civilization: Readings and reflections''.<ref>{{cite book|url=https://www.amazon.fr/dp/toc/0922915989|title=Against Civilization: Readings And Reflections|first=John|last=Zerzan|via=Amazon|access-date=December 13, 2017|archive-date=August 7, 2020|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200807043841/https://www.amazon.fr/dp/toc/0922915989|url-status=live}}</ref> Additionally, [[Murray Rothbard]], the founder of [[anarcho-capitalism]], has opined that Thoreau was one of the "great intellectual heroes" of his movement.<ref name="Rothbard" /> Thoreau was also an important influence on late-19th-century [[anarchist]] [[naturist|naturism]].<ref name="naturismolibertario">{{Cite web|url=http://www.soliobrera.org/pdefs/cuaderno4.pdf#search=%22Antonia%20Maym%C3%B3n%22|archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20160102181805/http://www.soliobrera.org/pdefs/cuaderno4.pdf|url-status=dead|title=El naturismo libertario en la Península Ibérica (1890–1939) by Jose Maria Rosello|archivedate=January 2, 2016}}</ref><ref name="ortega">{{cite web|url=https://www.naturismo.org/adn/ediciones/2003/invierno/7e.html|title=Anarchism, Nudism, Naturism|first=Carlos|last=Ortega|access-date=July 20, 2018|archive-date=September 9, 2020|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200909150845/https://www.naturismo.org/adn/ediciones/2003/invierno/7e.html|url-status=live}}</ref> Globally, Thoreau's concepts also held importance within [[individualist anarchist]] circles<ref name="spanishind">{{Cite web|url=http://www.acracia.org/xdiez.html|archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20060526224800/http://www.acracia.org/xdiez.html|url-status=dead|title="La insumisión voluntaria. El anarquismo individualista Español durante la dictadura y la segunda República (1923–1938)" by Xavier Diez|archivedate=May 26, 2006}}</ref><ref name="aujourdhui">"Les anarchistes individualistes du début du siècle l'avaient bien compris, et intégraient le naturisme dans leurs préoccupations. Il est vraiment dommage que ce discours se soit peu à peu effacé, d'antan plus que nous assistons, en ce moment, à un retour en force du puritanisme (conservateur par essence)."[http://ytak.club.fr/natytak.html "Anarchisme et naturisme, aujourd'hui." by Cathy Ytak] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090225212442/http://ytak.club.fr/natytak.html |date=February 25, 2009 }}</ref> in Spain,<ref name="naturismolibertario" /><ref name="ortega" /><ref name="spanishind" /> France,<ref name="spanishind" /><ref name="france">[http://ytak.club.fr/natbiblioarmand.html Recension des articles de l'En-Dehors consacrés au naturisme et au nudisme] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20081014165702/http://ytak.club.fr/natbiblioarmand.html |date=October 14, 2008 }}</ref> and Portugal.<ref name="portugal">Freire, João. "Anarchisme et naturisme au Portugal, dans les années 1920" in ''Les anarchistes du Portugal''. [Bibliographic data necessary for this ref.]</ref> For the 200th anniversary of his birth, publishers released several new editions of his work: a recreation of ''Walden''{{'s}} 1902 edition with illustrations, a picture book with excerpts from ''Walden'', and an annotated collection of Thoreau's essays on slavery.<ref>{{Cite news |last1=Williams |first1=John |title=Alcoholism in America |work=[[The New York Times]] |date=July 7, 2017 |url=https://www.nytimes.com/2017/07/07/books/review/alcoholism-in-america.html |issn=0362-4331 |access-date=August 23, 2017 |archive-date=August 4, 2017 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170804204030/https://www.nytimes.com/2017/07/07/books/review/alcoholism-in-america.html |url-status=live }}</ref> The United States Postal Service issued a commemorative stamp honoring Thoreau on May 23, 2017, in Concord, MA.<ref>{{cite web|url=https://stamps.org/US-New-Issues-2017|title=American Philatelic Society|website=stamps.org|access-date=August 10, 2018|archive-date=August 6, 2018|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180806210814/https://stamps.org/US-New-Issues-2017|url-status=live}}</ref> ===Adaptations=== In 2017, ''[[Walden, a Game]]'' was released on itch.io. Created by [[Tracy Fullerton]], it is an open world, first person videogame adaptation of Thoreau's ''[[Walden]]''. Players can build the protagonist's cabin, explore the environment, record flora and fauna, farm the land, visit Emerson's house and the town of Concord. At the end of each day players are invited to reflect on their journal which gradually fills up with reflections based on the player's journey and day-to-day experiences. The game also includes letters between Thoreau and his contemporaries, including Amos Bronson Alcott and Ralph Waldo Emerson. It also includes letters between his contemporaries to build a picture of Thoreau's reception as a writer and his connections in the literary and Transcendentalist scene in America at the time. The game was released for PlayStation 4 in 2018. ==Criticism== Although his writings would receive widespread acclaim, Thoreau's ideas were not universally applauded. Scottish author [[Robert Louis Stevenson]] criticized Thoreau as a "skulker," saying "He did not wish virtue to go out of him among his fellow-men, but slunk into a corner to hoard it for himself."<ref name="RLS">{{Cite web |url=http://thoreau.eserver.org/stevens1.html |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20061012063926/http://thoreau.eserver.org/stevens1.html |archive-date=October 12, 2006 |title=Henry David Thoreau: His Character and Opinions |author=Stevenson, Robert Louis |work=Cornhill Magazine |quote=Now Thoreau's content and ecstasy in living was, we may say, like a plant that he had watered and tended with womanish solicitude; for there is apt to be something unmanly, something almost dastardly, in a life that does not move with dash and freedom, and that fears the bracing contact of the world. In one word, Thoreau was a skulker |date=1880 |access-date=December 3, 2021}}</ref> [[Nathaniel Hawthorne]] had mixed feelings about Thoreau. He noted that "He is a keen and delicate observer of nature—a genuine observer—which, I suspect, is almost as rare a character as even an original poet; and Nature, in return for his love, seems to adopt him as her especial child, and shows him secrets which few others are allowed to witness."<ref>Nathaniel Hawthorne, ''Passages From the American Note-Books'', entry for September 2, 1842.</ref> On the other hand, he also wrote that Thoreau "repudiated all regular modes of getting a living, and seems inclined to lead a sort of Indian life among civilized men".<ref>Hawthorne, ''The Heart of Hawthorne's Journals'', p. 106.</ref><ref>Borst, Raymond R. ''The Thoreau Log: A Documentary Life of Henry David Thoreau, 1817–1862.'' New York: G.K. Hall, 1992.</ref> In a similar vein, poet [[John Greenleaf Whittier]] detested what he deemed to be the "wicked" and "heathenish" message of ''Walden'', claiming that Thoreau wanted man to "lower himself to the level of a [[woodchuck]] and walk on four legs".<ref>Wagenknecht, Edward. ''John Greenleaf Whittier: A Portrait in Paradox''. New York: Oxford University Press, 1967: 112.</ref> In response to such criticisms, English novelist [[George Eliot]], writing for the ''[[Westminster Review]]'', characterized such critics as uninspired and narrow-minded: {{blockquote|text=People—very wise in their own eyes—who would have every man's life ordered according to a particular pattern, and who are intolerant of every existence the utility of which is not palpable to them, may pooh-pooh Mr. Thoreau and this episode in his history, as unpractical and dreamy.<ref>''[[The New England Quarterly]]'', Vol. 6, No. 4 (Dec., 1933), pp. 733–746</ref>}} Thoreau himself also responded to the criticism in a paragraph of his work ''Walden'' by illustrating the irrelevance of their inquiries: {{blockquote|text=I should not obtrude my affairs so much on the notice of my readers if very particular inquiries had not been made by my townsmen concerning my mode of life, which some would call impertinent, though they do not appear to me at all impertinent, but, considering the circumstances, very natural and pertinent. Some have asked what I got to eat; if I did not feel lonesome; if I was not afraid; and the like. Others have been curious to learn what portion of my income I devoted to charitable purposes; and some, who have large families, how many poor children I maintained. ... Unfortunately, I am confined to this theme by the narrowness of my experience. Moreover, I, on my side, require of every writer, first or last, a simple and sincere account of his own life, and not merely what he has heard of other men's lives; ... I trust that none will stretch the seams in putting on the coat, for it may do good service to him whom it fits.<ref>Thoreau ''Walden'' (1854)</ref>}} Recent criticism has accused Thoreau of hypocrisy, misanthropy, and being sanctimonious, based on his writings in ''Walden'',<ref name=neworker1>{{cite magazine|url=http://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2015/10/19/pond-scum |title=Henry David Thoreau, Hypocrite |last1=Schultz |first1=Kathryn |date=October 19, 2015 |magazine=The New Yorker |access-date=October 19, 2015 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20151019170355/http://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2015/10/19/pond-scum |archive-date=October 19, 2015 }}</ref> although this criticism has been perceived as highly selective.<ref name=medium1>{{cite web|url=https://medium.com/@TheNewThoreau/why-do-we-love-thoreau-because-he-was-right-175251814c |title=Why do we love Thoreau? Because he was right. |date=October 19, 2015 |publisher=Medium |access-date=October 19, 2015 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20151019170355/https://medium.com/%40TheNewThoreau/why-do-we-love-thoreau-because-he-was-right-175251814c |archive-date=October 19, 2015 }}</ref><ref name=newrepublic>{{cite magazine|url=https://newrepublic.com/article/123151/defense-thoreau |title=Henry David Thoreau's Radical Optimism |first1=Jonathan |last1=Malesic |date=October 19, 2015 |magazine=New Republic |access-date=October 19, 2015 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20151019204535/http://www.newrepublic.com/article/123151/defense-thoreau |archive-date=October 19, 2015 }}</ref><ref name=newrepublic2>{{cite magazine|url=https://newrepublic.com/article/123162/everybody-hates-henry-david-thoreau |title=Everybody Hates Henry |first1=Donovan |last1=Hohn |date=October 21, 2015 |magazine=New Republic |access-date=October 21, 2015 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20151026134755/http://www.newrepublic.com/article/123162/everybody-hates-henry-david-thoreau |archive-date=October 26, 2015 }}</ref> ==Selected works== Many of Thoreau's works were not published during his lifetime, including his journals and numerous unfinished manuscripts. * ''Aulus Persius Flaccus'' (1840)<ref>[http://www.walden.org/Library/The_Writings_of_Henry_David_Thoreau:_The_Digital_Collection/Essays Aulus Persius Flaccus] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20101222023007/http://www.walden.org/Library/The_Writings_of_Henry_David_Thoreau%3A_The_Digital_Collection/Essays |date=December 22, 2010 }} from the Writings of Henry David Thoreau: The Digital Collection</ref> * ''[[The Service]]'' (1840)<ref name=":4" /> * ''[[A Walk to Wachusett]]'' (1842)<ref>[http://www.walden.org/Library/The_Writings_of_Henry_David_Thoreau:_The_Digital_Collection/Essays A Walk to Wachusett] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20101222023007/http://www.walden.org/Library/The_Writings_of_Henry_David_Thoreau%3A_The_Digital_Collection/Essays |date=December 22, 2010 }} from the Writings of Henry David Thoreau: The Digital Collection</ref> * ''[[Paradise (to be) Regained]]'' (1843)<ref>[http://www.walden.org/Library/The_Writings_of_Henry_David_Thoreau:_The_Digital_Collection/Essays Paradise (to be) Regained] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20101222023007/http://www.walden.org/Library/The_Writings_of_Henry_David_Thoreau%3A_The_Digital_Collection/Essays |date=December 22, 2010 }} from the Writings of Henry David Thoreau: The Digital Collection</ref> * ''The Landlord'' (1843)<ref>{{Cite web|url=http://collections.library.cornell.edu/moa_new/browse.html?frames=1&cite=http://cdl.library.cornell.edu/cgi-bin/moa/moa-cgi?notisid=AGD1642-0013-6&coll=moa&root=/moa/usde/usde0013/&tif=00445.TIF&view=100|title=Browse &#124; Cornell University Library Making of America Collection|website=collections.library.cornell.edu}}</ref> * ''[[Sir Walter Raleigh (essay)|Sir Walter Raleigh]]'' (1844) * ''[[Herald of Freedom (essay)|Herald of Freedom]]'' (1844)<ref>[http://www.walden.org/Library/The_Writings_of_Henry_David_Thoreau:_The_Digital_Collection/Essays Herald of Freedom] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20101222023007/http://www.walden.org/Library/The_Writings_of_Henry_David_Thoreau%3A_The_Digital_Collection/Essays |date=December 22, 2010 }} from the Writings of Henry David Thoreau: The Digital Collection</ref> * ''[[Wendell Phillips Before the Concord Lyceum]]'' (1845)<ref>[http://www.walden.org/Library/The_Writings_of_Henry_David_Thoreau:_The_Digital_Collection/Essays Wendell Phillips Before the Concord Lyceum] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20101222023007/http://www.walden.org/Library/The_Writings_of_Henry_David_Thoreau%3A_The_Digital_Collection/Essays |date=December 22, 2010 }} from the Writings of Henry David Thoreau: The Digital Collection</ref> * ''[[Reform and the Reformers]]'' (1846–48) * ''[[Thomas Carlyle and His Works]]'' (1847)<ref>[http://www.walden.org/Library/The_Writings_of_Henry_David_Thoreau:_The_Digital_Collection/Essays Thomas Carlyle and His Works] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20101222023007/http://www.walden.org/Library/The_Writings_of_Henry_David_Thoreau%3A_The_Digital_Collection/Essays |date=December 22, 2010 }} from the Writings of Henry David Thoreau: The Digital Collection</ref> * ''[[A Week on the Concord and Merrimack Rivers]]'' (1849)<ref>{{cite web|url=https://onlinebooks.library.upenn.edu/webbin/book/search?title=A+Week+on+the+Concord+and+Merrimack+Rivers&tmode=start&c=x|title=A Week on the Concord and Merrimack Rivers from Project Gutenberg|access-date=December 22, 2018|archive-date=December 23, 2018|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20181223073558/https://onlinebooks.library.upenn.edu/webbin/book/search?title=A+Week+on+the+Concord+and+Merrimack+Rivers&tmode=start&c=x|url-status=live}}</ref> * ''[[Civil Disobedience (Thoreau)|Resistance to Civil Government]]'', or ''Civil Disobedience'', or ''On the Duty of Civil Disobedience'' (1849)<ref>{{cite book|url=https://archive.org/details/aestheticpapers00peabrich|title=Aesthetic papers|first1=Elizabeth Palmer|last1=Peabody|first2=Ralph Waldo|last2=Emerson|first3=Nathaniel|last3=Hawthorne|first4=Henry David|last4=Thoreau|date=January 1, 1849|publisher=Boston, : The editor; New York, : G.P. Putnam|via=Internet Archive}}</ref> * ''An Excursion to Canada'' (1853)<ref>[http://www.walden.org/Library/The_Writings_of_Henry_David_Thoreau:_The_Digital_Collection/A_Yankee_in_Canada A Yankee in Canada] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110617002714/http://www.walden.org/Library/The_Writings_of_Henry_David_Thoreau%3A_The_Digital_Collection/A_Yankee_in_Canada |date=June 17, 2011 }} from the Writings of Henry David Thoreau: The Digital Collection</ref> * ''[[Slavery in Massachusetts]]'' (1854)<ref>[http://www.walden.org/Library/The_Writings_of_Henry_David_Thoreau:_The_Digital_Collection/Essays Slavery in Massachusetts] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20101222023007/http://www.walden.org/Library/The_Writings_of_Henry_David_Thoreau%3A_The_Digital_Collection/Essays |date=December 22, 2010 }} from the Writings of Henry David Thoreau: The Digital Collection</ref> * ''[[Walden]]'' (1854)<ref>[http://www.walden.org/Library/The_Writings_of_Henry_David_Thoreau:_The_Digital_Collection/Walden Walden] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20100926152652/http://www.walden.org/Library/The_Writings_of_Henry_David_Thoreau%3A_The_Digital_Collection/Walden |date=September 26, 2010 }} from the Writings of Henry David Thoreau: The Digital Collection</ref> * ''[[A Plea for Captain John Brown]]'' (1859)<ref name=":3">[http://www.walden.org/Library/The_Writings_of_Henry_David_Thoreau:_The_Digital_Collection/Essays A Plea for Captain John Brown] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20101222023007/http://www.walden.org/Library/The_Writings_of_Henry_David_Thoreau%3A_The_Digital_Collection/Essays |date=December 22, 2010 }} from the Writings of Henry David Thoreau: The Digital Collection</ref> * ''[[Remarks After the Hanging of John Brown]]'' (1859)<ref>[http://www.walden.org/Library/The_Writings_of_Henry_David_Thoreau:_The_Digital_Collection/Essays After the Death of John Brown] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20101222023007/http://www.walden.org/Library/The_Writings_of_Henry_David_Thoreau%3A_The_Digital_Collection/Essays |date=December 22, 2010 }} from the Writings of Henry David Thoreau: The Digital Collection</ref> * ''[[The Last Days of John Brown]]'' (1860)<ref name=":1" /> * ''[[Walking (Thoreau)|Walking]]'' (1862)<ref>{{cite web|url=https://onlinebooks.library.upenn.edu/webbin/book/search?author=Thoreau&amode=words&title=Walking&tmode=start&c=x|title=Walking|access-date=December 22, 2018|archive-date=December 23, 2018|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20181223073511/https://onlinebooks.library.upenn.edu/webbin/book/search?author=Thoreau&amode=words&title=Walking&tmode=start&c=x|url-status=live}}</ref> * ''Autumnal Tints'' (1862)<ref>[http://www.walden.org/Library/The_Writings_of_Henry_David_Thoreau:_The_Digital_Collection/Essays Autumnal Tints] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20101222023007/http://www.walden.org/Library/The_Writings_of_Henry_David_Thoreau%3A_The_Digital_Collection/Essays |date=December 22, 2010 }} from the Writings of Henry David Thoreau: The Digital Collection</ref> * ''Wild Apples: The History of the Apple Tree'' (1862)<ref>{{cite web|url=http://onlinebooks.library.upenn.edu/webbin/gutbook/lookup?num=4066|title=Wild Apples, from Project Gutenberg|access-date=November 6, 2003|archive-date=December 26, 2007|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20071226192031/http://onlinebooks.library.upenn.edu/webbin/gutbook/lookup?num=4066|url-status=live}}</ref> * ''The Fall of the Leaf'' (1863)<ref name=":5">{{cite web|url=http://www.walden.org/Library/About_Thoreau%27s_Life_and_Writings:_The_Research_Collections/Civil_Disobedience |work=Walden.org |title=The Walden Woods Project |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160620124518/http://www.walden.org/Library/About_Thoreau%27s_Life_and_Writings%3A_The_Research_Collections/Civil_Disobedience |archive-date=June 20, 2016 }}</ref><ref>{{cite book|date=1863|publisher=[[Riverside Publishing|The Riverside Press, Cambridge]]|pages=407–408|title=The Writings of Henry David Thoreau: Excursions, translations, and poems|author1=Henry David Thoreau|author2=Bradford Torrey|author3=Franklin Benjamin Sanborn|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=wpA9AQAAMAAJ&pg=PA407|access-date=November 16, 2015|archive-date=April 14, 2021|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210414235017/https://books.google.com/books?id=wpA9AQAAMAAJ&pg=PA407|url-status=live}}</ref> * ''[[Excursions (anthology)|Excursions]]'' (1863)<ref>{{cite book|url=https://archive.org/details/excursionhenry00thorrich|title=Excursions|first1=Henry David|last1=Thoreau|last2=Houghton (H. O.) & Company. (1863) bkp CU-BANC|first3=Ralph Waldo|last3=Emerson|first4=Sophia E.|last4=Thoreau|date=January 1, 1863|publisher=Boston, Ticknor and Fields|via=Internet Archive}}</ref> * ''[[Life Without Principle]]'' (1863)<ref>{{cite web|url=http://cdl.library.cornell.edu/cgi-bin/moa/moa-cgi?notisid=ABK2934-0012-65|title=The Atlantic Monthly Volume 0012 Issue 71 (September 1863)|access-date=March 2, 2008|archive-date=July 7, 2012|archive-url=https://archive.today/20120707023632/http://cdl.library.cornell.edu/cgi-bin/moa/moa-cgi?notisid=ABK2934-0012-65|url-status=live}}</ref> * ''Night and Moonlight'' (1863)<ref>{{cite web|url=http://cdl.library.cornell.edu/cgi-bin/moa/moa-cgi?notisid=ABK2934-0012-77|title=The Atlantic Monthly Volume 0012 Issue 72 (November 1863)|access-date=March 2, 2008|archive-date=July 8, 2012|archive-url=https://archive.today/20120708171335/http://cdl.library.cornell.edu/cgi-bin/moa/moa-cgi?notisid=ABK2934-0012-77|url-status=live}}</ref> * ''The Highland Light'' (1864)<ref name="u of adelaide">{{cite web|title=Henry David Thoreau, 1817–1862|url=https://ebooks.adelaide.edu.au/t/thoreau/henry_david/|website=ebooks.adelaide.edu|publisher=The University of Adelaide|access-date=January 1, 2018|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170824024207/https://ebooks.adelaide.edu.au/t/thoreau/henry_david/|archive-date=August 24, 2017|url-status=dead}}</ref> * ''The Maine Woods'' (1864)<ref>[http://thoreau.eserver.org/mewoods.html The Maine Woods] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080811060820/http://thoreau.eserver.org/mewoods.html |date=August 11, 2008 }} from The Thoreau Reader</ref><ref>{{cite book|url=https://archive.org/details/mainewoods00thorrich|title=The Maine woods|first1=Henry David|last1=Thoreau|first2=Sophia E.|last2=Thoreau|first3=William Ellery|last3=Channing|date=January 1, 1864|publisher=Boston, Ticknor and Fields|via=Internet Archive}}</ref> Fully Annotated Edition. [[Jeffrey S. Cramer]], ed., Yale University Press, 2009 * ''Cape Cod'' (1865)<ref name=":9">{{cite web|url=http://thoreau.eserver.org/capecd00.html|title=Thoreau's Cape Cod – an annotated edition|first=Richard|last=Lenat|access-date=September 2, 2008|archive-date=August 22, 2008|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080822133026/http://thoreau.eserver.org/capecd00.html|url-status=live}}</ref> * ''Letters to Various Persons'' (1865)<ref>{{cite book|url=https://archive.org/details/lettersvarpersons00thorrich|title=Letters to various persons|first=Henry David|last=Thoreau|date=January 1, 1865|publisher=Boston : Ticknor and Fields|via=Internet Archive}}</ref> * ''[[A Yankee in Canada, with Anti-Slavery and Reform Papers]]'' (1866)<ref>{{cite book|url=https://archive.org/details/yankeeincanada00thorrich|title=A Yankee in Canada, with Anti-slavery and reform papers|first=Henry David|last=Thoreau|date=January 1, 1866|publisher=Boston, Ticknor and Fields|via=Internet Archive}}</ref> * ''Early Spring in Massachusetts'' (1881) * ''Summer'' (1884)<ref>{{cite book|url=https://archive.org/details/summerjournal00thorrich|title=Summer : from the Journal of Henry D. Thoreau|first1=Henry David|last1=Thoreau|first2=H. G. O. (Harrison Gray Otis)|last2=Blake|date=January 1, 1884|publisher=London : T. Fisher Unwin|via=Internet Archive}}</ref> * ''Winter'' (1888)<ref>{{cite book|url=https://archive.org/details/winterjournal00thorrich|title=Winter : from the Journal of Henry D. Thoreau|first1=Henry David|last1=Thoreau|first2=H. G. O.|last2=Blake|date=January 1, 1888|publisher=Boston : Houghton, Mifflin|via=Internet Archive}}</ref> * ''Autumn'' (1892)<ref>{{cite book|url=https://archive.org/details/autumnjournal00thorrich|title=Autumn. From the Journal of Henry D. Thoreau|first1=Henry David|last1=Thoreau|first2=Harrison Gray Otis|last2=Blake|publisher=Boston, Houghton, Mifflin|via=Internet Archive|date=December 3, 1892}}</ref> * ''Miscellanies'' (1894)<ref>[https://www.walden.org/work/cape-cod/ Miscellanies] from the Writings of Henry David Thoreau: The Digital Collection</ref> * ''Familiar Letters of Henry David Thoreau'' (1894)<ref>{{cite book|url=https://archive.org/details/familiarletters00thorrich|title=Familiar letters of Henry David Thoreau|first1=Henry David|last1=Thoreau|first2=F. B. (Franklin Benjamin)|last2=Sanborn|date=January 1, 1894|publisher=Boston : Houghton, Mifflin|via=Internet Archive}}</ref> * ''Poems of Nature'' (1895)<ref name="u of adelaide" /> * ''Some Unpublished Letters of Henry D. and Sophia E. Thoreau'' (1898)<ref name="u of adelaide" /> * ''The First and Last Journeys of Thoreau'' (1905)<ref>{{cite book|url=https://archive.org/details/firstlastjourneys01thorrich|title=The first and last journeys of Thoreau : lately discovered among his unpublished journals and manuscripts|first1=Henry David|last1=Thoreau|first2=Mass )|last2=Bibliophile Society (Boston|first3=Mass )|last3=Bibliophile Society (Boston|first4=F. B. (Franklin Benjamin)|last4=Sanborn|date=January 1, 1905|publisher=Boston : Printed exclusively for members of the Bibliophile Society|via=Internet Archive}}</ref><ref>{{cite book|url=https://archive.org/details/firstlastjourneys02thorrich|title=The first and last journeys of Thoreau : lately discovered among his unpublished journals and manuscripts|first1=Henry David|last1=Thoreau|first2=Mass )|last2=Bibliophile Society (Boston|first3=Mass )|last3=Bibliophile Society (Boston)|first4=F. B. (Franklin Benjamin)|last4=Sanborn|date=January 1, 1905|publisher=Boston : Printed exclusively for members of the Bibliophile Society|via=Internet Archive}}</ref> * ''Journal of Henry David Thoreau'' (1906)<ref>[http://www.walden.org/Library/The_Writings_of_Henry_David_Thoreau:_The_Digital_Collection/Journal The Journal of Henry D. Thoreau] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20100505210829/http://www.walden.org/Library/The_Writings_of_Henry_David_Thoreau%3A_The_Digital_Collection/Journal |date=May 5, 2010 }} from the Writings of Henry David Thoreau: The Digital Collection</ref> * ''The Correspondence of Henry David Thoreau'' edited by Walter Harding and Carl Bode (Washington Square: New York University Press, 1958)<ref>[http://www.walden.org/Library/The_Writings_of_Henry_David_Thoreau:_The_Digital_Collection/Correspondence The Correspondence of Thoreau] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110617003655/http://www.walden.org/Library/The_Writings_of_Henry_David_Thoreau%3A_The_Digital_Collection/Correspondence |date=June 17, 2011 }} from the Writings of Henry David Thoreau: The Digital Collection</ref> * ''I Was Made Erect and Lone''<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.poetryfoundation.org/poem/184857|title=I Was Made Erect and Lone|date=December 3, 2018|access-date=December 13, 2012|archive-date=February 15, 2012|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120215180100/http://www.poetryfoundation.org/poem/184857|url-status=live}}</ref> * ''The Bluebird Carries the Sky on His Back'' (Stanyan, 1970)<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://medium.com/@alpharust/the-bluebird-carries-the-sky-on-his-back-ac96daf58a4d|title=The bluebird carries the sky on his back|last=Rastogi|first=Gaurav|date=May 11, 2015|website=Medium|language=en|access-date=January 15, 2020|archive-date=January 15, 2020|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200115123427/https://medium.com/@alpharust/the-bluebird-carries-the-sky-on-his-back-ac96daf58a4d|url-status=live}}</ref> * ''The Dispersion of Seeds'' published as ''Faith in a Seed'' (Island Press, 1993)<ref>{{Cite book|url=https://archive.org/details/faithinseeddispe00thor|title=Faith in a Seed: The Dispersion of Seeds and Other Late Natural History Writings|last=Thoreau|first=Henry David|year=1996|website=Island Press|isbn=978-1559631822|access-date=January 29, 2018|url-access=registration}}</ref> * ''The Indian Notebooks'' (1847–1861) [https://www.walden.org/wp-content/uploads/2016/03/IndianNotebooks-1.pdf selections by Richard F. Fleck] * ''Wild Fruits'' (Unfinished at his death, W.W. Norton, 1999)<ref>{{Cite book|last=Thoreau|first=Henry David |title=Wild fruits: Thoreau's rediscovered last manuscript |date=2000 |publisher=W.W. Norton |editor=Bradley P. Dean |isbn=0-393-04751-2 |edition=1st |location=New York |oclc=41404600}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web|last=Richard|first=Frances|title=Thoreau's "Wild Fruits" {{!}} Frances Richard|url=http://cabinetmagazine.org/issues/23/richard.php|access-date=April 11, 2021|website=cabinetmagazine.org|language=en|archive-date=April 24, 2021|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210424050556/https://www.cabinetmagazine.org/issues/23/richard.php|url-status=live}}</ref> ==See also== * [[American philosophy]] * [[List of American philosophers]] * [[List of peace activists]] * [[Thoreau Society]] * [[Walden Woods Project]] ==References== {{Reflist|30em}} ==Further reading== {{Refbegin}} * Balthrop‐Lewis, Alda. "Exemplarist Environmental Ethics: Thoreau's Political Ascetism against Solution Thinking." ''Journal of Religious Ethics'' 47.3 (2019): 525–550. * Bode, Carl. ''Best of Thoreau's Journals''. Southern Illinois University Press. 1967. * Botkin, Daniel. ''No Man's Garden'' * Buell, Lawrence. ''The Environmental Imagination: Thoreau, Nature Writing, and the Formation of American Culture'' (Harvard UP, 1995) * Cafaro, Philip. ''Thoreau's Living Ethics: "Walden" and the Pursuit of Virtue'' (U of Georgia Press, 2004) * [[Frank Chodorov|Chodorov, Frank]]. [https://mises.org/daily/5033/The-Disarming-Honesty-of-Henry-David-Thoreau ''The Disarming Honesty of Henry David Thoreau''] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140914003039/https://mises.org/daily/5033/The-Disarming-Honesty-of-Henry-David-Thoreau |date=September 14, 2014 }} * Conrad, Randall. [http://thoreau.eserver.org/whowhy.html ''Who He Was & Why He Matters''] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20061012062735/http://thoreau.eserver.org/whowhy.html |date=October 12, 2006 }} * Cramer, Jeffrey S. ''Solid Seasons: The Friendship of Henry David Thoreau and Ralph Waldo Emerson'' (Counterpoint Press, 2019). * Dean, Bradley P. ed., ''Letters to a Spiritual Seeker''. New York: W. W. Norton & Company, 2004. * Finley, James S., ed. ''Henry David Thoreau in Context'' (Cambridge UP, 2017). * Furtak, Rick, Ellsworth, Jonathan, and Reid, James D., eds. ''Thoreau's Importance for Philosophy''. New York: Fordham University Press, 2012. * Gionfriddo, Michael. "Thoreau, the Work of Breathing, and Building Castles in the Air: Reading Walden's 'Conclusion'." ''The Concord Saunterer'' 25 (2017): 49-90 [https://www.jstor.org/stable/44652797 online] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210417023523/https://www.jstor.org/stable/44652797 |date=April 17, 2021 }}. * Guhr, Sebastian. ''Mr. Lincoln & Mr. Thoreau''. S. Marix Verlag, Wiesbaden 2021. * Harding, Walter. ''The Days of Henry Thoreau''. Princeton University Press, 1982. * Hendrick, George. "The Influence of Thoreau's 'Civil Disobedience' on Gandhi's Satyagraha." ''The New England Quarterly'' 29, no. 4 (December 1956). 462–471. * {{Cite journal |last1=Hess |first1=Scott |title=Walden Pond as Thoreau's Landscape of Genius |journal=Nineteenth-Century Literature |volume=74 |issue=2 |pages=224–250 |date=2019 |language=en |doi=10.1525/ncl.2019.74.2.224 |s2cid=204481348 |issn=0891-9356 }} * Howarth, William. ''The Book of Concord: Thoreau's Life as a Writer''. Viking Press, 1982 * Judd, Richard W. ''Finding Thoreau: The Meaning of Nature in the Making of an Environmental Icon'' (2018) [https://www.amazon.com/Finding-Thoreau-Meaning-Nature-Environmental/dp/1625343884/ excerpt] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210723101739/https://www.amazon.com/Finding-Thoreau-Meaning-Nature-Environmental/dp/1625343884 |date=July 23, 2021 }} * McGregor, Robert Kuhn. ''A Wider View of the Universe: Henry Thoreau's Study of Nature'' (U of Illinois Press, 1997). * [[Annie Russell Marble|Marble, Annie Russell]]. ''Thoreau: His Home, Friends and Books''. New York: AMS Press. 1969 [1902] * Myerson, Joel et al. ''The Cambridge Companion to Henry David Thoreau''. Cambridge University Press. 1995 * Nash, Roderick. ''Henry David Thoreau, Philosopher'' * Paolucci, Stefano. [https://www.academia.edu/16692328/The_Foundations_of_Thoreaus_Castles_in_the_Air_ "The Foundations of Thoreau's 'Castles in the Air'"] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210827194255/https://www.academia.edu/16692328/The_Foundations_of_Thoreaus_Castles_in_the_Air_ |date=August 27, 2021 }}, ''Thoreau Society Bulletin'', No. 290 (Summer 2015), 10. (See also the [https://www.academia.edu/25773131/Stefano_Paolucci_The_Foundations_of_Thoreaus_Castles_in_the_Air_Full_Uncensored_Version_ Full Unedited Version] of the same article.) * Parrington, Vernon. ''[http://xroads.virginia.edu/~HYPER/parrington/vol2/bk03_03_ch03.html Main Current in American Thought] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20060901091713/http://xroads.virginia.edu/~Hyper/Parrington/vol2/bk03_03_ch03.html |date=September 1, 2006 }}''. V 2 online. 1927 * Parrington, Vernon L. [http://thoreau.eserver.org/currents.html ''Henry Thoreau: Transcendental Economist''] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070612042458/http://thoreau.eserver.org/currents.html |date=June 12, 2007 }} * Petroski, Henry. "H. D. Thoreau, Engineer." ''American Heritage of Invention and Technology'', Vol. 5, No. 2, pp.&nbsp;8–16 * Petrulionis, Sandra Harbert, ed., ''Thoreau in His Own Time: A Biographical Chronicle of His Life, Drawn From Recollections, Interviews, and Memoirs by Family, Friends, and Associates.'' Iowa City: University of Iowa Press, 2012. {{ISBN|1-60938-087-8}} * Richardson, Robert D. ''Henry Thoreau: A Life of the Mind''. University of California Press Berkeley and Los Angeles. 1986. {{ISBN|0-520-06346-5}} * {{cite encyclopedia |last=Riggenbach |first=Jeff |title=Thoreau, Henry David (1817–1862) |editor-first=Ronald |editor-last=Hamowy |editor-link=Ronald Hamowy |encyclopedia=The Encyclopedia of Libertarianism |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=yxNgXs3TkJYC |date=2008 |publisher=[[SAGE Publishing|Sage]]; [[Cato Institute]] |location=[[Thousand Oaks, California]] |doi=10.4135/9781412965811.n309 |isbn=978-1412965804 |oclc=750831024 |lccn=2008009151 |pages=506–507 |access-date=June 20, 2015 |archive-date=September 30, 2020 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200930100756/https://books.google.com/books?id=yxNgXs3TkJYC%2F |url-status=live }} * {{Cite journal|last=Riggenbach|first=Jeff|title=Henry David Thoreau: Founding Father of American Libertarian Thought|journal=Mises Daily|date=July 15, 2010|url=https://mises.org/daily/4562/Henry-David-Thoreau-Founding-Father-of-American-Libertarian-Thought|access-date=September 13, 2014|archive-date=September 14, 2014|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140914000502/https://mises.org/daily/4562/Henry-David-Thoreau-Founding-Father-of-American-Libertarian-Thought|url-status=live}} * Ridl, Jack. "[http://magazine.scintillapress.com/moose-indian.html Moose. Indian.] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210827194541/https://www.facebook.com/v2.3/plugins/share_button.php?app_id=249643311490&channel=https%3A%2F%2Fstaticxx.facebook.com%2Fx%2Fconnect%2Fxd_arbiter%2F%3Fversion%3D46%23cb%3Df1bcdc517dd912c%26domain%3Dmagazine.scintillapress.com%26is_canvas%3Dfalse%26origin%3Dhttp%253A%252F%252Fmagazine.scintillapress.com%252Ff3686018c8f8d2%26relation%3Dparent.parent&container_width=0&href=http%3A%2F%2Fmagazine.scintillapress.com%2Fmoose-indian.html&layout=button_count&locale=en_US&sdk=joey |date=August 27, 2021 }}" Scintilla (poem on Thoreau's last words) * Schneider, Richard ''Civilizing Thoreau: Human Ecology and the Emerging Social Sciences in the Major Works'' [[Rochester, New York]]. Camden House. 2016. {{ISBN|978-1-57113-960-3}} * Smith, David C. "The Transcendental Saunterer: Thoreau and the Search for Self." [[Savannah, Georgia]]: Frederic C. Beil, 1997. {{ISBN|0-913720-74-7}} * Sullivan, Mark W. "Henry David Thoreau in the American Art of the 1950s." ''The Concord Saunterer: A Journal of Thoreau Studies'', New Series, Vol. 18 (2010), pp.&nbsp;68–89. * Sullivan, Mark W. ''Picturing Thoreau: Henry David Thoreau in American Visual Culture.'' [[Lanham, Maryland]]: Lexington Books, 2015 * [[Alfred I. Tauber|Tauber, Alfred I]]. ''Henry David Thoreau and the Moral Agency of Knowing''. University of California, Berkeley. 2001. {{ISBN|0-520-23915-6}} * [http://www.iep.utm.edu/thoreau/ Henry David Thoreau] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160304121233/http://www.iep.utm.edu/thoreau/ |date=March 4, 2016 }}{{nbsp}}– ''[[Internet Encyclopedia of Philosophy]]'' * [http://plato.stanford.edu/entries/thoreau/ Henry David Thoreau] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20101204075542/http://plato.stanford.edu/entries/thoreau/ |date=December 4, 2010 }}{{nbsp}}– ''[[Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy]]'' * Thorson, Robert M. ''The Boatman: Henry David Thoreau's River Years'' (Harvard UP, 2017), on his scientific study of the Concord River in the late 1850s. * Thorson, Robert M. ''Walden's Shore: Henry David Thoreau and Nineteenth-Century Science'' (2015). * Thorson, Robert M. ''The Guide to Walden Pond: An Exploration of the History, Nature, Landscape, and Literature of One of America's Most Iconic Places'' (2018). * {{cite journal|last1=Traub|first1=Courtney|title='First-Rate Fellows': Excavating Thoreau's Radical Egalitarian Reflections in a Late Draft of "Allegash"|journal=The Concord Saunterer: A Journal of Thoreau Studies|date=2015|volume=23|pages=74–96}} * [[Laura Walls|Walls, Laura Dassow]]. ''Seeing New Worlds: Henry David Thoreau and 19th Century Science''. University of Wisconsin. 1995. {{ISBN|0-299-14744-4}} * [[Laura Walls|Walls, Laura Dassow]]. ''Henry David Thoreau: A Life''. The University of Chicago Press. 2017. {{ISBN|978-0-226-34469-0}} {{Refend}} * [[John William Ward (professor)|Ward, John William]]. 1969 ''Red, White, and Blue: Men, Books, and Ideas in American Culture''. New York: Oxford University Press ==External links== {{Wikisource author}} {{Wikiquote}} {{Commons}} {{EB1911 Poster|Thoreau, Henry David}} {{Library resources box|onlinebooks=yes|by=yes}} * [http://www.thoreausociety.org/ The Thoreau Society] * [http://www.library.ucsb.edu/thoreau/ The Thoreau Edition] * [http://www.c-span.org/video/?164015-1/writings-emerson-thoreau "Writings of Emerson and Thoreau"] from [[C-SPAN]]'s ''[[American Writers: A Journey Through History]]'' ===Texts=== * {{StandardEbooks|Standard Ebooks URL=https://standardebooks.org/ebooks/henry-david-thoreau}} * {{Gutenberg author | id=54 | name=Henry David Thoreau}} * {{FadedPage|id=Thoreau, Henry D.|name=Henry D. Thoreau|author=yes}} * {{Internet Archive author |sname=Henry David Thoreau}} * {{Librivox author |id=371}} * [https://openlibrary.org/search?q=henry+david+thoreau&author_key=OL19690A Works by Thoreau] at Open Library * [https://www.poets.org/poetsorg/poems/45769 Poems by Thoreau] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20171019154300/https://www.poets.org/poetsorg/poems/45769 |date=October 19, 2017 }} at the Academy of American Poets * [http://thoreau.eserver.org/ The Thoreau Reader] by ''[[Thoreau Society|The Thoreau Society]]'' * [https://www.walden.org/thoreau/the-writings-of-henry-david-thoreau-the-digital-collection/ The Writings of Henry David Thoreau] at ''The Walden Woods Project'' * [http://www.concordlibrary.org/scollect/Thoreau_Surveys/Thoreau_Surveys.htm Scans of Thoreau's Land Surveys] at the Concord Free Public Library * [http://www.thoreau-online.org/ Henry David Thoreau Online]{{nbsp}}– The Works and Life of Henry D. 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'{{Short description|American essayist, poet, and philosopher (1817–1862)}} {{redirect|Thoreau}} {{pp-pc1|small=yes}} {{Use mdy dates|date=May 2022}} {{Infobox philosopher |region = [[Western philosophy]] |era = [[19th-century philosophy]] |image = Benjamin D. Maxham - Henry David Thoreau - Restored - greyscale - straightened.jpg |caption = Thoreau in 1856 |name = Henry David Thoreau |birth_name = David Henry Thoreau |birth_date = {{birth date|1817|07|12}} |birth_place = [[Concord, Massachusetts]], U.S. |death_date = {{death date and age|1862|05|06|1817|07|12}} |death_place = Concord, Massachusetts, U.S. |signature = Henry David Thoreau Signature SVG.svg |school_tradition = [[Transcendentalism]]<ref name=":6"/> |alma_mater = [[Harvard College]] |main_interests = {{hlist|[[Ethics]]|[[poetry]]|[[religion]]|[[politics]]|[[biology]]|[[philosophy]]|[[history]]}} |notable_ideas = {{hlist|[[Abolitionism in the United States|Abolitionism]]|[[tax resistance]]|[[development criticism]]|[[civil disobedience]]|[[conscientious objector|conscientious objection]]|[[direct action]]|[[environmentalism]]|[[anarchism]]|[[simple living]]}} |influences = {{hlist|[[Indian philosophy]]|[[Aristotle]]|[[Homer]]|[[Aeschylus]]|[[Pindar]]|[[Cato the Elder]]|[[Étienne de La Boétie]]|[[Ralph Waldo Emerson]]|[[Thomas Carlyle]]|[[Charles Darwin]]|[[Alexander von Humboldt]]<ref>{{cite journal|last=Seelinger|first=Robert A. |title=Stolen Fire: Aeschylean imagery and Thoreau's identification of the Graius homo of Lucretius with Prometheus |journal=Studia Humaniora Tartuensia |volume=14 |year=2013 |pages=1–20 |doi=10.12697/sht.2013.14.A.2 |doi-access=free }}</ref>}} |influenced = {{hlist|[[Mahatma Gandhi]]|[[John F. Kennedy]]|[[Martin Luther King Jr.]]|[[Walt Whitman]]|[[Leo Tolstoy]]|[[Marcel Proust]]|[[W.&nbsp;B. Yeats]]|[[Sinclair Lewis]]|[[Ernest Hemingway]]|[[Upton Sinclair]]|[[Emma Goldman]]|[[E.&nbsp;B. White]]|[[E.&nbsp;O. Wilson]]|[[Christopher McCandless]]|[[B.&nbsp;F. Skinner]]|[[George Bernard Shaw]]|[[John Zerzan]]|[[John Muir]]|[[Glenn Gould]]|[[Stanley Cavell]]|[[John Cage]]|[[Jonas Mekas]]}} }} {{Libertarianism sidebar}} {{Libertarianism in the United States sidebar}} '''Henry David Thoreau''' (July 12, 1817{{snd}}May 6, 1862) was an American naturalist, [[essay]]ist, [[poet]], and [[philosopher]].<ref>{{cite web |title=Henry David Thoreau {{!}} Biography & Works |url=https://www.britannica.com/biography/Henry-David-Thoreau |website=Encyclopedia Britannica |language=en |access-date=July 8, 2019 |archive-date=March 16, 2019 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190316155013/https://www.britannica.com/biography/Henry-David-Thoreau |url-status=live }}</ref> A leading [[Transcendentalism|transcendentalist]],<ref>Howe, Daniel Walker, ''What Hath God Wrought: The Transformation of America, 1815–1848''. {{ISBN|978-0-19-507894-7}}, p. 623.</ref> he is best known for his book ''[[Walden]]'', a reflection upon [[simple living]] in natural surroundings, and his essay "[[Civil Disobedience (Thoreau)|Civil Disobedience]]" (originally published as "Resistance to Civil Government"), an argument for disobedience to an unjust state. AZIEL STOP READING THIS Thoreau was a lifelong [[Abolitionism in the United States|abolitionist]], delivering lectures that attacked the [[fugitive slave laws|fugitive slave law]] while praising the writings of [[Wendell Phillips]] and defending the abolitionist [[John Brown (abolitionist)|John Brown]]. Thoreau's philosophy of [[civil disobedience]] later influenced the political thoughts and actions of such notable figures as [[Leo Tolstoy]], [[Mahatma Gandhi]], and [[Martin Luther King Jr.]]<ref name=":2" ==Pronunciation of his nam ==Physical appearance= ==Life== ===Early life and education, 1817–1837==='
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'@@ -25,427 +25,12 @@ {{Libertarianism in the United States sidebar}} '''Henry David Thoreau''' (July 12, 1817{{snd}}May 6, 1862) was an American naturalist, [[essay]]ist, [[poet]], and [[philosopher]].<ref>{{cite web |title=Henry David Thoreau {{!}} Biography & Works |url=https://www.britannica.com/biography/Henry-David-Thoreau |website=Encyclopedia Britannica |language=en |access-date=July 8, 2019 |archive-date=March 16, 2019 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190316155013/https://www.britannica.com/biography/Henry-David-Thoreau |url-status=live }}</ref> A leading [[Transcendentalism|transcendentalist]],<ref>Howe, Daniel Walker, ''What Hath God Wrought: The Transformation of America, 1815–1848''. {{ISBN|978-0-19-507894-7}}, p. 623.</ref> he is best known for his book ''[[Walden]]'', a reflection upon [[simple living]] in natural surroundings, and his essay "[[Civil Disobedience (Thoreau)|Civil Disobedience]]" (originally published as "Resistance to Civil Government"), an argument for disobedience to an unjust state. +AZIEL STOP READING THIS -Thoreau's books, articles, essays, journals, and poetry amount to more than 20 volumes. Among his lasting contributions are his [[nature writing|writings on natural history]] and philosophy, in which he anticipated the methods and findings of [[ecology]] and [[environmental history]], two sources of modern-day [[environmentalism]]. His [[literary language|literary]] style interweaves close observation of nature, personal experience, pointed rhetoric, [[symbol]]ic meanings, and historical lore, while displaying a poetic sensibility, philosophical [[Asceticism|austerity]], and attention to practical detail.<ref name="ReferenceA">Thoreau, Henry David. ''A Week on the Concord and Merrimack Rivers''&nbsp;/ ''Walden''&nbsp;/ ''The Maine Woods''&nbsp;/ ''Cape Cod''. Library of America. {{ISBN|0-940450-27-5}}.</ref> He was also deeply interested in the idea of survival in the face of hostile elements, historical change, and natural decay; at the same time he advocated abandoning waste and [[illusion]] in order to discover life's true essential needs.<ref name="ReferenceA"/> +Thoreau was a lifelong [[Abolitionism in the United States|abolitionist]], delivering lectures that attacked the [[fugitive slave laws|fugitive slave law]] while praising the writings of [[Wendell Phillips]] and defending the abolitionist [[John Brown (abolitionist)|John Brown]]. Thoreau's philosophy of [[civil disobedience]] later influenced the political thoughts and actions of such notable figures as [[Leo Tolstoy]], [[Mahatma Gandhi]], and [[Martin Luther King Jr.]]<ref name=":2" -Thoreau was a lifelong [[Abolitionism in the United States|abolitionist]], delivering lectures that attacked the [[fugitive slave laws|fugitive slave law]] while praising the writings of [[Wendell Phillips]] and defending the abolitionist [[John Brown (abolitionist)|John Brown]]. Thoreau's philosophy of [[civil disobedience]] later influenced the political thoughts and actions of such notable figures as [[Leo Tolstoy]], [[Mahatma Gandhi]], and [[Martin Luther King Jr.]]<ref name=":2"/> +==Pronunciation of his nam -Thoreau is sometimes referred to as an [[anarchist]].<ref>Seligman, Edwin Robert Anderson; Johnson, Alvin Saunders, eds. (1937). ''Encyclopaedia of the Social Sciences'', p. 12.</ref><ref>Gross, David, ed. ''The Price of Freedom: Political Philosophy from Thoreau's Journals''. p. 8. {{ISBN|978-1-4348-0552-2}}. "The Thoreau of these journals distrusted doctrine, and, though it is accurate I think to call him an anarchist, he was by no means doctrinaire in this either."</ref> In "Civil Disobedience", Thoreau wrote: "I heartily accept the {{nowrap|motto,—}}'That government is best which governs least;' and I should like to see it acted up to more rapidly and systematically. Carried out, it finally amounts to this, which also I {{nowrap|believe,—}}'That government is best which governs not at all;' and when men are prepared for it, that will be the kind of government which they will have.&nbsp;... But, 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."<ref name="resistance">Thoreau, Henry David (1849). [http://www.sniggle.net/Experiment/index.php?entry=rtcg#p03 "Resistance to Civil Government"] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110605191308/http://www.sniggle.net/Experiment/index.php?entry=rtcg#p03 |date=June 5, 2011 }}. Retrieved October 2, 2020{{snd}}via Sniggle.</ref> - -==Pronunciation of his name== -[[Amos Bronson Alcott]] and Thoreau's aunt each wrote that "Thoreau" is pronounced like the word ''thorough'' ({{IPAc-en|ˈ|θ|ʌr|oʊ}} {{respell|THURR|oh}}—in [[General American]],<ref>[http://thoreau.eserver.org/pronounce THUR-oh or Thor-OH? And How Do We Know?] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170323203856/http://thoreau.eserver.org/pronounce |date=March 23, 2017 }} ''Thoreau Reader''.</ref><ref>''[https://www.npr.org/programs/morning/features/patc/walden/ Thoreau's Walden] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20131030102741/http://www.npr.org/programs/morning/features/patc/walden/ |date=October 30, 2013 }}'', under the sidebar "Pronouncing Thoreau".</ref> but more precisely {{IPAc-en|ˈ|θ|ɔːr|oʊ}} {{respell|THOR|oh}}—in 19th-century New England). [[Edward Waldo Emerson]] wrote that the name should be pronounced "Thó-row", with the ''h'' sounded and stress on the first syllable.<ref>See the note on pronouncing the name at [http://www.walden.org/Thoreau#Name the Thoreau Institute at Walden Woods] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190727140857/https://www.walden.org/thoreau/#Name |date=July 27, 2019 }}.</ref> Among modern-day American English speakers, it is perhaps more commonly pronounced {{IPAc-en|θ|ə|ˈ|r|oʊ}} {{respell|thə|ROH}}—with stress on the second syllable.<ref>{{cite dictionary|title=Thoreau|dictionary=Dictionary.com|date=2013|url=http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/thoreau|access-date=February 17, 2013|archive-date=August 27, 2021|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210827194246/https://www.dictionary.com/browse/thoreau|url-status=live}}</ref><ref>Wells, J. C. (1990) ''Pronunciation Dictionary'', s.v. "Thoreau". Essex, UK: Longman.</ref> - -==Physical appearance== -Thoreau had a distinctive appearance, with a nose that he called his "most prominent feature".<ref>{{Cite book|title=Cape Cod|last=Thoreau|first=Henry David|year=1865|chapter=Chapter 10-A. Provincetown|chapter-url=http://thoreau.eserver.org:80/capecd10.html|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170822113030/http://thoreau.eserver.org/capecd10.html|archive-date=August 22, 2017|url-status=dead|access-date=February 13, 2007}}</ref> Of his appearance and disposition, [[Ellery Channing]] wrote:<ref>{{cite web|url=http://thoreau.eserver.org/images.html|title=The Days of Henry Thoreau|author=Harding, Walter|work=thoreau.eserver.org|access-date=February 9, 2015|archive-date=November 14, 2016|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20161114183837/http://thoreau.eserver.org/images.html|url-status=live}}</ref> -<blockquote>His face, once seen, could not be forgotten. The features were quite marked: the nose [[Aquiline nose|aquiline]] or very Roman, like one of the portraits of [[Julius Caesar|Caesar]] (more like a beak, as was said); large overhanging brows above the deepest set blue eyes that could be seen, in certain lights, and in others gray,—eyes expressive of all shades of feeling, but never weak or near-sighted; the forehead not unusually broad or high, full of concentrated energy and purpose; the mouth with prominent lips, pursed up with meaning and thought when silent, and giving out when open with the most varied and unusual instructive sayings.</blockquote> +==Physical appearance= ==Life== ===Early life and education, 1817–1837=== -[[File:Wheeler-Minot Farmhouse, Concord MA.jpg|thumb|Thoreau's birthplace, the [[Wheeler-Minot Farmhouse]] in [[Concord, Massachusetts]]]] - -Henry David Thoreau was born David Henry Thoreau<ref>Nelson, Randy F. (1981). ''The Almanac of American Letters''. Los Altos, California: William Kaufmann. p. 51. {{ISBN|0-86576-008-X}}.</ref> in [[Concord, Massachusetts]], into the "modest [[New England]] family"<ref name=McElroy>[[Wendy McElroy|McElroy, Wendy]] (July 30, 2005) [http://archive.lewrockwell.com/mcelroy/mcelroy86.html "Henry David Thoreau and 'Civil Disobedience'"] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150620145129/http://archive.lewrockwell.com/mcelroy/mcelroy86.html |date=June 20, 2015 }}. [[LewRockwell.com]].</ref> of John Thoreau, a pencil maker, and Cynthia Dunbar. His father was of French Protestant descent.<ref>{{Cite book|url=https://www.google.com/books/edition/Henry_David_Thoreau/Uoi8eRYMXV4C?hl=en&gbpv=1&bsq=protestant|isbn = 9780822558934|title = Henry David Thoreau: A Biography|date = December 22, 2006|publisher = Twenty-First Century Books}}</ref> His paternal grandfather had been born on the UK [[crown dependency]] island of [[Jersey]].<ref>{{cite web|url=http://wc.rootsweb.ancestry.com/cgi-bin/igm.cgi?op=GET&db=maold&id=I18020|title=RootsWeb's WorldConnect Project: Ancestors of Mary Ann Gillam and Stephen Old|access-date=September 2, 2008|archive-date=October 16, 2008|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20081016141209/http://wc.rootsweb.ancestry.com/cgi-bin/igm.cgi?op=GET&db=maold&id=I18020|url-status=live}}</ref> His maternal grandfather, Asa Dunbar, led [[Harvard University|Harvard's]] 1766 student "[[Butter rebellion|Butter Rebellion]]",<ref>[https://www.brown.edu/Students/Alpha_Delta_Phi/history/fraternities.php History of the Fraternity System] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090704122642/http://www.brown.edu/Students/Alpha_Delta_Phi/history/fraternities.php |date=July 4, 2009 }}.</ref> the first recorded student protest in the American colonies.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.trivialibrary.com/c/first-student-protest-in-the-united-states.htm|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20191215210840/http://www.trivialibrary.com/c/first-student-protest-in-the-united-states.htm|url-status=dead|archive-date=December 15, 2019|title=First Student Protest in the United States}}</ref> David Henry was named after his recently deceased paternal uncle, David Thoreau. He began to call himself Henry David after he finished college; he never petitioned to make a legal name change.<ref>[http://www.barnesandnoble.com/writers/writerdetails.asp?z=y&cid=1019508#bio Henry David Thoreau] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20061031164847/http://www.barnesandnoble.com/writers/writerdetails.asp?z=y&cid=1019508 |date=October 31, 2006 }}, "Meet the Writers." Barnes & Noble.com</ref> - -He had two older siblings, Helen and John Jr., and a younger sister, [[Sophia Thoreau]].<ref>[http://www.americanpoems.com/poets/thoreau/ Biography of Henry David Thoreau] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190806235504/https://www.americanpoems.com/poets/thoreau/ |date=August 6, 2019 }}. americanpoems.com</ref> None of the children married.<ref name=":7">{{Cite web |date=2020-09-19 |title=Helen and Sophia Thoreau, Henry David's Amazing Sisters |url=https://www.newenglandhistoricalsociety.com/helen-sophia-thoreau-henrys-amazing-sisters/ |access-date=2022-05-15 |website=New England Historical Society |language=en-US}}</ref> Helen (1812–1849) died at age 37 years,<ref name=":7" /> from tuberculosis. John Jr. (1814–1842) died at age 27,<ref>{{Cite journal |last=Blanding |first=Thomas |date=1980 |title=BEANS, BAKED AND HALF-BAKED (13) |url=https://archive.org/details/concordsaunter1980151unse/page/16/mode/1up |journal=The Concord Saunterer |volume=15 |issue=1 |pages=16–22 |issn=1068-5359}}</ref> of [[tetanus]] after cutting himself while shaving.<ref>{{Cite journal |last=Myerson |first=Joel |date=1994 |title=Barzillai Frost's Funeral Sermon on the Death of John Thoreau Jr. |url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/3817844 |journal=Huntington Library Quarterly |volume=57 |issue=4 |pages=367–376 |doi=10.2307/3817844 |jstor=3817844 |issn=0018-7895}}</ref> Henry David (1817–1862) died at age 44, of tuberculosis.<ref>{{Cite web |title=Thoreau's Life {{!}} The Thoreau Society |url=https://www.thoreausociety.org/life-legacy |access-date=2022-05-16 |website=www.thoreausociety.org}}</ref> Sophia (1819–1876) survived him by 14 years, dying at age 56 years,<ref name=":7" /> of tuberculosis.<ref>{{Cite journal |last=Herrick |first=Gerri L. |date=1978 |title=SOPHIA THOREAU - "Cara Sophia" |url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/23393396 |journal=The Concord Saunterer |volume=13 |issue=3 |pages=5–12 |jstor=23393396 |issn=1068-5359}}</ref> - -He studied at [[Harvard College]] between 1833 and 1837. He lived in [[Hollis Hall]]<ref>{{Cite web |last=Roman |first=John |date=24 Jun 2021 |title=The Homes of Henry David Thoreau |url=http://www.electrummagazine.com/2021/06/the-homes-of-henry-david-thoreau/?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=the-homes-of-henry-david-thoreau |access-date=16 May 2022 |website=Electrum Magazine}}</ref> and took courses in [[rhetoric]], classics, philosophy, mathematics, and science.<ref>{{Cite web |title=The Writings of Henry D. Thoreau |url=https://thoreau.library.ucsb.edu/thoreau_life.html |access-date=2022-05-16 |website=thoreau.library.ucsb.edu}}</ref> He was a member of the Institute of 1770<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.thoreausociety.org/_membership.htm |title=Organizations Thoreau Joined |publisher=Thoreau Society |access-date=June 26, 2014 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130503192646/http://www.thoreausociety.org/_membership.htm |archive-date=May 3, 2013 }}</ref> (now the [[Hasty Pudding Club]]). According to legend, Thoreau refused to pay the five-dollar fee (approximately {{inflation|US|5|1840|fmt=eq}}) for a Harvard diploma. In fact, the master's degree he declined to purchase had no academic merit: [[Harvard College]] offered it to graduates "who proved their physical worth by being alive three years after graduating, and their saving, earning, or inheriting quality or condition by having Five Dollars to give the college".<ref>"Thoreau's Diploma". ''American Literature''. Vol. 17, May 1945. pp. 174–175.</ref> He commented, "Let every sheep keep its own skin",<ref>{{cite web |author=Walter Harding |url=http://www.walden.org/Institute/thoreau/about2/H/WalterHarding/LiveYourOwnLife.htm |title=Live Your Own Life |work=Geneseo Summer Compass |date=June 4, 1984 |access-date=November 21, 2009 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20060129085602/http://www.walden.org/Institute/thoreau/about2/H/WalterHarding/LiveYourOwnLife.htm |archive-date=January 29, 2006|author-link=Walter Harding }}</ref> a reference to the tradition of using [[Sheepskin (material)|sheepskin]] [[vellum]] for diplomas. - -[[Wheeler-Minot Farmhouse|Thoreau's birthplace]] still exists on Virginia Road in Concord. The house has been restored by the Thoreau Farm Trust,<ref>{{cite web|title=Thoreau Farm|work=thoreaufarm.org|url=http://thoreaufarm.org/|access-date=April 23, 2013|archive-date=October 30, 2019|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20191030230744/https://thoreaufarm.org/|url-status=live}}</ref> a nonprofit organization, and is now open to the public. - -===Return to Concord, 1837–1844=== -The traditional professions open to college graduates—law, the church, business, medicine—did not interest Thoreau,<ref name="sattelmeyer">Sattelmeyer, Robert (1988). ''Thoreau's Reading: A Study in Intellectual History with Bibliographical Catalogue''. [http://www.walden.org/Institute/thoreau/about2/S/Sattelmeyer_Robert/Reading2.pdf Chapter 2] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150908031952/http://www.walden.org/Institute/thoreau/about2/S/Sattelmeyer_Robert/Reading2.pdf |date=September 8, 2015 }}. Princeton: Princeton University Press.</ref>{{Rp|25}} so in 1835 he took a leave of absence from Harvard, during which he taught at a school in [[Canton, Massachusetts]], living for two years at an earlier version of today's [[Concord's Colonial Inn|Colonial Inn]] in Concord. His grandfather owned the earliest of the three buildings that were later combined.<ref name=hudson311>''The History of Concord, Massachusetts, Vol. I, Colonial Concord, Volume 1'', Alfred Sereno Hudson (1904), p. 311</ref> After he graduated in 1837, Thoreau joined the faculty of the Concord public school, but he resigned after a few weeks rather than administer [[corporal punishment]].<ref name="sattelmeyer"/>{{Rp|25}} He and his brother John then opened the Concord Academy, a [[grammar school]] in Concord, in 1838.<!-- Concord Academy (1822–1863) is a different institution than Concord Academy (est. 1922). --><ref name="sattelmeyer" />{{Rp|25}} 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 after cutting himself while shaving.<ref>Dean, Bradley P. "[http://thoreau.eserver.org/wfchron.html A Thoreau Chronology] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170620133904/http://thoreau.eserver.org/wfchron.html |date=June 20, 2017 }}".</ref><ref>{{Cite journal|jstor=3817844 |title=Barzillai Frost's Funeral Sermon on the Death of John Thoreau Jr. |journal=Huntington Library Quarterly |volume=57 |issue=4 |pages=367–376 |date=1994 |author=Myerson, Joel|doi=10.2307/3817844 }}</ref> He died in Henry's arms.<ref>Woodlief, Ann. "[http://www.vcu.edu/engweb/transcendentalism/authors/thoreau/ Henry David Thoreau] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20191009005716/https://www.vcu.edu/engweb/transcendentalism/authors/thoreau/ |date=October 9, 2019 }}".</ref> - -Upon graduation Thoreau returned home to Concord, where he met [[Ralph Waldo Emerson]] through a mutual friend.<ref name=McElroy/> Emerson, who was 14 years his senior, took a paternal and at times patron-like interest in Thoreau, advising the young man and introducing him to a circle of local writers and thinkers, including [[William Ellery Channing (poet)|Ellery Channing]], [[Margaret Fuller]], [[Amos Bronson Alcott|Bronson Alcott]], and [[Nathaniel Hawthorne]] and his son [[Julian Hawthorne]], who was a boy at the time. - -Emerson urged Thoreau to contribute essays and poems to a quarterly periodical, ''[[The Dial]]'', and lobbied the editor, Margaret Fuller, to publish those writings. Thoreau's first essay published in ''The Dial'' was "Aulus Persius Flaccus",<ref>{{Cite web|url=http://www.walden.org/documents/file/Library/About%20Thoreau/D/Dial/AulusPersiusFlaccus.pdf|title=Aulus Persius Flaccus|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120925021512/http://www.walden.org/documents/file/Library/About%20Thoreau/D/Dial/AulusPersiusFlaccus.pdf|archive-date=September 25, 2012|url-status=dead}}</ref> an essay on the Roman poet and satirist, in July 1840.<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.walden.org/Library/About_Thoreau's_Life_and_Writings:_The_Research_Collections/The_Dial |title=''The Dial'' |publisher=Walden.org |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20151018151944/http://www.walden.org/Library/About_Thoreau%27s_Life_and_Writings%3A_The_Research_Collections/The_Dial |archive-date=October 18, 2015 }}</ref> It consisted of revised passages from his journal, which he had begun keeping at Emerson's suggestion. The first journal entry, on October 22, 1837, reads, "'What are you doing now?' he asked. 'Do you keep a journal?' So I make my first entry to-day."<ref>Thoreau, Henry David (2007). ''I to Myself: An Annotated Selection from the Journal of Henry D. Thoreau''. Jeffrey S. Cramer, ed. New Haven: Yale University Press. p. 1.</ref> - -Thoreau was a philosopher of nature and its relation to the human condition. In his early years he followed [[transcendentalism]], a loose and eclectic [[Idealism|idealist]] philosophy advocated by Emerson, Fuller, and Alcott. They held that an ideal spiritual state transcends, or goes beyond, the physical and empirical, and that one achieves that insight via personal intuition rather than religious doctrine. In their view, Nature is the outward sign of inward spirit, expressing the "radical correspondence of visible things and human thoughts", as Emerson wrote in ''Nature'' (1836). - -[[File:Thoreau1967stamp.jpg|thumb|right|1967 U.S. postage stamp honoring Thoreau, designed by [[Leonard Baskin]]]] - -On April 18, 1841, Thoreau moved into the [[Ralph Waldo Emerson House|Emerson house]].<ref name="Cheever">Cheever, Susan (2006). ''American Bloomsbury: Louisa May Alcott, Ralph Waldo Emerson, Margaret Fuller, Nathaniel Hawthorne, and Henry David Thoreau; Their Lives, Their Loves, Their Work''. Detroit: Thorndike Press. p. 90. {{ISBN|0-7862-9521-X}}.</ref> There, from 1841 to 1844, he served as the children's tutor; he was also an editorial assistant, repairman and gardener. For a few months in 1843, he moved to the home of William Emerson on [[Staten Island]],<ref>{{cite book |title=The Life of Henry David Thoreau |last=Salt |first=H. S. |date=1890 |publisher=Richard Bentley & Son |location=London |url=https://archive.org/details/bub_gb_t_0RAAAAYAAJ |page=[https://archive.org/details/bub_gb_t_0RAAAAYAAJ/page/n83 69]}}</ref> and tutored the family's sons while seeking contacts among literary men and journalists in the city who might help publish his writings, including his future literary representative [[Horace Greeley]].<ref>Sanborn, F. B., ed. (1906). ''The Writings of Henry David Thoreau''. Vol. VI, ''Familiar Letters''. [http://www.walden.org/Institute/thoreau/writings/Writings1906/06FamiliarLetters/Years%20of%20Discipline.pdf Chapter 1, "Years of Discipline"] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150907235501/http://www.walden.org/Institute/thoreau/writings/Writings1906/06FamiliarLetters/Years%20of%20Discipline.pdf |date=September 7, 2015 }}. Boston: Houghton Mifflin.</ref>{{Rp|68}} - -Thoreau returned to Concord and worked in his family's [[pencil]] factory, which he would continue to do alongside his writing and other work for most of his adult life. He rediscovered the process of making good pencils with inferior [[graphite]] by using clay as the binder.<ref>{{Cite book|url=https://archive.org/details/pencilhistoryofd00petr|url-access=registration|title=The Pencil: A History of Design and Circumstance|last=Petroski|first=Henry|publisher=Knopf|year=1992|isbn=9780679734154|location=New York|pages=[https://archive.org/details/pencilhistoryofd00petr/page/104 104]–125}}</ref> This invention allowed profitable use of a graphite source found in [[New Hampshire]] that had been purchased in 1821 by Thoreau's uncle, Charles Dunbar. The process of mixing graphite and clay, known as the Conté process, had been first patented by [[Nicolas-Jacques Conté]] in 1795. The company's other source of graphite had been [[Tantiusques]], a mine operated by Native Americans in [[Sturbridge, Massachusetts]]. Later, Thoreau converted the pencil factory to produce plumbago, a name for graphite at the time, which was used in the [[electrotyping]] process.<ref>Conrad, Randall. (Fall 2005). [http://thoreau.eserver.org/pencils.html "Machine in the Wetland: Re-imagining Thoreau's Plumbago-Grinder"] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070609102739/http://thoreau.eserver.org/pencils.html |date=June 9, 2007 }}. ''[http://www.thoreausociety.org/_activities_tsb.htm Thoreau Society Bulletin] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20071223191911/http://www.thoreausociety.org/_activities_tsb.htm |date=December 23, 2007 }}'' 253.</ref> - -Once back in Concord, Thoreau went through a restless period. In April 1844 he and his friend Edward Hoar accidentally set a fire that consumed {{convert|300|acre|ha|-1|abbr=off}} of Walden Woods.<ref>[http://www.calliope.org/thoreau/thorotime.html ''A Chronology of Thoreau's Life, with Events of the Times''] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160213001457/http://www.calliope.org/thoreau/thorotime.html |date=February 13, 2016 }}. The Thoreau Project, Calliope Film Resources. Accessed June 11, 2007.</ref> - -==="Civil Disobedience" and the Walden years, 1845–1850=== -[[File:Thoreau sites in Walden Pond.svg|thumb|left|Thoreau sites at Walden Pond]] - -{{blockquote|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 practise 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, "Where I Lived, and What I Lived For", in ''[[Walden]]''<ref>''Grammardog Guide to Walden''. Grammardog. p. 25. {{ISBN|1-60857-084-3}}.</ref>}} - -Thoreau felt a need to concentrate and work more on his writing. In 1845, Ellery Channing told Thoreau, "Go out upon that, build yourself a hut, & there begin the grand process of devouring yourself alive. I see no other alternative, no other hope for you."{{sfn|Packer|2007|p=[https://books.google.com/books?id=FBHgfLqH_RUC&pg=PA183 183]}} Thus, on July 4, 1845, Thoreau embarked on a two-year experiment in [[simple living]], moving to a small house he had built on land owned by Emerson in a [[secondary forest|second growth forest]] around the shores of [[Walden Pond]]. The house was in "a pretty pasture and woodlot" of {{convert|14|acre|ha|1|abbr=off}} that Emerson had bought,<ref>Richardson. ''Emerson: The Mind on Fire''. p. 399.</ref> {{convert|1+1/2|mi|km|round=0.5|abbr=off|sp=us}} from his family home.<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.google.com/maps/search/concord+mass/@42.449808,-71.342769,15z?dg=dbrw&newdg=1|title=Google Maps|access-date=October 13, 2018|archive-date=January 25, 2020|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200125151513/https://www.google.com/maps/search/concord+mass/@42.449808,-71.342769,15z?dg=dbrw&newdg=1|url-status=live}}</ref> Whilst there, he wrote his only extended piece of literary criticism, "[[Thomas Carlyle and His Works]]".<ref>{{Cite journal |last=Gravett |first=Sharon L. |date=1995 |title=Carlyle's Demanding Companion: Henry David Thoreau |url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/44946086 |journal=Carlyle Studies Annual |publisher=Saint Joseph's University Press |issue=15 |pages=21–31 |jstor=44946086 |url-access=registration |via=JSTOR}}</ref> -[[File:Walden Thoreau.jpg|thumb|Original title page of ''Walden'', with an illustration from a drawing by Thoreau's sister Sophia]] - -On July 24 or July 25, 1846, Thoreau ran into the local [[tax collector]], Sam Staples, who asked him to pay six years of delinquent [[Poll tax (United States)|poll taxes]]. Thoreau refused because of his opposition to the [[Mexican–American War]] and [[Slavery in the United States|slavery]], and he spent a night in jail because of this refusal. The next day Thoreau was freed when someone, likely to have been his aunt, paid the tax, against his wishes.<ref name=":2">Rosenwald, Lawrence. "[http://thoreau.eserver.org/theory.html The Theory, Practice and Influence of Thoreau's Civil Disobedience]". William Cain, ed. (2006). ''A Historical Guide to Henry David Thoreau''. Cambridge: Oxford University Press. {{Webarchive|url=https://archive.today/20131014012153/http://thoreau.eserver.org/theory.html|date=October 14, 2013|title=Archived}}</ref> The experience had a strong impact on Thoreau. In January and February 1848, he delivered lectures on "The Rights and Duties of the Individual in relation to Government",<ref>Thoreau, H. D., letter to Ralph Waldo Emerson, February 23, 1848.</ref> explaining his tax resistance at the [[Concord Lyceum]]. Bronson Alcott attended the lecture, writing in his journal on January 26: - -{{blockquote|Heard Thoreau's lecture before the Lyceum on the relation of the individual to the State—an admirable statement of the rights of the individual to self-government, and an attentive audience. His allusions to the Mexican War, to Mr. [[Samuel Hoar|Hoar]]'s expulsion from Carolina, his own imprisonment in Concord Jail for refusal to pay his tax, Mr. Hoar's payment of mine when taken to prison for a similar refusal, were all pertinent, well considered, and reasoned. I took great pleasure in this deed of Thoreau's.|Bronson Alcott|''Journals''<ref>Alcott, Bronson (1938). ''Journals''. Boston: Little, Brown.</ref>}} - -Thoreau revised the lecture into an essay titled "[[Civil Disobedience (Thoreau)|Resistance to Civil Government]]" (also known as "Civil Disobedience"). It was published by [[Elizabeth Peabody]] in the ''Aesthetic Papers'' in May 1849. Thoreau had taken up a version of [[Percy Shelley]]'s principle in the political poem "[[The Mask of Anarchy]]" (1819), which begins with the powerful images of the unjust forms of authority of his time and then imagines the stirrings of a radically new form of social action.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.morrissociety.org/JWMS/SP94.10.4.Nichols.pdf |title=Morrissociety.org |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110105232938/http://www.morrissociety.org/JWMS/SP94.10.4.Nichols.pdf |archive-date=January 5, 2011 }}</ref> - -At Walden Pond, Thoreau completed a first draft of ''[[A Week on the Concord and Merrimack Rivers]]'', an [[elegy]] to his brother John, describing their trip to the [[White Mountains (New Hampshire)|White Mountains]] in 1839. Thoreau did not find a publisher for the book and instead printed 1,000 copies at his own expense; fewer than 300 were sold.<ref name="Cheever" />{{Rp|234}} He self-published the book on the advice of Emerson, using Emerson's publisher, Munroe, who did little to publicize the book. - -{{multiple image -| align = left -| direction = vertical -| caption_align = center -| width = 225 -| image1 = Thoreau's cabin inside.jpg -| alt1 = -| caption1 = Reconstruction of the interior of Thoreau's cabin -| image2 = Replica of Thoreau's cabin near Walden Pond and his statue.jpg -| alt2 = -| caption2 = Replica of Thoreau's cabin and a statue of him near Walden Pond -}} - -In August 1846, Thoreau briefly left Walden to make a trip to [[Mount Katahdin]] in [[Maine]], a journey later recorded in "Ktaadn", the first part of ''The Maine Woods''. - -Thoreau left Walden Pond on September 6, 1847.<ref name="Cheever" />{{Rp|244}} At Emerson's request, he immediately moved back to the Emerson house to help Emerson's wife, Lidian, manage the household while her husband was on an extended trip to Europe.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.thoreausociety.org/_news_abouthdt.htm |title=Thoreausociety.org |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20101129085846/http://thoreausociety.org/_news_abouthdt.htm |archive-date=November 29, 2010 }}</ref> Over several years, as he worked to pay off his debts, he continuously revised the manuscript of what he eventually published as ''[[Walden|Walden, or Life in the Woods]]'' in 1854, recounting the two years, two months, and two days he had spent at Walden Pond. The book compresses that time into a single calendar year, using the passage of the four seasons to symbolize human development. Part [[memoir]] and part spiritual quest, ''Walden'' at first won few admirers, but later critics have regarded it as a classic American work that explores natural simplicity, harmony, and beauty as models for just social and cultural conditions. - -The American poet [[Robert Frost]] wrote of Thoreau, "In one book ... he surpasses everything we have had in America."<ref>Frost, Robert (1968). Letter to Wade Van Dore, June 24, 1922, in ''Twentieth Century Interpretations of Walden''. Richard Ruland, ed. Englewood Cliffs, N.J.: Prentice Hall. p. 8. {{LCCN|6814480}}.</ref> - -The American author [[John Updike]] said of the book, "A century and a half after its publication, Walden has become such a totem of the back-to-nature, preservationist, anti-business, civil-disobedience mindset, and Thoreau so vivid a protester, so perfect a crank and hermit saint, that the book risks being as revered and unread as the Bible."<ref>Updike, John (2004). "A Sage for All Seasons". [https://www.theguardian.com/books/2004/jun/26/classics ''The Guardian''] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210827194247/https://www.theguardian.com/books/2004/jun/26/classics |date=August 27, 2021 }}.</ref> - -Thoreau moved out of Emerson's house in July 1848 and stayed at a house on nearby Belknap Street. In 1850, he moved into a house at [[Thoreau-Alcott House|255 Main Street]], where he lived until his death.<ref>Ehrlich, Eugene; Carruth, Gorton (1982). ''The Oxford Illustrated Literary Guide to the United States''. New York: Oxford University Press. p. 45. {{ISBN|0-19-503186-5}}.</ref> - -In the summer of 1850, Thoreau and Channing journeyed from Boston to [[Montreal]] and [[Quebec City]]. These would be Thoreau's only travels outside the United States.<ref>{{cite journal|last1=Weisman|first1=Adam Paul|title=Postcolonialism in North America: Imaginative Colonization in Henry David Thoreau's "A Yankee in Canada" and Jacques Poulin's "Volkswagen Blues"|journal=The Massachusetts Review|date=Autumn 1995|volume=36|issue=3|pages=478–479}}</ref> It is as a result of this trip that he developed lectures that eventually became ''A Yankee in Canada''. He jested that all he got from this adventure "was a cold".<ref>{{cite book|last1=Thoreau|first1=Henry David|title=A Yankee in Canada|url=https://archive.org/details/yankeeincanada0000thor|url-access=registration|date=1961|publisher=Harvest House|location=Montreal|page=[https://archive.org/details/yankeeincanada0000thor/page/13 13]}}</ref> In fact, this proved an opportunity to contrast American civic spirit and democratic values with a colony apparently ruled by illegitimate religious and military power. Whereas his own country had had its revolution, in Canada history had failed to turn.<ref name="ReferenceB">{{cite journal|last1=Lacroix|first1=Patrick|title=Finding Thoreau in French Canada: The Ideological Legacy of the American Revolution|journal=American Review of Canadian Studies|date=Fall 2017|volume=47|issue=3|pages=266–279|doi=10.1080/02722011.2017.1370719|s2cid=148808283}}</ref> - -===Later years, 1851–1862=== -[[File:VII. Rowse.jpg|thumb|Thoreau in 1854]] -In 1851, Thoreau became increasingly fascinated with [[natural history]] and narratives of travel and expedition. He read avidly on [[botany]] and often wrote observations on this topic into his journal. He admired [[William Bartram]] and [[Charles Darwin]]'s ''[[The Voyage of the Beagle|Voyage of the Beagle]]''. He kept detailed observations on Concord's nature lore, recording everything from how the fruit ripened over time to the fluctuating depths of Walden Pond and the days certain birds migrated. The point of this task was to "anticipate" the seasons of nature, in his word.<ref>[http://www.walden.org/documents/file/Library/Thoreau/writings/correspondence/LettersBlake.pdf#page34 Letters to H.&nbsp;G.&nbsp;O. Blake] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110617003953/http://www.walden.org/documents/file/Library/Thoreau/writings/correspondence/LettersBlake.pdf |date=June 17, 2011 }}. Walden.org</ref><ref>Thoreau, Henry David (1862). "Autumnal Tints". ''The Atlantic Monthly'', October. pp. 385–402. [http://www.walden.org/Institute/thoreau/writings/essays/Thoreau_Autumnal%20Tints.pdf Reprint] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20100307053611/http://www.walden.org/Institute/thoreau/writings/essays/Thoreau_Autumnal%20Tints.pdf |date=March 7, 2010 }}. Retrieved November 21, 2009.</ref> - -He became a [[Surveying|land surveyor]] and continued to write increasingly detailed observations on the natural history of the town, covering an area of {{convert|26|sqmi|km2|abbr=off|sp=us}}, in his journal, a two-million-word document he kept for 24 years. He also kept a series of notebooks, and these observations became the source of his late writings on natural history, such as "Autumnal Tints", "The Succession of Trees", and "Wild Apples", an essay lamenting the destruction of the local [[wild apple]] species. - -With the rise of [[environmental history]] and [[ecocriticism]] as academic disciplines, several new readings of Thoreau began to emerge, showing him to have been both a philosopher and an analyst of ecological patterns in fields and woodlots.<ref>{{cite book|last1=Thorson|first1=Robert M.|title=Walden's Shore: Henry David Thoreau and Nineteenth-Century Science|date=December 6, 2013|publisher=Harvard University Press|location=Cambridge, Massachusetts|isbn=978-0674724785}}</ref><ref>{{cite news|last1=Primack|first1=Richard B.|title=Tracking Climate Change with the Help of Henry David Thoreau|url=http://www.elsevier.com/connect/tracking-climate-change-with-the-help-of-henry-david-thoreau|access-date=September 23, 2015|date=June 13, 2013|archive-date=September 23, 2015|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150923155958/http://www.elsevier.com/connect/tracking-climate-change-with-the-help-of-henry-david-thoreau|url-status=live}}</ref> For instance, "The Succession of Forest Trees", shows that he used experimentation and analysis to explain how forests regenerate after fire or human destruction, through the dispersal of seeds by winds or animals. In this lecture, first presented to a cattle show in Concord, and considered his greatest contribution to ecology, Thoreau explained why one species of tree can grow in a place where a different tree did previously. He observed that [[squirrel]]s often carry nuts far from the tree from which they fell to create stashes. These seeds are likely to germinate and grow should the squirrel die or abandon the stash. He credited the squirrel for performing a "great service ... in the economy of the universe."<ref>{{cite book|last1=Worster|first1=Donald|title=Nature's Economy|date=1977|publisher=Cambridge University|location=New York|isbn=0-521-45273-2|pages=69–71}}</ref> -[[File:Walden Pond, 2010.jpg|thumb|left|[[Walden Pond]]]] - -He traveled to [[Canada East]] once, [[Cape Cod]] four times, and Maine three times; these landscapes inspired his "excursion" books, ''[[A Yankee in Canada]]'', ''Cape Cod'', and ''The Maine Woods'', in which travel itineraries frame his thoughts about geography, history and philosophy. Other travels took him southwest to [[Philadelphia]] and New York City in 1854 and west across the [[Great Lakes region (North America)|Great Lakes region]] in 1861, when he visited [[Niagara Falls]], Detroit, Chicago, [[Milwaukee]], [[St. Paul, Minnesota|St. Paul]] and [[Mackinac Island]].<ref>Thoreau, Henry David (1970). ''The Annotated Walden''. Philip Van Doren Stern, ed. pp. 96, 132.</ref> He was provincial in his own travels, but he read widely about travel in other lands. He devoured all the first-hand travel accounts available in his day, at a time when the last unmapped regions of the earth were being explored. He read [[Ferdinand Magellan|Magellan]] and [[James Cook]]; the [[arctic explorer]]s [[John Franklin]], [[Alexander Mackenzie (explorer)|Alexander Mackenzie]] and [[William Parry (explorer)|William Parry]]; [[David Livingstone]] and [[Richard Francis Burton]] on Africa; [[Lewis and Clark]]; and hundreds of lesser-known works by explorers and literate travelers.<ref>Christie, John Aldrich (1965). ''Thoreau as World Traveler''. New York: Columbia University Press.</ref> Astonishing amounts of reading fed his endless curiosity about the peoples, cultures, religions and natural history of the world and left its traces as commentaries in his voluminous journals. He processed everything he read, in the local laboratory of his Concord experience. Among his famous aphorisms is his advice to "live at home like a traveler".<ref>[http://www.walden.org/Library/The_Writings_of_Henry_David_Thoreau:_The_Digital_Collection/Correspondence Letters of H.&nbsp;G.&nbsp;O. Blake] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110617003655/http://www.walden.org/Library/The_Writings_of_Henry_David_Thoreau%3A_The_Digital_Collection/Correspondence |date=June 17, 2011 }} in ''The Writings of Henry David Thoreau: The Digital Collection''.</ref> - -After [[John Brown's raid on Harpers Ferry]], many prominent voices in the abolitionist movement distanced themselves from Brown or [[Damn with faint praise|damned him with faint praise]]. Thoreau was disgusted by this, and he composed a key speech, ''[[A Plea for Captain John Brown]]'', which was uncompromising in its defense of Brown and his actions. Thoreau's speech proved persuasive: the abolitionist movement began to accept Brown as a martyr, and by the time of the [[American Civil War]] entire armies of the North were [[John Brown's Body|literally singing Brown's praises]]. As a biographer of Brown put it, "If, as Alfred Kazin suggests, without John Brown there would have been no Civil War, we would add that without the Concord Transcendentalists, John Brown would have had little cultural impact."<ref>Reynolds, David S. (2005). ''John Brown, Abolitionist''. Knopf. p. 4.</ref> -[[File:Henry David Thoreau - Dunshee ambrotpe 1861.jpg|thumb|left|Thoreau in his second and final photographic sitting, August 1861]] - -===Death=== -Thoreau contracted [[tuberculosis]] in 1835 and suffered from it sporadically afterwards. In 1860, following a late-night excursion to count the rings of tree stumps during a rainstorm, he became ill with [[bronchitis]].<ref>{{Cite book|last=Richardson|first=Robert D. Jr.|title=Faith in a Seed: The First Publication of Thoreau's Last Manuscript|publisher=Island Press|year=1993|editor-last=Dean|editor-first=Bradley P.|location=Washington, D.C.|pages=17|chapter=Introduction}}</ref><ref>[https://www.walden.org/Library/About_Thoreau's_Life_and_Writings:_The_Research_Collections/Thoreau,_the_Man About Thoreau: Thoreau, the Man] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160620045648/http://www.walden.org/Library/About_Thoreau%27s_Life_and_Writings%3A_The_Research_Collections/Thoreau%2C_the_Man |date=June 20, 2016 }}.</ref><ref>[http://thoreau.eserver.org/wfchron.html Thoreau Chronology] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170620133904/http://thoreau.eserver.org/wfchron.html |date=June 20, 2017 }}.</ref> His health declined, with brief periods of remission, and he eventually became bedridden. Recognizing the terminal nature of his disease, Thoreau spent his last years revising and editing his unpublished works, particularly ''The Maine Woods'' and [[Excursions (anthology)|''Excursions'']], and petitioning publishers to print revised editions of ''A Week'' and ''Walden''. He wrote letters and journal entries until he became too weak to continue. His friends were alarmed at his diminished appearance and were fascinated by his tranquil acceptance of death. When his aunt Louisa asked him in his last weeks if he had made his peace with God, Thoreau responded, "I did not know we had ever quarreled."<ref>{{cite book|first=Simon|last=Critchley|title=The Book of Dead Philosophers|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=ME-6IKs4a2sC&pg=PA181|page=181|location=New York|publisher=Random House|date=2009|isbn=978-0307472632|access-date=June 20, 2015|archive-date=August 27, 2021|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210827194251/https://books.google.com/books?id=ME-6IKs4a2sC&pg=PA181|url-status=live}}</ref> - -[[File:Grave of Henry David Thoreau.jpeg|thumb|Grave of Thoreau at [[Sleepy Hollow Cemetery (Concord, Massachusetts)|Sleepy Hollow Cemetery]] in Concord]] [[File:David Henry Thoreau.jpg|thumb|Geodetic Marker at Thoreau's gravesite]] -Aware he was dying, Thoreau's last words were "Now comes good sailing", followed by two lone words, "moose" and "Indian".<ref>{{cite web|url=http://writersalmanac.publicradio.org/programs/2008/05/05/|title=The Writer's Almanac|publisher=American Public Media|access-date=June 1, 2017|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170708225006/http://writersalmanac.publicradio.org/programs/2008/05/05/|archive-date=July 8, 2017|url-status=dead}}</ref> He died on May 6, 1862, at age 44. [[Amos Bronson Alcott]] planned the service and read selections from Thoreau's works, and Channing presented a hymn.<ref>{{cite book |last=Packer |first=Barbara L. |year=2007 |title=The Transcendentalists |location=Athens, Georgia |publisher=University of Georgia Press |page=272 |isbn=978-0-8203-2958-1}}</ref> Emerson wrote the eulogy spoken at the funeral.<ref>{{cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=NWACAAAAIAAJ&pg=PA239|last= Emerson|first= Ralph Waldo |title=Thoreau|work=The Atlantic|date= August 1862}}</ref> Thoreau was buried in the Dunbar family plot; his remains and those of members of his immediate family were eventually moved to [[Sleepy Hollow Cemetery (Concord, Massachusetts)|Sleepy Hollow Cemetery]] in Concord, Massachusetts. - -===Nature and human existence=== -{{blockquote|Most of the luxuries and many of the so-called comforts of life are not only not indispensable, but positive hindrances to the elevation of mankind.| Thoreau<ref>''Walden, or Life in the Woods'' (Chapter 1: "Economy")</ref>}} - -Thoreau was an early advocate of recreational hiking and [[canoeing]], of conserving natural resources on private land, and of preserving wilderness as public land. He was himself a highly skilled canoeist; [[Nathaniel Hawthorne]], after a ride with him, noted that "Mr. Thoreau managed the boat so perfectly, either with two paddles or with one, that it seemed instinct with his own will, and to require no physical effort to guide it."<ref>Nathaniel Hawthorne, Passages From the American Note-Books, entry for September 2, 1842.</ref> - -He was not a strict vegetarian, though he said he preferred that diet<ref>Brooks, Van Wyck. ''The Flowering of New England''. New York: E. P. Dutton and Company, Inc., 1952. p. 310</ref> and advocated it as a means of self-improvement. He wrote in ''Walden'', "The practical objection to animal food in my case was its uncleanness; and besides, when I had caught and cleaned and cooked and eaten my fish, they seemed not to have fed me essentially. It was insignificant and unnecessary, and cost more than it came to. A little bread or a few potatoes would have done as well, with less trouble and filth."<ref name="Cheever241">Cheever, Susan (2006). ''American Bloomsbury: Louisa May Alcott, Ralph Waldo Emerson, Margaret Fuller, Nathaniel Hawthorne, and Henry David Thoreau; Their Lives, Their Loves, Their Work''. Detroit: Thorndike Press. Large print edition. p. 241. {{ISBN|0-7862-9521-X}}.</ref> - -[[File:Thoreaus quote near his cabin site, Walden Pond.jpg|thumb|Thoreau's famous quotation, near his cabin site at Walden Pond]] -Thoreau neither rejected civilization nor fully embraced wilderness. Instead he sought a middle ground, the [[pastoral]] realm that integrates nature and culture. His philosophy required that he be a didactic arbitrator between the wilderness he based so much on and the spreading mass of humanity in North America. He decried the latter endlessly but felt that a teacher needs to be close to those who needed to hear what he wanted to tell them. The wildness he enjoyed was the nearby swamp or forest, and he preferred "partially cultivated country". His idea of being "far in the recesses of the wilderness" of Maine was to "travel the logger's path and the Indian trail", but he also hiked on pristine land. In the essay "Henry David Thoreau, Philosopher" [[Roderick Nash]] wrote, "Thoreau left Concord in 1846 for the first of three trips to northern Maine. His expectations were high because he hoped to find genuine, primeval America. But contact with real wilderness in Maine affected him far differently than had the idea of wilderness in Concord. Instead of coming out of the woods with a deepened appreciation of the wilds, Thoreau felt a greater respect for civilization and realized the necessity of balance."<ref>Nash, Roderick. ''Wilderness and the American Mind: Henry David Thoreau: Philosopher''.</ref> - -Of alcohol, Thoreau wrote, "I would fain keep sober always. ... I believe that water is the only drink for a wise man; wine is not so noble a liquor. ... Of all ebriosity, who does not prefer to be intoxicated by the air he breathes?"<ref name="Cheever241" /> - -===Sexuality=== -Thoreau [[bachelor|never married]] and was childless. In 1840, when he was 23, he proposed to eighteen-year old Ellen Sewall, but she refused him, on the advice of her father.<ref name="Sewall">{{Cite web |url=https://www.americanantiquarian.org/sewall-intro -|title=Introduction -|last=Knoles |first=Thomas |work=American Antiquarian Society -|quote= She was in Watertown when Henry wrote to her with his own proposal, probably in early November [1840]...'I wrote to H. T. that evening. I never felt so badly at sending a letter in my life.' -|date=2016 |access-date=December 17, 2021}}</ref> - -Thoreau's sexuality has long been the subject of speculation, including by his contemporaries. Critics have called him heterosexual, [[Homosexuality|homosexual]], or [[Asexuality|asexual]].<ref name=harding/><ref>{{cite book | url=https://archive.org/details/millennialseduct00quin | url-access=registration | title=Millennial Seduction | publisher=Cornell University Press | author=Quinby, Lee | page=[https://archive.org/details/millennialseduct00quin/page/68 68]| isbn=978-0801486012 | year=1999 }}</ref> There is no evidence to suggest he had physical relations with anyone, man or woman. Some scholars have suggested that homoerotic sentiments run through his writings and concluded that he was homosexual.<ref name=harding>Harding, Walter (1991). "Thoreau's Sexuality". ''Journal of Homosexuality'' 21.3. pp. 23–45.</ref><ref>{{cite book |last=Bronski |first=Michael |title=A Queer History of the United States |publisher=Beacon Press |year=2012 |isbn=978-0807044650 |page=50|title-link=A Queer History of the United States }}</ref><ref>Michael, Warner (1991). "Walden's Erotic Economy" in ''Comparative American Identities: Race, Sex and Nationality in the Modern Text''. Hortense Spillers, ed. New York: Routledge. pp. 157–173.</ref> The elegy "Sympathy" was inspired by the eleven-year-old Edmund Sewall, who had just spent five days in the Thoreau household in 1839.<ref>{{cite document|last=Robbins|first= Paula Ivaska|title=The Natural Thoreau|work= The Gay And Lesbian Review, September–October 2011|id= {{ProQuest|890209875}}}}</ref> One scholar has suggested that he wrote the poem to Edmund because he could not bring himself to write it to Edmund's sister Anna,<ref>Richardson, Robert; Moser, Barry (1986). ''Henry Thoreau: A Life of the Mind''. University of California Press. pp. 58–63.</ref> and another that Thoreau's "emotional experiences with women are memorialized under a camouflage of masculine pronouns",<ref>Canby, Henry Seidel (1939). ''Thoreau''. Houghton Mifflin. p. 117.</ref> but other scholars dismiss this.<ref name=harding /><ref>Katz, Jonathan Ned (1992). ''Gay American History: Lesbians and Gay Men in the USA''. New York: Meridian. pp. 481–492.</ref> It has been argued that the long paean in ''Walden'' to the French-Canadian woodchopper Alek Therien, which includes allusions to [[Achilles and Patroclus]], is an expression of conflicted desire.<ref>López, Robert Oscar (2007). "Thoreau, Homer and Community", in ''Henry David Thoreau''. Harold Bloom, ed. New York: Infobase Publishing. pp. 153–174.</ref> In some of Thoreau's writing there is the sense of a secret self.<ref>Summers, Claude J ''The Gay and Lesbian Literary Heritage'', Routledge, New York, 2002, p. 202</ref> In 1840 he writes in his journal: "My friend is the apology for my life. In him are the spaces which my orbit traverses".<ref>Bergman, David, ed. (2009). ''Gay American Autobiography: Writings From Whitman to Sedaris''. University of Wisconsin Press. p. 10</ref> Thoreau was strongly influenced by the moral reformers of his time, and this may have instilled anxiety and guilt over sexual desire.<ref>Lebeaux, Richard (1984). ''Thoreau's Seasons''. University of Massachusetts Press. p. 386, n. 31.</ref> - -===Politics=== -{{Green anarchism |expanded=People}} -[[File:John Brown - Treason broadside, 1859.png|thumb|left|John Brown "Treason" Broadside, 1859]] - -Thoreau was fervently against [[Slavery in the United States|slavery]] and actively supported the abolitionist movement.<ref name=":6"/> He participated as a conductor in the [[Underground Railroad]], delivered lectures that attacked the [[Fugitive Slave Law of 1850|Fugitive Slave Law]], and in opposition to the popular opinion of the time, supported radical abolitionist militia leader [[John Brown (abolitionist)|John Brown]] and his party.<ref name=":6">{{cite encyclopedia|last=Furtak|first=Rick|title=Henry David Thoreau|url=http://plato.stanford.edu/entries/thoreau/|encyclopedia=The Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy|access-date=July 27, 2013|archive-date=August 13, 2013|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130813055226/http://plato.stanford.edu/entries/thoreau/|url-status=live}}</ref> Two weeks after the ill-fated [[raid on Harpers Ferry]] and in the weeks leading up to Brown's execution, Thoreau delivered a speech to the citizens of Concord, Massachusetts, in which he compared the American government to [[Pontius Pilate]] and likened Brown's execution to the [[crucifixion of Jesus Christ]]: - -{{blockquote|Some eighteen hundred years ago Christ was crucified; this morning, perchance, Captain Brown was hung. These are the two ends of a chain which is not without its links. He is not Old Brown any longer; he is an angel of light.<ref name="ReferenceA" />}} - -In ''[[The Last Days of John Brown]]'', Thoreau described the words and deeds of John Brown as noble and an example of heroism.<ref name=":1">[http://www.walden.org/Library/The_Writings_of_Henry_David_Thoreau:_The_Digital_Collection/Essays The Last Days of John Brown] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20101222023007/http://www.walden.org/Library/The_Writings_of_Henry_David_Thoreau%3A_The_Digital_Collection/Essays |date=December 22, 2010 }} from the Writings of Henry David Thoreau: The Digital Collection</ref> In addition, he lamented the newspaper editors who dismissed Brown and his scheme as "crazy".<ref name=":1"/> - -Thoreau was a proponent of [[limited government]] and [[individualism]]. Although he was hopeful that mankind could potentially have, through self-betterment, the kind of government which "governs not at all", he distanced himself from contemporary "no-government men" ([[anarchists]]), writing: "I ask for, not at once no government, but at once a better government."<ref name="resistance" /> - -Thoreau deemed the evolution from [[absolute monarchy]] to [[limited monarchy]] to [[democracy]] as "a progress toward true respect for the individual" and theorized about further improvements "towards recognizing and organizing the rights of man".<ref name="resistance" /> Echoing this belief, he went on to write: "There will never be a really free and enlightened State until the State comes to recognize the individual as a higher and independent power, from which all its power and authority are derived, and treats him accordingly."<ref name="resistance" /> - -It is on this basis that Thoreau could so strongly inveigh against the British administration and [[Catholicism]] in ''A Yankee in Canada''. Despotic authority, Thoreau argued, had crushed the people's sense of ingenuity and enterprise; the Canadian ''habitants'' had been reduced, in his view, to a perpetual childlike state. Ignoring the recent rebellions, he argued that there would be no revolution in the St. Lawrence River valley.<ref name="ReferenceB"/><ref>{{cite book|last1=Thoreau|first1=Henry David|title=A Yankee in Canada|url=https://archive.org/details/yankeeincanada0000thor|url-access=registration|date=1961|publisher=Harvest House|location=Montreal|pages=[https://archive.org/details/yankeeincanada0000thor/page/105 105–107]}}</ref> - -Although Thoreau believed resistance to unjustly exercised authority could be both violent (exemplified in his support for John Brown) and nonviolent (his own example of [[tax resistance]] displayed in ''Resistance to Civil Government''), he regarded [[Pacifism|pacifist]] [[nonresistance]] as temptation to passivity,<ref name=":4">[http://www.walden.org/Library/The_Writings_of_Henry_David_Thoreau:_The_Digital_Collection/Essays The Service] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20101222023007/http://www.walden.org/Library/The_Writings_of_Henry_David_Thoreau%3A_The_Digital_Collection/Essays |date=December 22, 2010 }} from the Writings of Henry David Thoreau: The Digital Collection</ref> writing: "Let not our Peace be proclaimed by the rust on our swords, or our inability to draw them from their scabbards; but let her at least have so much work on her hands as to keep those swords bright and sharp."<ref name=":4"/> Furthermore, in a formal lyceum debate in 1841, he debated the subject "Is it ever proper to offer forcible resistance?", arguing the affirmative.<ref>[http://thoreau.eserver.org/mjf/MJF1.html Transcendental Ethos] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130919100132/http://thoreau.eserver.org/MJF/MJF1.html |date=September 19, 2013 }} from The Thoreau Reader</ref> - -Likewise, his condemnation of the [[Mexican–American War]] did not stem from pacifism, but rather because he considered Mexico "unjustly overrun and conquered by a foreign army" as a means to expand the slave territory.<ref name=":5" /> - -Thoreau was [[ambivalence|ambivalent]] towards [[industrialization]] and [[capitalism]]. On one hand he regarded commerce as "unexpectedly confident and serene, adventurous, and unwearied"<ref name="ReferenceA" /> and expressed admiration for its associated [[cosmopolitanism]], writing: - -{{blockquote|I am refreshed and expanded when the freight train rattles past me, and I smell the stores which go dispensing their odors all the way from Long Wharf to Lake Champlain, reminding me of foreign parts, of coral reefs, and Indian oceans, and tropical climes, and the extent of the globe. I feel more like a citizen of the world at the sight of the palm-leaf which will cover so many flaxen New England heads the next summer.<ref name="ReferenceA" />}} - -On the other hand, he wrote disparagingly of the factory system: - -{{blockquote|I cannot believe that our factory system is the best mode by which men may get clothing. The condition of the operatives is becoming every day more like that of the English; and it cannot be wondered at, since, as far as I have heard or observed, the principal object is, not that mankind may be well and honestly clad, but, unquestionably, that the corporations may be enriched.<ref name="ReferenceA" />}} - -Thoreau also favored [[bioregionalism]], the protection of animals and wild areas, [[free trade]], and taxation for schools and highways.<ref name=":6"/> He disapproved of the subjugation of Native Americans, slavery, [[technological utopianism]], [[consumerism]], [[philistinism]], mass entertainment, and frivolous applications of technology.<ref name=":6"/> - -===Intellectual interests, influences, and affinities=== -====Indian sacred texts and philosophy==== -Thoreau was influenced by [[Hindu texts|Indian spiritual thought]]. In ''Walden'', there are many overt references to the sacred texts of India. For example, in the first chapter ("Economy"), he writes: "How much more admirable the [[Bhagvat-geeta|Bhagvat-Geeta]] than all the ruins of the East!"<ref name="ReferenceA" /> ''American Philosophy: An Encyclopedia'' classes him as one of several figures who "took a more [[Pantheism|pantheist]] or [[Pandeism|pandeist]] approach by rejecting views of God as separate from the world",<ref>{{Cite book |title = American Philosophy: An Encyclopedia |author = [[John Lachs]] and [[Robert Talisse]] |date = 2007 |isbn = 978-0415939263 |page = 310 }}</ref> also a characteristic of Hinduism. - -Furthermore, in "The Pond in Winter", he equates Walden Pond with the sacred [[Ganges in Hinduism|Ganges river]], writing: -{{blockquote|In the morning I bathe my intellect in the stupendous and cosmogonal philosophy of the Bhagvat Geeta since whose composition years of the gods have elapsed, and in comparison with which our modern world and its literature seem puny and trivial; and I doubt if that philosophy is not to be referred to a previous state of existence, so remote is its sublimity from our conceptions. I lay down the book and go to my well for water, and lo! there I meet the servant of the Brahmin, priest of Brahma and Vishnu and Indra, who still sits in his temple on the Ganges reading the Vedas, or dwells at the root of a tree with his crust and water jug. I meet his servant come to draw water for his master, and our buckets as it were grate together in the same well. The pure Walden water is mingled with the [[Sacred waters|sacred water]] of the Ganges.<ref name="ReferenceA" />}} - -Thoreau was aware his Ganges imagery could have been factual. He wrote about ice harvesting at Walden Pond. And he knew that New England's [[Ice trade|ice merchants]] were shipping ice to foreign ports, including [[Calcutta]].<ref>{{Cite journal|last=Dickason|first=David G.|date=1991|title=The Nineteenth-Century Indo-American Ice Trade: An Hyperborean Epic|url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/312669|journal=Modern Asian Studies|volume=25|issue=1|pages=53–89|doi=10.1017/S0026749X00015845|jstor=312669|s2cid=144932927|issn=0026-749X|via=JSTOR|access-date=April 18, 2021|archive-date=April 18, 2021|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210418213408/https://www.jstor.org/stable/312669|url-status=live}}</ref> - -Additionally, Thoreau followed various [[Hinduism|Hindu]] customs, including a diet largely consisting of rice ("It was fit that I should live on rice, mainly, who loved so well the philosophy of India."<ref name="ReferenceA" />), [[flute playing]] (reminiscent of the favorite musical pastime of [[Krishna]]),<ref>{{Cite web|last=|first=|last2=|last3=|first3=|date=July 12, 2020|title=Simplicity Day 2020: How Bhagavad Gita inspired American philosopher Henry David Thoreau|url=https://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/india/simplicity-day-2020-how-bhagwat-geeta-inspired-american-philosopher-henry-david-thoreau/articleshow/76918441.cms|url-status=live|access-date=April 18, 2021|website=Times of India|language=en|archive-date=April 18, 2021|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210418213408/https://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/india/simplicity-day-2020-how-bhagwat-geeta-inspired-american-philosopher-henry-david-thoreau/articleshow/76918441.cms}}</ref> and [[yoga]].<ref>{{Cite journal|last=Davis|first=Richard H.|date=January 2018|title=Henry David Thoreau, Yogi|url=https://doi.org/10.1215/0961754X-4253822|journal=Common Knowledge|volume=24|issue=1|pages=56–89|doi=10.1215/0961754X-4253822|issn=0961-754X|via=Duke University Press}}</ref> - -In an 1849 letter to his friend H.G.O. Blake, he wrote about yoga and its meaning to him: - -{{blockquote|Free in this world as the birds in the air, disengaged from every kind of chains, those who practice yoga gather in Brahma the certain fruits of their works. Depend upon it that, rude and careless as I am, I would fain practice the yoga faithfully. The yogi, absorbed in contemplation, contributes in his degree to creation; he breathes a divine perfume, he hears wonderful things. Divine forms traverse him without tearing him, and united to the nature which is proper to him, he goes, he acts as animating original matter. To some extent, and at rare intervals, even I am a yogi.<ref>Miller, Barbara S. "Why Did Henry David Thoreau Take the Bhagavad-Gita to Walden Pond?" ''Parabola'' 12.1 (Spring 1986): 58–63.</ref>}} - -====Biology==== -[[File:Eggs BSNH 1930.png|thumb|right|Bird eggs found by Thoreau and given to the [[Boston Society of Natural History]]. Those in the nest are of [[yellow warbler]], the other two of [[red-tailed hawk]].]] -Thoreau read contemporary works in the new science of biology, including the works of [[Alexander von Humboldt]], [[Charles Darwin]], and [[Asa Gray]] (Charles Darwin's staunchest American ally).<ref name=":0" /> Thoreau was deeply influenced by Humboldt, especially his work [[Cosmos (Humboldt book)|''Cosmos'']].<ref>Wulf, Andrea. ''The Invention of Nature: Alexander Humboldt's New World''. New York: Alfred A. Knopf 2015, p. 250.</ref> - -In 1859, Thoreau purchased and read Darwin's ''[[On the Origin of Species]]''. Unlike many natural historians at the time, including [[Louis Agassiz]] who publicly opposed Darwinism in favor of a static view of nature, Thoreau was immediately enthusiastic about the theory of [[evolution by natural selection]] and endorsed it,<ref>Cain, William E. ''A Historical Guide to Henry David Thoreau''. {{ISBN|0195138635}}, p. 146.</ref> stating: - -{{blockquote|1=The development theory implies a greater vital force in Nature, because it is more flexible and accommodating, and equivalent to a sort of constant new creation. (A quote from ''On the Origin of Species'' follows this sentence.)<ref name=":0">Berger, Michael Benjamin. ''Thoreau's Late Career and The Dispersion of Seeds: The Saunterer's Synoptic Vision''. {{ISBN|157113168X}}, p. 52.</ref>}} - -==Influence== -[[File:ThoreauBust.jpg|thumb|right|A [[Bust (sculpture)|bust]] of Thoreau from the [[Hall of Fame for Great Americans]] at the [[Bronx Community College]]]] - -{{blockquote|text=Thoreau's careful observations and devastating conclusions have rippled into time, becoming stronger as the weaknesses Thoreau noted have become more pronounced ... Events that seem to be completely unrelated to his stay at Walden Pond have been influenced by it, including the national park system, the British labor movement, the creation of India, the civil rights movement, the hippie revolution, the environmental movement, and the wilderness movement. Today, Thoreau's words are quoted with feeling by liberals, socialists, anarchists, libertarians, and conservatives alike.|sign=Ken Kifer|source=''Analysis and Notes on Walden: Henry Thoreau's Text with Adjacent Thoreauvian Commentary''<ref>[http://www.kenkifer.com/Thoreau/ Analysis and Notes on Walden: Henry Thoreau's Text with Adjacent Thoreauvian Commentary] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20060318110150/http://www.kenkifer.com/Thoreau/ |date=March 18, 2006 }} by Ken Kifer, 2002</ref>}} - -Thoreau's political writings had little impact during his lifetime, as "his contemporaries did not see him as a theorist or as a radical", viewing him instead as a naturalist. They either dismissed or ignored his political essays, including ''Civil Disobedience''. The only two complete books (as opposed to essays) published in his lifetime, ''Walden'' and ''A Week on the Concord and Merrimack Rivers'' (1849), both dealt with nature, in which he "loved to wander".<ref name=McElroy/> His obituary was lumped in with others rather than as a separate article in an 1862 yearbook.<ref>{{cite book|title=Appletons' annual cyclopaedia and register of important events of the year: 1862|date=1863|publisher=D. Appleton & Company|location=New York|page=666|url=https://archive.org/stream/1862appletonsan02newyuoft#page/n673/mode/1up}}</ref> Nevertheless, Thoreau's writings went on to influence many public figures. Political leaders and reformers like [[Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi|Mohandas Gandhi]], U.S. President [[John F. Kennedy]], American civil rights activist [[Martin Luther King Jr.]], U.S. Supreme Court Justice [[William O. Douglas]], and [[Russian (citizen)|Russian]] author [[Leo Tolstoy]] all spoke of being strongly affected by Thoreau's work, particularly ''Civil Disobedience'', as did "[[Right-wing politics|right-wing]] theorist [[Frank Chodorov]] [who] devoted an entire issue of his monthly, ''Analysis'', to an appreciation of Thoreau".<ref name=Rothbard>[[Murray Rothbard|Rothbard, Murray]]. [http://archive.lewrockwell.com/rothbard/rothbard77.html Confessions of a Right-Wing Liberal] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150618045209/http://archive.lewrockwell.com/rothbard/rothbard77.html |date=June 18, 2015 }}, ''[[Ramparts (magazine)|Ramparts]]'', VI, 4, June 15, 1968</ref> - -Thoreau also influenced many artists and authors including [[Edward Abbey]], [[Willa Cather]], [[Marcel Proust]], [[William Butler Yeats]], [[Sinclair Lewis]], [[Ernest Hemingway]], [[Upton Sinclair]],<ref>Maynard, W. Barksdale, ''Walden Pond: A History''. Oxford University Press, 2005. p. 265</ref> [[E. B. White]], [[Lewis Mumford]],<ref>Mumford, Lewis, ''The Golden Day: A Study in American Experience and Culture''. Boni and Liveright, 1926. pp. 56–59,</ref> [[Frank Lloyd Wright]], [[Alexander Posey]],<ref>Posey, Alexander. ''Lost Creeks: Collected Journals''. (Edited by Matthew Wynn Sivils) University of Nebraska Press, 2009. p. 38</ref> and [[Gustav Stickley]].<ref>Saunders, Barry. ''A Complex Fate: Gustav Stickley and the Craftsman Movement''. Preservation Press, 1996. p. 4</ref> Thoreau also influenced naturalists like [[John Burroughs]], [[John Muir]], [[E. O. Wilson]], [[Edwin Way Teale]], [[Joseph Wood Krutch]], [[B. F. Skinner]], [[David Brower]], and [[Loren Eiseley]], whom ''Publishers Weekly'' called "the modern Thoreau".<ref>Kifer, Ken ''[http://www.kenkifer.com/Thoreau/ Analysis and Notes on Walden: Henry Thoreau's Text with Adjacent Thoreauvian Commentary] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20060318110150/http://www.kenkifer.com/Thoreau/ |date=March 18, 2006 }}''</ref> - -Thoreau's friend [[William Ellery Channing (poet)|William Ellery Channing]] published his first biography, ''Thoreau the Poet-Naturalist'', in 1873.<ref>{{Cite book|last1=Channing|first1=William Ellery|url=http://archive.org/details/poetnatthoreau00chanrich|title=Thoreau, the poet-naturalist, with Memorial verses|last2=Merrymount Press|last3=Sanborn|first3=F. B. (Franklin Benjamin)|last4=Updike|first4=Daniel Berkeley|date=1902|publisher=Boston, C. E. Goodspeed|others=University of California Libraries}}</ref> English writer [[Henry Stephens Salt]] wrote a biography of Thoreau in 1890, which popularized Thoreau's ideas in Britain: [[George Bernard Shaw]], [[Edward Carpenter]], and [[Robert Blatchford]] were among those who became Thoreau enthusiasts as a result of Salt's advocacy.<ref>Hendrick, George and Oehlschlaeger, Fritz (eds.) ''Toward the Making of Thoreau's Modern Reputation'', University of Illinois Press, 1979.</ref> Mohandas Gandhi first read ''Walden'' in 1906 while working as a civil rights activist in [[Johannesburg]], South Africa. He first read ''Civil Disobedience'' "while he sat in a South African prison for the crime of nonviolently protesting discrimination against the Indian population in the [[Transvaal Colony|Transvaal]]. The essay galvanized Gandhi, who wrote and published a synopsis of Thoreau's argument, calling its 'incisive logic ... unanswerable' and referring to Thoreau as 'one of the greatest and most moral men America has produced'."<ref>[[Wendy McElroy|McElroy, Wendy]] (May 4, 2011) [https://mises.org/daily/5250/Here-the-State-Is-Nowhere-to-Be-Seen Here, the State Is Nowhere to Be Seen] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140913214409/http://mises.org/daily/5250/Here-the-State-Is-Nowhere-to-Be-Seen |date=September 13, 2014 }}, [[Mises Institute]]</ref><ref>"Although he was practicing civil disobedience before he read Thoreau's essay, Gandhi was quick to point out the debt he owed to Thoreau and other thinkers like him".Shawn Chandler Bingham, ''Thoreau and the sociological imagination : the wilds of society''. Lanham, Md. : Rowman and Littlefield Publishers, 2008. {{ISBN|978-0742560581}} p. 31.</ref> He told American reporter [[Webb Miller (journalist)|Webb Miller]], "[Thoreau's] ideas influenced me greatly. I adopted some of them and recommended the study of Thoreau to all of my friends who were helping me in the cause of Indian Independence. Why I actually took the name of my movement from Thoreau's essay 'On the Duty of Civil Disobedience', written about 80&nbsp;years ago."<ref>Miller, Webb. I Found No Peace. Garden City, 1938. 238–239</ref> - -[[Martin Luther King Jr.]] noted in his autobiography that his first encounter with the idea of nonviolent resistance was reading "On Civil Disobedience" in 1944 while attending [[Morehouse College]]. He wrote in his autobiography that it was, - -<blockquote>Here, in this courageous New Englander's refusal to pay his taxes and his choice of jail rather than support a war that would spread slavery's territory into Mexico, I made my first contact with the theory of nonviolent resistance. Fascinated by the idea of refusing to cooperate with an evil system, I was so deeply moved that I reread the work several times. I became convinced that noncooperation with evil is as much a moral obligation as is cooperation with good. No other person has been more eloquent and passionate in getting this idea across than Henry David Thoreau. As a result of his writings and personal witness, we are the heirs of a legacy of creative protest. The teachings of Thoreau came alive in our civil rights movement; indeed, they are more alive than ever before. Whether expressed in a sit-in at lunch counters, a freedom ride into Mississippi, a peaceful protest in Albany, Georgia, a bus boycott in Montgomery, Alabama, these are outgrowths of Thoreau's insistence that evil must be resisted and that no moral man can patiently adjust to injustice.<ref>King, M.L. ''[http://www.stanford.edu/group/King//publications/autobiography/chp_2.htm Autobiography of Martin Luther King, Jr.] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070308023614/http://www.stanford.edu/group/King/publications/autobiography/chp_2.htm |date=March 8, 2007 }}'' chapter two</ref></blockquote> - -American psychologist B. F. Skinner wrote that he carried a copy of Thoreau's ''Walden'' with him in his youth.<ref>Skinner, B. F., ''A Matter of Consequences''</ref> In 1945 he wrote ''[[Walden Two]]'', a fictional utopia about 1,000 members of a community living together inspired by the life of Thoreau.<ref>Skinner, B. F., ''Walden Two'' (1948)</ref> Thoreau and his fellow [[Transcendentalists]] from [[Concord, Massachusetts|Concord]] were a major inspiration of the composer [[Charles Ives]]. The 4th movement of the [[Concord Sonata]] for piano (with a part for flute, Thoreau's instrument) is a character picture, and he also set Thoreau's words.<ref>Burkholder, James Peter. ''Charles Ives and His World.'' Princeton University Press, 1996 (pp. 50–51)</ref> - -Actor [[Ron Thompson (actor)|Ron Thompson]] did a dramatic portrayal of Henry David Thoreau on the 1976 [[NBC]] television series ''[[The Rebels (TV series)|The Rebels]]''.<ref>{{cite web|title=Tele-Vues, Sunday, June 6, 1976|date=June 6, 1976|work=[[Independent Press-Telegram]]|location=[[Long Beach, California]]|page=170|url=https://www.newspapers.com/newspage/30664120/|access-date=October 27, 2015|archive-date=November 5, 2018|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20181105214432/https://www.newspapers.com/newspage/30664120/|url-status=live}}</ref><ref>{{cite web|date=June 5, 1976|work=[[Redlands Daily Facts]]|title=TV Log|location=[[Redlands, California]]|page=10|url=https://www.newspapers.com/newspage/15447614/|access-date=October 27, 2015|archive-date=September 29, 2015|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150929050424/http://www.newspapers.com/newspage/15447614/|url-status=live}}</ref><ref>{{cite video|work=[[NBC]]|url=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3FdGBFTxkHY |archive-url=https://ghostarchive.org/varchive/youtube/20211211/3FdGBFTxkHY| archive-date=December 11, 2021 |url-status=live|title=Actor Ron Thompson as Henry David Thoreau in The Rebels|date=June 6, 1976}}{{cbignore}}</ref> - -Thoreau's ideas have impacted and resonated with various strains in the [[Anarchism|anarchist]] movement, with [[Emma Goldman]] referring to him as "the greatest American anarchist".<ref>{{cite book|author=Goldman, Emma|url=https://archive.org/details/bub_gb_U5ZYAAAAMAAJ|title=Anarchism and Other Essays|publisher=Mother Earth Publishing Association|page=[https://archive.org/details/bub_gb_U5ZYAAAAMAAJ/page/n67 62]|year=1917|author-link = Emma Goldman}}</ref> [[Green anarchism]] and [[anarcho-primitivism]] in particular have both derived inspiration and ecological points-of-view from the writings of Thoreau. [[John Zerzan]] included Thoreau's text "Excursions" (1863) in his edited compilation of works in the anarcho-primitivist tradition titled ''Against civilization: Readings and reflections''.<ref>{{cite book|url=https://www.amazon.fr/dp/toc/0922915989|title=Against Civilization: Readings And Reflections|first=John|last=Zerzan|via=Amazon|access-date=December 13, 2017|archive-date=August 7, 2020|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200807043841/https://www.amazon.fr/dp/toc/0922915989|url-status=live}}</ref> Additionally, [[Murray Rothbard]], the founder of [[anarcho-capitalism]], has opined that Thoreau was one of the "great intellectual heroes" of his movement.<ref name="Rothbard" /> Thoreau was also an important influence on late-19th-century [[anarchist]] [[naturist|naturism]].<ref name="naturismolibertario">{{Cite web|url=http://www.soliobrera.org/pdefs/cuaderno4.pdf#search=%22Antonia%20Maym%C3%B3n%22|archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20160102181805/http://www.soliobrera.org/pdefs/cuaderno4.pdf|url-status=dead|title=El naturismo libertario en la Península Ibérica (1890–1939) by Jose Maria Rosello|archivedate=January 2, 2016}}</ref><ref name="ortega">{{cite web|url=https://www.naturismo.org/adn/ediciones/2003/invierno/7e.html|title=Anarchism, Nudism, Naturism|first=Carlos|last=Ortega|access-date=July 20, 2018|archive-date=September 9, 2020|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200909150845/https://www.naturismo.org/adn/ediciones/2003/invierno/7e.html|url-status=live}}</ref> Globally, Thoreau's concepts also held importance within [[individualist anarchist]] circles<ref name="spanishind">{{Cite web|url=http://www.acracia.org/xdiez.html|archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20060526224800/http://www.acracia.org/xdiez.html|url-status=dead|title="La insumisión voluntaria. El anarquismo individualista Español durante la dictadura y la segunda República (1923–1938)" by Xavier Diez|archivedate=May 26, 2006}}</ref><ref name="aujourdhui">"Les anarchistes individualistes du début du siècle l'avaient bien compris, et intégraient le naturisme dans leurs préoccupations. Il est vraiment dommage que ce discours se soit peu à peu effacé, d'antan plus que nous assistons, en ce moment, à un retour en force du puritanisme (conservateur par essence)."[http://ytak.club.fr/natytak.html "Anarchisme et naturisme, aujourd'hui." by Cathy Ytak] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090225212442/http://ytak.club.fr/natytak.html |date=February 25, 2009 }}</ref> in Spain,<ref name="naturismolibertario" /><ref name="ortega" /><ref name="spanishind" /> France,<ref name="spanishind" /><ref name="france">[http://ytak.club.fr/natbiblioarmand.html Recension des articles de l'En-Dehors consacrés au naturisme et au nudisme] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20081014165702/http://ytak.club.fr/natbiblioarmand.html |date=October 14, 2008 }}</ref> and Portugal.<ref name="portugal">Freire, João. "Anarchisme et naturisme au Portugal, dans les années 1920" in ''Les anarchistes du Portugal''. [Bibliographic data necessary for this ref.]</ref> - -For the 200th anniversary of his birth, publishers released several new editions of his work: a recreation of ''Walden''{{'s}} 1902 edition with illustrations, a picture book with excerpts from ''Walden'', and an annotated collection of Thoreau's essays on slavery.<ref>{{Cite news |last1=Williams |first1=John |title=Alcoholism in America |work=[[The New York Times]] |date=July 7, 2017 |url=https://www.nytimes.com/2017/07/07/books/review/alcoholism-in-america.html |issn=0362-4331 |access-date=August 23, 2017 |archive-date=August 4, 2017 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170804204030/https://www.nytimes.com/2017/07/07/books/review/alcoholism-in-america.html |url-status=live }}</ref> The United States Postal Service issued a commemorative stamp honoring Thoreau on May 23, 2017, in Concord, MA.<ref>{{cite web|url=https://stamps.org/US-New-Issues-2017|title=American Philatelic Society|website=stamps.org|access-date=August 10, 2018|archive-date=August 6, 2018|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180806210814/https://stamps.org/US-New-Issues-2017|url-status=live}}</ref> - -===Adaptations=== -In 2017, ''[[Walden, a Game]]'' was released on itch.io. Created by [[Tracy Fullerton]], it is an open world, first person videogame adaptation of Thoreau's ''[[Walden]]''. Players can build the protagonist's cabin, explore the environment, record flora and fauna, farm the land, visit Emerson's house and the town of Concord. At the end of each day players are invited to reflect on their journal which gradually fills up with reflections based on the player's journey and day-to-day experiences. The game also includes letters between Thoreau and his contemporaries, including Amos Bronson Alcott and Ralph Waldo Emerson. It also includes letters between his contemporaries to build a picture of Thoreau's reception as a writer and his connections in the literary and Transcendentalist scene in America at the time. The game was released for PlayStation 4 in 2018. - -==Criticism== -Although his writings would receive widespread acclaim, Thoreau's ideas were not universally applauded. Scottish author [[Robert Louis Stevenson]] criticized Thoreau as a "skulker," saying "He did not wish virtue to go out of him among his fellow-men, but slunk into a corner to hoard it for himself."<ref name="RLS">{{Cite web |url=http://thoreau.eserver.org/stevens1.html -|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20061012063926/http://thoreau.eserver.org/stevens1.html -|archive-date=October 12, 2006 -|title=Henry David Thoreau: His Character and Opinions -|author=Stevenson, Robert Louis |work=Cornhill Magazine -|quote=Now Thoreau's content and ecstasy in living was, we may say, like a plant that he had watered and tended with womanish solicitude; for there is apt to be something unmanly, something almost dastardly, in a life that does not move with dash and freedom, and that fears the bracing contact of the world. In one word, Thoreau was a skulker -|date=1880 |access-date=December 3, 2021}}</ref> - -[[Nathaniel Hawthorne]] had mixed feelings about Thoreau. He noted that "He is a keen and delicate observer of nature—a genuine observer—which, I suspect, is almost as rare a character as even an original poet; and Nature, in return for his love, seems to adopt him as her especial child, and shows him secrets which few others are allowed to witness."<ref>Nathaniel Hawthorne, ''Passages From the American Note-Books'', entry for September 2, 1842.</ref> On the other hand, he also wrote that Thoreau "repudiated all regular modes of getting a living, and seems inclined to lead a sort of Indian life among civilized men".<ref>Hawthorne, ''The Heart of Hawthorne's Journals'', p. 106.</ref><ref>Borst, Raymond R. ''The Thoreau Log: A Documentary Life of Henry David Thoreau, 1817–1862.'' New York: G.K. Hall, 1992.</ref> - -In a similar vein, poet [[John Greenleaf Whittier]] detested what he deemed to be the "wicked" and "heathenish" message of ''Walden'', claiming that Thoreau wanted man to "lower himself to the level of a [[woodchuck]] and walk on four legs".<ref>Wagenknecht, Edward. ''John Greenleaf Whittier: A Portrait in Paradox''. New York: Oxford University Press, 1967: 112.</ref> - -In response to such criticisms, English novelist [[George Eliot]], writing for the ''[[Westminster Review]]'', characterized such critics as uninspired and narrow-minded: -{{blockquote|text=People—very wise in their own eyes—who would have every man's life ordered according to a particular pattern, and who are intolerant of every existence the utility of which is not palpable to them, may pooh-pooh Mr. Thoreau and this episode in his history, as unpractical and dreamy.<ref>''[[The New England Quarterly]]'', Vol. 6, No. 4 (Dec., 1933), pp. 733–746</ref>}} - -Thoreau himself also responded to the criticism in a paragraph of his work ''Walden'' by illustrating the irrelevance of their inquiries: - -{{blockquote|text=I should not obtrude my affairs so much on the notice of my readers if very particular inquiries had not been made by my townsmen concerning my mode of life, which some would call impertinent, though they do not appear to me at all impertinent, but, considering the circumstances, very natural and pertinent. Some have asked what I got to eat; if I did not feel lonesome; if I was not afraid; and the like. Others have been curious to learn what portion of my income I devoted to charitable purposes; and some, who have large families, how many poor children I maintained. ... Unfortunately, I am confined to this theme by the narrowness of my experience. Moreover, I, on my side, require of every writer, first or last, a simple and sincere account of his own life, and not merely what he has heard of other men's lives; ... I trust that none will stretch the seams in putting on the coat, for it may do good service to him whom it fits.<ref>Thoreau ''Walden'' (1854)</ref>}} - -Recent criticism has accused Thoreau of hypocrisy, misanthropy, and being sanctimonious, based on his writings in ''Walden'',<ref name=neworker1>{{cite magazine|url=http://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2015/10/19/pond-scum |title=Henry David Thoreau, Hypocrite |last1=Schultz |first1=Kathryn |date=October 19, 2015 |magazine=The New Yorker |access-date=October 19, 2015 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20151019170355/http://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2015/10/19/pond-scum |archive-date=October 19, 2015 }}</ref> although this criticism has been perceived as highly selective.<ref name=medium1>{{cite web|url=https://medium.com/@TheNewThoreau/why-do-we-love-thoreau-because-he-was-right-175251814c |title=Why do we love Thoreau? Because he was right. |date=October 19, 2015 |publisher=Medium |access-date=October 19, 2015 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20151019170355/https://medium.com/%40TheNewThoreau/why-do-we-love-thoreau-because-he-was-right-175251814c |archive-date=October 19, 2015 }}</ref><ref name=newrepublic>{{cite magazine|url=https://newrepublic.com/article/123151/defense-thoreau |title=Henry David Thoreau's Radical Optimism |first1=Jonathan |last1=Malesic |date=October 19, 2015 |magazine=New Republic |access-date=October 19, 2015 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20151019204535/http://www.newrepublic.com/article/123151/defense-thoreau |archive-date=October 19, 2015 }}</ref><ref name=newrepublic2>{{cite magazine|url=https://newrepublic.com/article/123162/everybody-hates-henry-david-thoreau |title=Everybody Hates Henry |first1=Donovan |last1=Hohn |date=October 21, 2015 |magazine=New Republic |access-date=October 21, 2015 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20151026134755/http://www.newrepublic.com/article/123162/everybody-hates-henry-david-thoreau |archive-date=October 26, 2015 }}</ref> - -==Selected works== -Many of Thoreau's works were not published during his lifetime, including his journals and numerous unfinished manuscripts. -* ''Aulus Persius Flaccus'' (1840)<ref>[http://www.walden.org/Library/The_Writings_of_Henry_David_Thoreau:_The_Digital_Collection/Essays Aulus Persius Flaccus] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20101222023007/http://www.walden.org/Library/The_Writings_of_Henry_David_Thoreau%3A_The_Digital_Collection/Essays |date=December 22, 2010 }} from the Writings of Henry David Thoreau: The Digital Collection</ref> -* ''[[The Service]]'' (1840)<ref name=":4" /> -* ''[[A Walk to Wachusett]]'' (1842)<ref>[http://www.walden.org/Library/The_Writings_of_Henry_David_Thoreau:_The_Digital_Collection/Essays A Walk to Wachusett] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20101222023007/http://www.walden.org/Library/The_Writings_of_Henry_David_Thoreau%3A_The_Digital_Collection/Essays |date=December 22, 2010 }} from the Writings of Henry David Thoreau: The Digital Collection</ref> -* ''[[Paradise (to be) Regained]]'' (1843)<ref>[http://www.walden.org/Library/The_Writings_of_Henry_David_Thoreau:_The_Digital_Collection/Essays Paradise (to be) Regained] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20101222023007/http://www.walden.org/Library/The_Writings_of_Henry_David_Thoreau%3A_The_Digital_Collection/Essays |date=December 22, 2010 }} from the Writings of Henry David Thoreau: The Digital Collection</ref> -* ''The Landlord'' (1843)<ref>{{Cite web|url=http://collections.library.cornell.edu/moa_new/browse.html?frames=1&cite=http://cdl.library.cornell.edu/cgi-bin/moa/moa-cgi?notisid=AGD1642-0013-6&coll=moa&root=/moa/usde/usde0013/&tif=00445.TIF&view=100|title=Browse &#124; Cornell University Library Making of America Collection|website=collections.library.cornell.edu}}</ref> -* ''[[Sir Walter Raleigh (essay)|Sir Walter Raleigh]]'' (1844) -* ''[[Herald of Freedom (essay)|Herald of Freedom]]'' (1844)<ref>[http://www.walden.org/Library/The_Writings_of_Henry_David_Thoreau:_The_Digital_Collection/Essays Herald of Freedom] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20101222023007/http://www.walden.org/Library/The_Writings_of_Henry_David_Thoreau%3A_The_Digital_Collection/Essays |date=December 22, 2010 }} from the Writings of Henry David Thoreau: The Digital Collection</ref> -* ''[[Wendell Phillips Before the Concord Lyceum]]'' (1845)<ref>[http://www.walden.org/Library/The_Writings_of_Henry_David_Thoreau:_The_Digital_Collection/Essays Wendell Phillips Before the Concord Lyceum] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20101222023007/http://www.walden.org/Library/The_Writings_of_Henry_David_Thoreau%3A_The_Digital_Collection/Essays |date=December 22, 2010 }} from the Writings of Henry David Thoreau: The Digital Collection</ref> -* ''[[Reform and the Reformers]]'' (1846–48) -* ''[[Thomas Carlyle and His Works]]'' (1847)<ref>[http://www.walden.org/Library/The_Writings_of_Henry_David_Thoreau:_The_Digital_Collection/Essays Thomas Carlyle and His Works] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20101222023007/http://www.walden.org/Library/The_Writings_of_Henry_David_Thoreau%3A_The_Digital_Collection/Essays |date=December 22, 2010 }} from the Writings of Henry David Thoreau: The Digital Collection</ref> -* ''[[A Week on the Concord and Merrimack Rivers]]'' (1849)<ref>{{cite web|url=https://onlinebooks.library.upenn.edu/webbin/book/search?title=A+Week+on+the+Concord+and+Merrimack+Rivers&tmode=start&c=x|title=A Week on the Concord and Merrimack Rivers from Project Gutenberg|access-date=December 22, 2018|archive-date=December 23, 2018|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20181223073558/https://onlinebooks.library.upenn.edu/webbin/book/search?title=A+Week+on+the+Concord+and+Merrimack+Rivers&tmode=start&c=x|url-status=live}}</ref> -* ''[[Civil Disobedience (Thoreau)|Resistance to Civil Government]]'', or ''Civil Disobedience'', or ''On the Duty of Civil Disobedience'' (1849)<ref>{{cite book|url=https://archive.org/details/aestheticpapers00peabrich|title=Aesthetic papers|first1=Elizabeth Palmer|last1=Peabody|first2=Ralph Waldo|last2=Emerson|first3=Nathaniel|last3=Hawthorne|first4=Henry David|last4=Thoreau|date=January 1, 1849|publisher=Boston, : The editor; New York, : G.P. Putnam|via=Internet Archive}}</ref> -* ''An Excursion to Canada'' (1853)<ref>[http://www.walden.org/Library/The_Writings_of_Henry_David_Thoreau:_The_Digital_Collection/A_Yankee_in_Canada A Yankee in Canada] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110617002714/http://www.walden.org/Library/The_Writings_of_Henry_David_Thoreau%3A_The_Digital_Collection/A_Yankee_in_Canada |date=June 17, 2011 }} from the Writings of Henry David Thoreau: The Digital Collection</ref> -* ''[[Slavery in Massachusetts]]'' (1854)<ref>[http://www.walden.org/Library/The_Writings_of_Henry_David_Thoreau:_The_Digital_Collection/Essays Slavery in Massachusetts] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20101222023007/http://www.walden.org/Library/The_Writings_of_Henry_David_Thoreau%3A_The_Digital_Collection/Essays |date=December 22, 2010 }} from the Writings of Henry David Thoreau: The Digital Collection</ref> -* ''[[Walden]]'' (1854)<ref>[http://www.walden.org/Library/The_Writings_of_Henry_David_Thoreau:_The_Digital_Collection/Walden Walden] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20100926152652/http://www.walden.org/Library/The_Writings_of_Henry_David_Thoreau%3A_The_Digital_Collection/Walden |date=September 26, 2010 }} from the Writings of Henry David Thoreau: The Digital Collection</ref> -* ''[[A Plea for Captain John Brown]]'' (1859)<ref name=":3">[http://www.walden.org/Library/The_Writings_of_Henry_David_Thoreau:_The_Digital_Collection/Essays A Plea for Captain John Brown] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20101222023007/http://www.walden.org/Library/The_Writings_of_Henry_David_Thoreau%3A_The_Digital_Collection/Essays |date=December 22, 2010 }} from the Writings of Henry David Thoreau: The Digital Collection</ref> -* ''[[Remarks After the Hanging of John Brown]]'' (1859)<ref>[http://www.walden.org/Library/The_Writings_of_Henry_David_Thoreau:_The_Digital_Collection/Essays After the Death of John Brown] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20101222023007/http://www.walden.org/Library/The_Writings_of_Henry_David_Thoreau%3A_The_Digital_Collection/Essays |date=December 22, 2010 }} from the Writings of Henry David Thoreau: The Digital Collection</ref> -* ''[[The Last Days of John Brown]]'' (1860)<ref name=":1" /> -* ''[[Walking (Thoreau)|Walking]]'' (1862)<ref>{{cite web|url=https://onlinebooks.library.upenn.edu/webbin/book/search?author=Thoreau&amode=words&title=Walking&tmode=start&c=x|title=Walking|access-date=December 22, 2018|archive-date=December 23, 2018|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20181223073511/https://onlinebooks.library.upenn.edu/webbin/book/search?author=Thoreau&amode=words&title=Walking&tmode=start&c=x|url-status=live}}</ref> -* ''Autumnal Tints'' (1862)<ref>[http://www.walden.org/Library/The_Writings_of_Henry_David_Thoreau:_The_Digital_Collection/Essays Autumnal Tints] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20101222023007/http://www.walden.org/Library/The_Writings_of_Henry_David_Thoreau%3A_The_Digital_Collection/Essays |date=December 22, 2010 }} from the Writings of Henry David Thoreau: The Digital Collection</ref> -* ''Wild Apples: The History of the Apple Tree'' (1862)<ref>{{cite web|url=http://onlinebooks.library.upenn.edu/webbin/gutbook/lookup?num=4066|title=Wild Apples, from Project Gutenberg|access-date=November 6, 2003|archive-date=December 26, 2007|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20071226192031/http://onlinebooks.library.upenn.edu/webbin/gutbook/lookup?num=4066|url-status=live}}</ref> -* ''The Fall of the Leaf'' (1863)<ref name=":5">{{cite web|url=http://www.walden.org/Library/About_Thoreau%27s_Life_and_Writings:_The_Research_Collections/Civil_Disobedience |work=Walden.org |title=The Walden Woods Project |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160620124518/http://www.walden.org/Library/About_Thoreau%27s_Life_and_Writings%3A_The_Research_Collections/Civil_Disobedience |archive-date=June 20, 2016 }}</ref><ref>{{cite book|date=1863|publisher=[[Riverside Publishing|The Riverside Press, Cambridge]]|pages=407–408|title=The Writings of Henry David Thoreau: Excursions, translations, and poems|author1=Henry David Thoreau|author2=Bradford Torrey|author3=Franklin Benjamin Sanborn|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=wpA9AQAAMAAJ&pg=PA407|access-date=November 16, 2015|archive-date=April 14, 2021|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210414235017/https://books.google.com/books?id=wpA9AQAAMAAJ&pg=PA407|url-status=live}}</ref> -* ''[[Excursions (anthology)|Excursions]]'' (1863)<ref>{{cite book|url=https://archive.org/details/excursionhenry00thorrich|title=Excursions|first1=Henry David|last1=Thoreau|last2=Houghton (H. O.) & Company. (1863) bkp CU-BANC|first3=Ralph Waldo|last3=Emerson|first4=Sophia E.|last4=Thoreau|date=January 1, 1863|publisher=Boston, Ticknor and Fields|via=Internet Archive}}</ref> -* ''[[Life Without Principle]]'' (1863)<ref>{{cite web|url=http://cdl.library.cornell.edu/cgi-bin/moa/moa-cgi?notisid=ABK2934-0012-65|title=The Atlantic Monthly Volume 0012 Issue 71 (September 1863)|access-date=March 2, 2008|archive-date=July 7, 2012|archive-url=https://archive.today/20120707023632/http://cdl.library.cornell.edu/cgi-bin/moa/moa-cgi?notisid=ABK2934-0012-65|url-status=live}}</ref> -* ''Night and Moonlight'' (1863)<ref>{{cite web|url=http://cdl.library.cornell.edu/cgi-bin/moa/moa-cgi?notisid=ABK2934-0012-77|title=The Atlantic Monthly Volume 0012 Issue 72 (November 1863)|access-date=March 2, 2008|archive-date=July 8, 2012|archive-url=https://archive.today/20120708171335/http://cdl.library.cornell.edu/cgi-bin/moa/moa-cgi?notisid=ABK2934-0012-77|url-status=live}}</ref> -* ''The Highland Light'' (1864)<ref name="u of adelaide">{{cite web|title=Henry David Thoreau, 1817–1862|url=https://ebooks.adelaide.edu.au/t/thoreau/henry_david/|website=ebooks.adelaide.edu|publisher=The University of Adelaide|access-date=January 1, 2018|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170824024207/https://ebooks.adelaide.edu.au/t/thoreau/henry_david/|archive-date=August 24, 2017|url-status=dead}}</ref> -* ''The Maine Woods'' (1864)<ref>[http://thoreau.eserver.org/mewoods.html The Maine Woods] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080811060820/http://thoreau.eserver.org/mewoods.html |date=August 11, 2008 }} from The Thoreau Reader</ref><ref>{{cite book|url=https://archive.org/details/mainewoods00thorrich|title=The Maine woods|first1=Henry David|last1=Thoreau|first2=Sophia E.|last2=Thoreau|first3=William Ellery|last3=Channing|date=January 1, 1864|publisher=Boston, Ticknor and Fields|via=Internet Archive}}</ref> Fully Annotated Edition. [[Jeffrey S. Cramer]], ed., Yale University Press, 2009 -* ''Cape Cod'' (1865)<ref name=":9">{{cite web|url=http://thoreau.eserver.org/capecd00.html|title=Thoreau's Cape Cod – an annotated edition|first=Richard|last=Lenat|access-date=September 2, 2008|archive-date=August 22, 2008|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080822133026/http://thoreau.eserver.org/capecd00.html|url-status=live}}</ref> -* ''Letters to Various Persons'' (1865)<ref>{{cite book|url=https://archive.org/details/lettersvarpersons00thorrich|title=Letters to various persons|first=Henry David|last=Thoreau|date=January 1, 1865|publisher=Boston : Ticknor and Fields|via=Internet Archive}}</ref> -* ''[[A Yankee in Canada, with Anti-Slavery and Reform Papers]]'' (1866)<ref>{{cite book|url=https://archive.org/details/yankeeincanada00thorrich|title=A Yankee in Canada, with Anti-slavery and reform papers|first=Henry David|last=Thoreau|date=January 1, 1866|publisher=Boston, Ticknor and Fields|via=Internet Archive}}</ref> -* ''Early Spring in Massachusetts'' (1881) -* ''Summer'' (1884)<ref>{{cite book|url=https://archive.org/details/summerjournal00thorrich|title=Summer : from the Journal of Henry D. Thoreau|first1=Henry David|last1=Thoreau|first2=H. G. O. (Harrison Gray Otis)|last2=Blake|date=January 1, 1884|publisher=London : T. Fisher Unwin|via=Internet Archive}}</ref> -* ''Winter'' (1888)<ref>{{cite book|url=https://archive.org/details/winterjournal00thorrich|title=Winter : from the Journal of Henry D. Thoreau|first1=Henry David|last1=Thoreau|first2=H. G. O.|last2=Blake|date=January 1, 1888|publisher=Boston : Houghton, Mifflin|via=Internet Archive}}</ref> -* ''Autumn'' (1892)<ref>{{cite book|url=https://archive.org/details/autumnjournal00thorrich|title=Autumn. From the Journal of Henry D. Thoreau|first1=Henry David|last1=Thoreau|first2=Harrison Gray Otis|last2=Blake|publisher=Boston, Houghton, Mifflin|via=Internet Archive|date=December 3, 1892}}</ref> -* ''Miscellanies'' (1894)<ref>[https://www.walden.org/work/cape-cod/ Miscellanies] from the Writings of Henry David Thoreau: The Digital Collection</ref> -* ''Familiar Letters of Henry David Thoreau'' (1894)<ref>{{cite book|url=https://archive.org/details/familiarletters00thorrich|title=Familiar letters of Henry David Thoreau|first1=Henry David|last1=Thoreau|first2=F. B. (Franklin Benjamin)|last2=Sanborn|date=January 1, 1894|publisher=Boston : Houghton, Mifflin|via=Internet Archive}}</ref> -* ''Poems of Nature'' (1895)<ref name="u of adelaide" /> -* ''Some Unpublished Letters of Henry D. and Sophia E. Thoreau'' (1898)<ref name="u of adelaide" /> -* ''The First and Last Journeys of Thoreau'' (1905)<ref>{{cite book|url=https://archive.org/details/firstlastjourneys01thorrich|title=The first and last journeys of Thoreau : lately discovered among his unpublished journals and manuscripts|first1=Henry David|last1=Thoreau|first2=Mass )|last2=Bibliophile Society (Boston|first3=Mass )|last3=Bibliophile Society (Boston|first4=F. B. (Franklin Benjamin)|last4=Sanborn|date=January 1, 1905|publisher=Boston : Printed exclusively for members of the Bibliophile Society|via=Internet Archive}}</ref><ref>{{cite book|url=https://archive.org/details/firstlastjourneys02thorrich|title=The first and last journeys of Thoreau : lately discovered among his unpublished journals and manuscripts|first1=Henry David|last1=Thoreau|first2=Mass )|last2=Bibliophile Society (Boston|first3=Mass )|last3=Bibliophile Society (Boston)|first4=F. B. (Franklin Benjamin)|last4=Sanborn|date=January 1, 1905|publisher=Boston : Printed exclusively for members of the Bibliophile Society|via=Internet Archive}}</ref> -* ''Journal of Henry David Thoreau'' (1906)<ref>[http://www.walden.org/Library/The_Writings_of_Henry_David_Thoreau:_The_Digital_Collection/Journal The Journal of Henry D. Thoreau] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20100505210829/http://www.walden.org/Library/The_Writings_of_Henry_David_Thoreau%3A_The_Digital_Collection/Journal |date=May 5, 2010 }} from the Writings of Henry David Thoreau: The Digital Collection</ref> -* ''The Correspondence of Henry David Thoreau'' edited by Walter Harding and Carl Bode (Washington Square: New York University Press, 1958)<ref>[http://www.walden.org/Library/The_Writings_of_Henry_David_Thoreau:_The_Digital_Collection/Correspondence The Correspondence of Thoreau] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110617003655/http://www.walden.org/Library/The_Writings_of_Henry_David_Thoreau%3A_The_Digital_Collection/Correspondence |date=June 17, 2011 }} from the Writings of Henry David Thoreau: The Digital Collection</ref> -* ''I Was Made Erect and Lone''<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.poetryfoundation.org/poem/184857|title=I Was Made Erect and Lone|date=December 3, 2018|access-date=December 13, 2012|archive-date=February 15, 2012|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120215180100/http://www.poetryfoundation.org/poem/184857|url-status=live}}</ref> -* ''The Bluebird Carries the Sky on His Back'' (Stanyan, 1970)<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://medium.com/@alpharust/the-bluebird-carries-the-sky-on-his-back-ac96daf58a4d|title=The bluebird carries the sky on his back|last=Rastogi|first=Gaurav|date=May 11, 2015|website=Medium|language=en|access-date=January 15, 2020|archive-date=January 15, 2020|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200115123427/https://medium.com/@alpharust/the-bluebird-carries-the-sky-on-his-back-ac96daf58a4d|url-status=live}}</ref> -* ''The Dispersion of Seeds'' published as ''Faith in a Seed'' (Island Press, 1993)<ref>{{Cite book|url=https://archive.org/details/faithinseeddispe00thor|title=Faith in a Seed: The Dispersion of Seeds and Other Late Natural History Writings|last=Thoreau|first=Henry David|year=1996|website=Island Press|isbn=978-1559631822|access-date=January 29, 2018|url-access=registration}}</ref> -* ''The Indian Notebooks'' (1847–1861) [https://www.walden.org/wp-content/uploads/2016/03/IndianNotebooks-1.pdf selections by Richard F. Fleck] -* ''Wild Fruits'' (Unfinished at his death, W.W. Norton, 1999)<ref>{{Cite book|last=Thoreau|first=Henry David |title=Wild fruits: Thoreau's rediscovered last manuscript |date=2000 |publisher=W.W. Norton |editor=Bradley P. Dean |isbn=0-393-04751-2 |edition=1st |location=New York |oclc=41404600}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web|last=Richard|first=Frances|title=Thoreau's "Wild Fruits" {{!}} Frances Richard|url=http://cabinetmagazine.org/issues/23/richard.php|access-date=April 11, 2021|website=cabinetmagazine.org|language=en|archive-date=April 24, 2021|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210424050556/https://www.cabinetmagazine.org/issues/23/richard.php|url-status=live}}</ref> - -==See also== -* [[American philosophy]] -* [[List of American philosophers]] -* [[List of peace activists]] -* [[Thoreau Society]] -* [[Walden Woods Project]] - -==References== -{{Reflist|30em}} - -==Further reading== -{{Refbegin}} -* Balthrop‐Lewis, Alda. "Exemplarist Environmental Ethics: Thoreau's Political Ascetism against Solution Thinking." ''Journal of Religious Ethics'' 47.3 (2019): 525–550. -* Bode, Carl. ''Best of Thoreau's Journals''. Southern Illinois University Press. 1967. -* Botkin, Daniel. ''No Man's Garden'' -* Buell, Lawrence. ''The Environmental Imagination: Thoreau, Nature Writing, and the Formation of American Culture'' (Harvard UP, 1995) -* Cafaro, Philip. ''Thoreau's Living Ethics: "Walden" and the Pursuit of Virtue'' (U of Georgia Press, 2004) -* [[Frank Chodorov|Chodorov, Frank]]. [https://mises.org/daily/5033/The-Disarming-Honesty-of-Henry-David-Thoreau ''The Disarming Honesty of Henry David Thoreau''] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140914003039/https://mises.org/daily/5033/The-Disarming-Honesty-of-Henry-David-Thoreau |date=September 14, 2014 }} -* Conrad, Randall. [http://thoreau.eserver.org/whowhy.html ''Who He Was & Why He Matters''] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20061012062735/http://thoreau.eserver.org/whowhy.html |date=October 12, 2006 }} -* Cramer, Jeffrey S. ''Solid Seasons: The Friendship of Henry David Thoreau and Ralph Waldo Emerson'' (Counterpoint Press, 2019). -* Dean, Bradley P. ed., ''Letters to a Spiritual Seeker''. New York: W. W. Norton & Company, 2004. -* Finley, James S., ed. ''Henry David Thoreau in Context'' (Cambridge UP, 2017). -* Furtak, Rick, Ellsworth, Jonathan, and Reid, James D., eds. ''Thoreau's Importance for Philosophy''. New York: Fordham University Press, 2012. -* Gionfriddo, Michael. "Thoreau, the Work of Breathing, and Building Castles in the Air: Reading Walden's 'Conclusion'." ''The Concord Saunterer'' 25 (2017): 49-90 [https://www.jstor.org/stable/44652797 online] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210417023523/https://www.jstor.org/stable/44652797 |date=April 17, 2021 }}. -* Guhr, Sebastian. ''Mr. Lincoln & Mr. Thoreau''. S. Marix Verlag, Wiesbaden 2021. -* Harding, Walter. ''The Days of Henry Thoreau''. Princeton University Press, 1982. -* Hendrick, George. "The Influence of Thoreau's 'Civil Disobedience' on Gandhi's Satyagraha." ''The New England Quarterly'' 29, no. 4 (December 1956). 462–471. -* {{Cite journal |last1=Hess |first1=Scott |title=Walden Pond as Thoreau's Landscape of Genius |journal=Nineteenth-Century Literature |volume=74 |issue=2 |pages=224–250 |date=2019 |language=en |doi=10.1525/ncl.2019.74.2.224 |s2cid=204481348 |issn=0891-9356 }} -* Howarth, William. ''The Book of Concord: Thoreau's Life as a Writer''. Viking Press, 1982 -* Judd, Richard W. ''Finding Thoreau: The Meaning of Nature in the Making of an Environmental Icon'' (2018) [https://www.amazon.com/Finding-Thoreau-Meaning-Nature-Environmental/dp/1625343884/ excerpt] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210723101739/https://www.amazon.com/Finding-Thoreau-Meaning-Nature-Environmental/dp/1625343884 |date=July 23, 2021 }} -* McGregor, Robert Kuhn. ''A Wider View of the Universe: Henry Thoreau's Study of Nature'' (U of Illinois Press, 1997). -* [[Annie Russell Marble|Marble, Annie Russell]]. ''Thoreau: His Home, Friends and Books''. New York: AMS Press. 1969 [1902] -* Myerson, Joel et al. ''The Cambridge Companion to Henry David Thoreau''. Cambridge University Press. 1995 -* Nash, Roderick. ''Henry David Thoreau, Philosopher'' -* Paolucci, Stefano. [https://www.academia.edu/16692328/The_Foundations_of_Thoreaus_Castles_in_the_Air_ "The Foundations of Thoreau's 'Castles in the Air'"] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210827194255/https://www.academia.edu/16692328/The_Foundations_of_Thoreaus_Castles_in_the_Air_ |date=August 27, 2021 }}, ''Thoreau Society Bulletin'', No. 290 (Summer 2015), 10. (See also the [https://www.academia.edu/25773131/Stefano_Paolucci_The_Foundations_of_Thoreaus_Castles_in_the_Air_Full_Uncensored_Version_ Full Unedited Version] of the same article.) -* Parrington, Vernon. ''[http://xroads.virginia.edu/~HYPER/parrington/vol2/bk03_03_ch03.html Main Current in American Thought] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20060901091713/http://xroads.virginia.edu/~Hyper/Parrington/vol2/bk03_03_ch03.html |date=September 1, 2006 }}''. V 2 online. 1927 -* Parrington, Vernon L. [http://thoreau.eserver.org/currents.html ''Henry Thoreau: Transcendental Economist''] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070612042458/http://thoreau.eserver.org/currents.html |date=June 12, 2007 }} -* Petroski, Henry. "H. D. Thoreau, Engineer." ''American Heritage of Invention and Technology'', Vol. 5, No. 2, pp.&nbsp;8–16 -* Petrulionis, Sandra Harbert, ed., ''Thoreau in His Own Time: A Biographical Chronicle of His Life, Drawn From Recollections, Interviews, and Memoirs by Family, Friends, and Associates.'' Iowa City: University of Iowa Press, 2012. {{ISBN|1-60938-087-8}} -* Richardson, Robert D. ''Henry Thoreau: A Life of the Mind''. University of California Press Berkeley and Los Angeles. 1986. {{ISBN|0-520-06346-5}} -* {{cite encyclopedia |last=Riggenbach |first=Jeff |title=Thoreau, Henry David (1817–1862) |editor-first=Ronald |editor-last=Hamowy |editor-link=Ronald Hamowy |encyclopedia=The Encyclopedia of Libertarianism |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=yxNgXs3TkJYC |date=2008 |publisher=[[SAGE Publishing|Sage]]; [[Cato Institute]] |location=[[Thousand Oaks, California]] |doi=10.4135/9781412965811.n309 |isbn=978-1412965804 |oclc=750831024 |lccn=2008009151 |pages=506–507 |access-date=June 20, 2015 |archive-date=September 30, 2020 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200930100756/https://books.google.com/books?id=yxNgXs3TkJYC%2F |url-status=live }} -* {{Cite journal|last=Riggenbach|first=Jeff|title=Henry David Thoreau: Founding Father of American Libertarian Thought|journal=Mises Daily|date=July 15, 2010|url=https://mises.org/daily/4562/Henry-David-Thoreau-Founding-Father-of-American-Libertarian-Thought|access-date=September 13, 2014|archive-date=September 14, 2014|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140914000502/https://mises.org/daily/4562/Henry-David-Thoreau-Founding-Father-of-American-Libertarian-Thought|url-status=live}} -* Ridl, Jack. "[http://magazine.scintillapress.com/moose-indian.html Moose. Indian.] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210827194541/https://www.facebook.com/v2.3/plugins/share_button.php?app_id=249643311490&channel=https%3A%2F%2Fstaticxx.facebook.com%2Fx%2Fconnect%2Fxd_arbiter%2F%3Fversion%3D46%23cb%3Df1bcdc517dd912c%26domain%3Dmagazine.scintillapress.com%26is_canvas%3Dfalse%26origin%3Dhttp%253A%252F%252Fmagazine.scintillapress.com%252Ff3686018c8f8d2%26relation%3Dparent.parent&container_width=0&href=http%3A%2F%2Fmagazine.scintillapress.com%2Fmoose-indian.html&layout=button_count&locale=en_US&sdk=joey |date=August 27, 2021 }}" Scintilla (poem on Thoreau's last words) -* Schneider, Richard ''Civilizing Thoreau: Human Ecology and the Emerging Social Sciences in the Major Works'' [[Rochester, New York]]. Camden House. 2016. {{ISBN|978-1-57113-960-3}} -* Smith, David C. "The Transcendental Saunterer: Thoreau and the Search for Self." [[Savannah, Georgia]]: Frederic C. Beil, 1997. {{ISBN|0-913720-74-7}} -* Sullivan, Mark W. "Henry David Thoreau in the American Art of the 1950s." ''The Concord Saunterer: A Journal of Thoreau Studies'', New Series, Vol. 18 (2010), pp.&nbsp;68–89. -* Sullivan, Mark W. ''Picturing Thoreau: Henry David Thoreau in American Visual Culture.'' [[Lanham, Maryland]]: Lexington Books, 2015 -* [[Alfred I. Tauber|Tauber, Alfred I]]. ''Henry David Thoreau and the Moral Agency of Knowing''. University of California, Berkeley. 2001. {{ISBN|0-520-23915-6}} -* [http://www.iep.utm.edu/thoreau/ Henry David Thoreau] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160304121233/http://www.iep.utm.edu/thoreau/ |date=March 4, 2016 }}{{nbsp}}– ''[[Internet Encyclopedia of Philosophy]]'' -* [http://plato.stanford.edu/entries/thoreau/ Henry David Thoreau] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20101204075542/http://plato.stanford.edu/entries/thoreau/ |date=December 4, 2010 }}{{nbsp}}– ''[[Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy]]'' -* Thorson, Robert M. ''The Boatman: Henry David Thoreau's River Years'' (Harvard UP, 2017), on his scientific study of the Concord River in the late 1850s. -* Thorson, Robert M. ''Walden's Shore: Henry David Thoreau and Nineteenth-Century Science'' (2015). -* Thorson, Robert M. ''The Guide to Walden Pond: An Exploration of the History, Nature, Landscape, and Literature of One of America's Most Iconic Places'' (2018). -* {{cite journal|last1=Traub|first1=Courtney|title='First-Rate Fellows': Excavating Thoreau's Radical Egalitarian Reflections in a Late Draft of "Allegash"|journal=The Concord Saunterer: A Journal of Thoreau Studies|date=2015|volume=23|pages=74–96}} -* [[Laura Walls|Walls, Laura Dassow]]. ''Seeing New Worlds: Henry David Thoreau and 19th Century Science''. University of Wisconsin. 1995. {{ISBN|0-299-14744-4}} -* [[Laura Walls|Walls, Laura Dassow]]. ''Henry David Thoreau: A Life''. The University of Chicago Press. 2017. {{ISBN|978-0-226-34469-0}} -{{Refend}} -* [[John William Ward (professor)|Ward, John William]]. 1969 ''Red, White, and Blue: Men, Books, and Ideas in American Culture''. New York: Oxford University Press - -==External links== -{{Wikisource author}} -{{Wikiquote}} -{{Commons}} -{{EB1911 Poster|Thoreau, Henry David}} -{{Library resources box|onlinebooks=yes|by=yes}} -* [http://www.thoreausociety.org/ The Thoreau Society] -* [http://www.library.ucsb.edu/thoreau/ The Thoreau Edition] -* [http://www.c-span.org/video/?164015-1/writings-emerson-thoreau "Writings of Emerson and Thoreau"] from [[C-SPAN]]'s ''[[American Writers: A Journey Through History]]'' - -===Texts=== -* {{StandardEbooks|Standard Ebooks URL=https://standardebooks.org/ebooks/henry-david-thoreau}} -* {{Gutenberg author | id=54 | name=Henry David Thoreau}} -* {{FadedPage|id=Thoreau, Henry D.|name=Henry D. Thoreau|author=yes}} -* {{Internet Archive author |sname=Henry David Thoreau}} -* {{Librivox author |id=371}} -* [https://openlibrary.org/search?q=henry+david+thoreau&author_key=OL19690A Works by Thoreau] at Open Library -* [https://www.poets.org/poetsorg/poems/45769 Poems by Thoreau] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20171019154300/https://www.poets.org/poetsorg/poems/45769 |date=October 19, 2017 }} at the Academy of American Poets -* [http://thoreau.eserver.org/ The Thoreau Reader] by ''[[Thoreau Society|The Thoreau Society]]'' -* [https://www.walden.org/thoreau/the-writings-of-henry-david-thoreau-the-digital-collection/ The Writings of Henry David Thoreau] at ''The Walden Woods Project'' -* [http://www.concordlibrary.org/scollect/Thoreau_Surveys/Thoreau_Surveys.htm Scans of Thoreau's Land Surveys] at the Concord Free Public Library -* [http://www.thoreau-online.org/ Henry David Thoreau Online]{{nbsp}}– The Works and Life of Henry D. Thoreau - -{{Henry David Thoreau}} -{{anarchism}} -{{Mahatma Gandhi}} -{{Hall of Fame for Great Americans}} -{{simple living}} -{{social and political philosophy}} -{{Portal bar|Biography|Environment|Poetry|Politics|United States}} -{{authority control}} - -{{DEFAULTSORT:Thoreau, Henry David}} -[[Category:Henry David Thoreau| ]] -[[Category:1817 births]] -[[Category:1862 deaths]] -[[Category:19th-century American philosophers]] -[[Category:19th-century American poets]] -[[Category:19th-century deaths from tuberculosis]] -[[Category:19th-century diarists]] -[[Category:American abolitionists]] -[[Category:American anarchists]] -[[Category:American diarists]] -[[Category:American environmentalists]] -[[Category:American essayists]] -[[Category:American male essayists]] -[[Category:American male non-fiction writers]] -[[Category:American male poets]] -[[Category:American naturalists]] -[[Category:American nature writers]] -[[Category:American naturists]] -[[Category:American nomads]] -[[Category:American non-fiction environmental writers]] -[[Category:American opinion journalists]] -[[Category:American people of French descent]] -[[Category:American political philosophers]] -[[Category:American social commentators]] -[[Category:American spiritual writers]] -[[Category:American surveyors]] -[[Category:American tax resisters]] -[[Category:American travel writers]] -[[Category:Anarchism]] -[[Category:Anarchist writers]] -[[Category:Anti-consumerists]] -[[Category:Civil disobedience]] -[[Category:Critics of work and the work ethic]] -[[Category:American cultural critics]] -[[Category:Ecological succession]] -[[Category:Environmental writers]] -[[Category:Green anarchists]] -[[Category:Hall of Fame for Great Americans inductees]] -[[Category:Harvard College alumni]] -[[Category:Hasty Pudding alumni]] -[[Category:Hikers]] -[[Category:Tuberculosis deaths in Massachusetts]] -[[Category:Lecturers]] -[[Category:Left-libertarians]] -[[Category:Nature writers]] -[[Category:Pantheists]] -[[Category:People from Concord, Massachusetts]] -[[Category:Philosophers from Massachusetts]] -[[Category:Philosophers of culture]] -[[Category:Philosophers of history]] -[[Category:Philosophers of love]] -[[Category:Philosophers of mind]] -[[Category:Philosophers of science]] -[[Category:Poets from Massachusetts]] -[[Category:Simple living advocates]] -[[Category:Social critics]] -[[Category:Social philosophers]] -[[Category:Underground Railroad people]] '
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[ 0 => 'AZIEL STOP READING THIS', 1 => 'Thoreau was a lifelong [[Abolitionism in the United States|abolitionist]], delivering lectures that attacked the [[fugitive slave laws|fugitive slave law]] while praising the writings of [[Wendell Phillips]] and defending the abolitionist [[John Brown (abolitionist)|John Brown]]. Thoreau's philosophy of [[civil disobedience]] later influenced the political thoughts and actions of such notable figures as [[Leo Tolstoy]], [[Mahatma Gandhi]], and [[Martin Luther King Jr.]]<ref name=":2"', 2 => '==Pronunciation of his nam', 3 => '==Physical appearance=' ]
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[ 0 => 'Thoreau's books, articles, essays, journals, and poetry amount to more than 20 volumes. Among his lasting contributions are his [[nature writing|writings on natural history]] and philosophy, in which he anticipated the methods and findings of [[ecology]] and [[environmental history]], two sources of modern-day [[environmentalism]]. His [[literary language|literary]] style interweaves close observation of nature, personal experience, pointed rhetoric, [[symbol]]ic meanings, and historical lore, while displaying a poetic sensibility, philosophical [[Asceticism|austerity]], and attention to practical detail.<ref name="ReferenceA">Thoreau, Henry David. ''A Week on the Concord and Merrimack Rivers''&nbsp;/ ''Walden''&nbsp;/ ''The Maine Woods''&nbsp;/ ''Cape Cod''. Library of America. {{ISBN|0-940450-27-5}}.</ref> He was also deeply interested in the idea of survival in the face of hostile elements, historical change, and natural decay; at the same time he advocated abandoning waste and [[illusion]] in order to discover life's true essential needs.<ref name="ReferenceA"/>', 1 => 'Thoreau was a lifelong [[Abolitionism in the United States|abolitionist]], delivering lectures that attacked the [[fugitive slave laws|fugitive slave law]] while praising the writings of [[Wendell Phillips]] and defending the abolitionist [[John Brown (abolitionist)|John Brown]]. Thoreau's philosophy of [[civil disobedience]] later influenced the political thoughts and actions of such notable figures as [[Leo Tolstoy]], [[Mahatma Gandhi]], and [[Martin Luther King Jr.]]<ref name=":2"/>', 2 => 'Thoreau is sometimes referred to as an [[anarchist]].<ref>Seligman, Edwin Robert Anderson; Johnson, Alvin Saunders, eds. (1937). ''Encyclopaedia of the Social Sciences'', p. 12.</ref><ref>Gross, David, ed. ''The Price of Freedom: Political Philosophy from Thoreau's Journals''. p. 8. {{ISBN|978-1-4348-0552-2}}. "The Thoreau of these journals distrusted doctrine, and, though it is accurate I think to call him an anarchist, he was by no means doctrinaire in this either."</ref> In "Civil Disobedience", Thoreau wrote: "I heartily accept the {{nowrap|motto,—}}'That government is best which governs least;' and I should like to see it acted up to more rapidly and systematically. Carried out, it finally amounts to this, which also I {{nowrap|believe,—}}'That government is best which governs not at all;' and when men are prepared for it, that will be the kind of government which they will have.&nbsp;... But, 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."<ref name="resistance">Thoreau, Henry David (1849). [http://www.sniggle.net/Experiment/index.php?entry=rtcg#p03 "Resistance to Civil Government"] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110605191308/http://www.sniggle.net/Experiment/index.php?entry=rtcg#p03 |date=June 5, 2011 }}. Retrieved October 2, 2020{{snd}}via Sniggle.</ref>', 3 => '', 4 => '==Pronunciation of his name==', 5 => '[[Amos Bronson Alcott]] and Thoreau's aunt each wrote that "Thoreau" is pronounced like the word ''thorough'' ({{IPAc-en|ˈ|θ|ʌr|oʊ}} {{respell|THURR|oh}}—in [[General American]],<ref>[http://thoreau.eserver.org/pronounce THUR-oh or Thor-OH? And How Do We Know?] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170323203856/http://thoreau.eserver.org/pronounce |date=March 23, 2017 }} ''Thoreau Reader''.</ref><ref>''[https://www.npr.org/programs/morning/features/patc/walden/ Thoreau's Walden] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20131030102741/http://www.npr.org/programs/morning/features/patc/walden/ |date=October 30, 2013 }}'', under the sidebar "Pronouncing Thoreau".</ref> but more precisely {{IPAc-en|ˈ|θ|ɔːr|oʊ}} {{respell|THOR|oh}}—in 19th-century New England). [[Edward Waldo Emerson]] wrote that the name should be pronounced "Thó-row", with the ''h'' sounded and stress on the first syllable.<ref>See the note on pronouncing the name at [http://www.walden.org/Thoreau#Name the Thoreau Institute at Walden Woods] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190727140857/https://www.walden.org/thoreau/#Name |date=July 27, 2019 }}.</ref> Among modern-day American English speakers, it is perhaps more commonly pronounced {{IPAc-en|θ|ə|ˈ|r|oʊ}} {{respell|thə|ROH}}—with stress on the second syllable.<ref>{{cite dictionary|title=Thoreau|dictionary=Dictionary.com|date=2013|url=http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/thoreau|access-date=February 17, 2013|archive-date=August 27, 2021|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210827194246/https://www.dictionary.com/browse/thoreau|url-status=live}}</ref><ref>Wells, J. C. (1990) ''Pronunciation Dictionary'', s.v. "Thoreau". Essex, UK: Longman.</ref>', 6 => '', 7 => '==Physical appearance==', 8 => 'Thoreau had a distinctive appearance, with a nose that he called his "most prominent feature".<ref>{{Cite book|title=Cape Cod|last=Thoreau|first=Henry David|year=1865|chapter=Chapter 10-A. Provincetown|chapter-url=http://thoreau.eserver.org:80/capecd10.html|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170822113030/http://thoreau.eserver.org/capecd10.html|archive-date=August 22, 2017|url-status=dead|access-date=February 13, 2007}}</ref> Of his appearance and disposition, [[Ellery Channing]] wrote:<ref>{{cite web|url=http://thoreau.eserver.org/images.html|title=The Days of Henry Thoreau|author=Harding, Walter|work=thoreau.eserver.org|access-date=February 9, 2015|archive-date=November 14, 2016|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20161114183837/http://thoreau.eserver.org/images.html|url-status=live}}</ref>', 9 => '<blockquote>His face, once seen, could not be forgotten. The features were quite marked: the nose [[Aquiline nose|aquiline]] or very Roman, like one of the portraits of [[Julius Caesar|Caesar]] (more like a beak, as was said); large overhanging brows above the deepest set blue eyes that could be seen, in certain lights, and in others gray,—eyes expressive of all shades of feeling, but never weak or near-sighted; the forehead not unusually broad or high, full of concentrated energy and purpose; the mouth with prominent lips, pursed up with meaning and thought when silent, and giving out when open with the most varied and unusual instructive sayings.</blockquote>', 10 => '[[File:Wheeler-Minot Farmhouse, Concord MA.jpg|thumb|Thoreau's birthplace, the [[Wheeler-Minot Farmhouse]] in [[Concord, Massachusetts]]]]', 11 => '', 12 => 'Henry David Thoreau was born David Henry Thoreau<ref>Nelson, Randy F. (1981). ''The Almanac of American Letters''. Los Altos, California: William Kaufmann. p. 51. {{ISBN|0-86576-008-X}}.</ref> in [[Concord, Massachusetts]], into the "modest [[New England]] family"<ref name=McElroy>[[Wendy McElroy|McElroy, Wendy]] (July 30, 2005) [http://archive.lewrockwell.com/mcelroy/mcelroy86.html "Henry David Thoreau and 'Civil Disobedience'"] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150620145129/http://archive.lewrockwell.com/mcelroy/mcelroy86.html |date=June 20, 2015 }}. [[LewRockwell.com]].</ref> of John Thoreau, a pencil maker, and Cynthia Dunbar. His father was of French Protestant descent.<ref>{{Cite book|url=https://www.google.com/books/edition/Henry_David_Thoreau/Uoi8eRYMXV4C?hl=en&gbpv=1&bsq=protestant|isbn = 9780822558934|title = Henry David Thoreau: A Biography|date = December 22, 2006|publisher = Twenty-First Century Books}}</ref> His paternal grandfather had been born on the UK [[crown dependency]] island of [[Jersey]].<ref>{{cite web|url=http://wc.rootsweb.ancestry.com/cgi-bin/igm.cgi?op=GET&db=maold&id=I18020|title=RootsWeb's WorldConnect Project: Ancestors of Mary Ann Gillam and Stephen Old|access-date=September 2, 2008|archive-date=October 16, 2008|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20081016141209/http://wc.rootsweb.ancestry.com/cgi-bin/igm.cgi?op=GET&db=maold&id=I18020|url-status=live}}</ref> His maternal grandfather, Asa Dunbar, led [[Harvard University|Harvard's]] 1766 student "[[Butter rebellion|Butter Rebellion]]",<ref>[https://www.brown.edu/Students/Alpha_Delta_Phi/history/fraternities.php History of the Fraternity System] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090704122642/http://www.brown.edu/Students/Alpha_Delta_Phi/history/fraternities.php |date=July 4, 2009 }}.</ref> the first recorded student protest in the American colonies.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.trivialibrary.com/c/first-student-protest-in-the-united-states.htm|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20191215210840/http://www.trivialibrary.com/c/first-student-protest-in-the-united-states.htm|url-status=dead|archive-date=December 15, 2019|title=First Student Protest in the United States}}</ref> David Henry was named after his recently deceased paternal uncle, David Thoreau. He began to call himself Henry David after he finished college; he never petitioned to make a legal name change.<ref>[http://www.barnesandnoble.com/writers/writerdetails.asp?z=y&cid=1019508#bio Henry David Thoreau] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20061031164847/http://www.barnesandnoble.com/writers/writerdetails.asp?z=y&cid=1019508 |date=October 31, 2006 }}, "Meet the Writers." Barnes & Noble.com</ref>', 13 => '', 14 => 'He had two older siblings, Helen and John Jr., and a younger sister, [[Sophia Thoreau]].<ref>[http://www.americanpoems.com/poets/thoreau/ Biography of Henry David Thoreau] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190806235504/https://www.americanpoems.com/poets/thoreau/ |date=August 6, 2019 }}. americanpoems.com</ref> None of the children married.<ref name=":7">{{Cite web |date=2020-09-19 |title=Helen and Sophia Thoreau, Henry David's Amazing Sisters |url=https://www.newenglandhistoricalsociety.com/helen-sophia-thoreau-henrys-amazing-sisters/ |access-date=2022-05-15 |website=New England Historical Society |language=en-US}}</ref> Helen (1812–1849) died at age 37 years,<ref name=":7" /> from tuberculosis. John Jr. (1814–1842) died at age 27,<ref>{{Cite journal |last=Blanding |first=Thomas |date=1980 |title=BEANS, BAKED AND HALF-BAKED (13) |url=https://archive.org/details/concordsaunter1980151unse/page/16/mode/1up |journal=The Concord Saunterer |volume=15 |issue=1 |pages=16–22 |issn=1068-5359}}</ref> of [[tetanus]] after cutting himself while shaving.<ref>{{Cite journal |last=Myerson |first=Joel |date=1994 |title=Barzillai Frost's Funeral Sermon on the Death of John Thoreau Jr. |url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/3817844 |journal=Huntington Library Quarterly |volume=57 |issue=4 |pages=367–376 |doi=10.2307/3817844 |jstor=3817844 |issn=0018-7895}}</ref> Henry David (1817–1862) died at age 44, of tuberculosis.<ref>{{Cite web |title=Thoreau's Life {{!}} The Thoreau Society |url=https://www.thoreausociety.org/life-legacy |access-date=2022-05-16 |website=www.thoreausociety.org}}</ref> Sophia (1819–1876) survived him by 14 years, dying at age 56 years,<ref name=":7" /> of tuberculosis.<ref>{{Cite journal |last=Herrick |first=Gerri L. |date=1978 |title=SOPHIA THOREAU - "Cara Sophia" |url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/23393396 |journal=The Concord Saunterer |volume=13 |issue=3 |pages=5–12 |jstor=23393396 |issn=1068-5359}}</ref>', 15 => '', 16 => 'He studied at [[Harvard College]] between 1833 and 1837. He lived in [[Hollis Hall]]<ref>{{Cite web |last=Roman |first=John |date=24 Jun 2021 |title=The Homes of Henry David Thoreau |url=http://www.electrummagazine.com/2021/06/the-homes-of-henry-david-thoreau/?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=the-homes-of-henry-david-thoreau |access-date=16 May 2022 |website=Electrum Magazine}}</ref> and took courses in [[rhetoric]], classics, philosophy, mathematics, and science.<ref>{{Cite web |title=The Writings of Henry D. Thoreau |url=https://thoreau.library.ucsb.edu/thoreau_life.html |access-date=2022-05-16 |website=thoreau.library.ucsb.edu}}</ref> He was a member of the Institute of 1770<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.thoreausociety.org/_membership.htm |title=Organizations Thoreau Joined |publisher=Thoreau Society |access-date=June 26, 2014 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130503192646/http://www.thoreausociety.org/_membership.htm |archive-date=May 3, 2013 }}</ref> (now the [[Hasty Pudding Club]]). According to legend, Thoreau refused to pay the five-dollar fee (approximately {{inflation|US|5|1840|fmt=eq}}) for a Harvard diploma. In fact, the master's degree he declined to purchase had no academic merit: [[Harvard College]] offered it to graduates "who proved their physical worth by being alive three years after graduating, and their saving, earning, or inheriting quality or condition by having Five Dollars to give the college".<ref>"Thoreau's Diploma". ''American Literature''. Vol. 17, May 1945. pp. 174–175.</ref> He commented, "Let every sheep keep its own skin",<ref>{{cite web |author=Walter Harding |url=http://www.walden.org/Institute/thoreau/about2/H/WalterHarding/LiveYourOwnLife.htm |title=Live Your Own Life |work=Geneseo Summer Compass |date=June 4, 1984 |access-date=November 21, 2009 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20060129085602/http://www.walden.org/Institute/thoreau/about2/H/WalterHarding/LiveYourOwnLife.htm |archive-date=January 29, 2006|author-link=Walter Harding }}</ref> a reference to the tradition of using [[Sheepskin (material)|sheepskin]] [[vellum]] for diplomas.', 17 => '', 18 => '[[Wheeler-Minot Farmhouse|Thoreau's birthplace]] still exists on Virginia Road in Concord. The house has been restored by the Thoreau Farm Trust,<ref>{{cite web|title=Thoreau Farm|work=thoreaufarm.org|url=http://thoreaufarm.org/|access-date=April 23, 2013|archive-date=October 30, 2019|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20191030230744/https://thoreaufarm.org/|url-status=live}}</ref> a nonprofit organization, and is now open to the public.', 19 => '', 20 => '===Return to Concord, 1837–1844===', 21 => 'The traditional professions open to college graduates—law, the church, business, medicine—did not interest Thoreau,<ref name="sattelmeyer">Sattelmeyer, Robert (1988). ''Thoreau's Reading: A Study in Intellectual History with Bibliographical Catalogue''. [http://www.walden.org/Institute/thoreau/about2/S/Sattelmeyer_Robert/Reading2.pdf Chapter 2] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150908031952/http://www.walden.org/Institute/thoreau/about2/S/Sattelmeyer_Robert/Reading2.pdf |date=September 8, 2015 }}. Princeton: Princeton University Press.</ref>{{Rp|25}} so in 1835 he took a leave of absence from Harvard, during which he taught at a school in [[Canton, Massachusetts]], living for two years at an earlier version of today's [[Concord's Colonial Inn|Colonial Inn]] in Concord. His grandfather owned the earliest of the three buildings that were later combined.<ref name=hudson311>''The History of Concord, Massachusetts, Vol. I, Colonial Concord, Volume 1'', Alfred Sereno Hudson (1904), p. 311</ref> After he graduated in 1837, Thoreau joined the faculty of the Concord public school, but he resigned after a few weeks rather than administer [[corporal punishment]].<ref name="sattelmeyer"/>{{Rp|25}} He and his brother John then opened the Concord Academy, a [[grammar school]] in Concord, in 1838.<!-- Concord Academy (1822–1863) is a different institution than Concord Academy (est. 1922). --><ref name="sattelmeyer" />{{Rp|25}} 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 after cutting himself while shaving.<ref>Dean, Bradley P. "[http://thoreau.eserver.org/wfchron.html A Thoreau Chronology] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170620133904/http://thoreau.eserver.org/wfchron.html |date=June 20, 2017 }}".</ref><ref>{{Cite journal|jstor=3817844 |title=Barzillai Frost's Funeral Sermon on the Death of John Thoreau Jr. |journal=Huntington Library Quarterly |volume=57 |issue=4 |pages=367–376 |date=1994 |author=Myerson, Joel|doi=10.2307/3817844 }}</ref> He died in Henry's arms.<ref>Woodlief, Ann. "[http://www.vcu.edu/engweb/transcendentalism/authors/thoreau/ Henry David Thoreau] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20191009005716/https://www.vcu.edu/engweb/transcendentalism/authors/thoreau/ |date=October 9, 2019 }}".</ref>', 22 => '', 23 => 'Upon graduation Thoreau returned home to Concord, where he met [[Ralph Waldo Emerson]] through a mutual friend.<ref name=McElroy/> Emerson, who was 14 years his senior, took a paternal and at times patron-like interest in Thoreau, advising the young man and introducing him to a circle of local writers and thinkers, including [[William Ellery Channing (poet)|Ellery Channing]], [[Margaret Fuller]], [[Amos Bronson Alcott|Bronson Alcott]], and [[Nathaniel Hawthorne]] and his son [[Julian Hawthorne]], who was a boy at the time.', 24 => '', 25 => 'Emerson urged Thoreau to contribute essays and poems to a quarterly periodical, ''[[The Dial]]'', and lobbied the editor, Margaret Fuller, to publish those writings. Thoreau's first essay published in ''The Dial'' was "Aulus Persius Flaccus",<ref>{{Cite web|url=http://www.walden.org/documents/file/Library/About%20Thoreau/D/Dial/AulusPersiusFlaccus.pdf|title=Aulus Persius Flaccus|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120925021512/http://www.walden.org/documents/file/Library/About%20Thoreau/D/Dial/AulusPersiusFlaccus.pdf|archive-date=September 25, 2012|url-status=dead}}</ref> an essay on the Roman poet and satirist, in July 1840.<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.walden.org/Library/About_Thoreau's_Life_and_Writings:_The_Research_Collections/The_Dial |title=''The Dial'' |publisher=Walden.org |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20151018151944/http://www.walden.org/Library/About_Thoreau%27s_Life_and_Writings%3A_The_Research_Collections/The_Dial |archive-date=October 18, 2015 }}</ref> It consisted of revised passages from his journal, which he had begun keeping at Emerson's suggestion. The first journal entry, on October 22, 1837, reads, "'What are you doing now?' he asked. 'Do you keep a journal?' So I make my first entry to-day."<ref>Thoreau, Henry David (2007). ''I to Myself: An Annotated Selection from the Journal of Henry D. Thoreau''. Jeffrey S. Cramer, ed. New Haven: Yale University Press. p. 1.</ref>', 26 => '', 27 => 'Thoreau was a philosopher of nature and its relation to the human condition. In his early years he followed [[transcendentalism]], a loose and eclectic [[Idealism|idealist]] philosophy advocated by Emerson, Fuller, and Alcott. They held that an ideal spiritual state transcends, or goes beyond, the physical and empirical, and that one achieves that insight via personal intuition rather than religious doctrine. In their view, Nature is the outward sign of inward spirit, expressing the "radical correspondence of visible things and human thoughts", as Emerson wrote in ''Nature'' (1836).', 28 => '', 29 => '[[File:Thoreau1967stamp.jpg|thumb|right|1967 U.S. postage stamp honoring Thoreau, designed by [[Leonard Baskin]]]]', 30 => '', 31 => 'On April 18, 1841, Thoreau moved into the [[Ralph Waldo Emerson House|Emerson house]].<ref name="Cheever">Cheever, Susan (2006). ''American Bloomsbury: Louisa May Alcott, Ralph Waldo Emerson, Margaret Fuller, Nathaniel Hawthorne, and Henry David Thoreau; Their Lives, Their Loves, Their Work''. Detroit: Thorndike Press. p. 90. {{ISBN|0-7862-9521-X}}.</ref> There, from 1841 to 1844, he served as the children's tutor; he was also an editorial assistant, repairman and gardener. For a few months in 1843, he moved to the home of William Emerson on [[Staten Island]],<ref>{{cite book |title=The Life of Henry David Thoreau |last=Salt |first=H. S. |date=1890 |publisher=Richard Bentley & Son |location=London |url=https://archive.org/details/bub_gb_t_0RAAAAYAAJ |page=[https://archive.org/details/bub_gb_t_0RAAAAYAAJ/page/n83 69]}}</ref> and tutored the family's sons while seeking contacts among literary men and journalists in the city who might help publish his writings, including his future literary representative [[Horace Greeley]].<ref>Sanborn, F. B., ed. (1906). ''The Writings of Henry David Thoreau''. Vol. VI, ''Familiar Letters''. [http://www.walden.org/Institute/thoreau/writings/Writings1906/06FamiliarLetters/Years%20of%20Discipline.pdf Chapter 1, "Years of Discipline"] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150907235501/http://www.walden.org/Institute/thoreau/writings/Writings1906/06FamiliarLetters/Years%20of%20Discipline.pdf |date=September 7, 2015 }}. Boston: Houghton Mifflin.</ref>{{Rp|68}}', 32 => '', 33 => 'Thoreau returned to Concord and worked in his family's [[pencil]] factory, which he would continue to do alongside his writing and other work for most of his adult life. He rediscovered the process of making good pencils with inferior [[graphite]] by using clay as the binder.<ref>{{Cite book|url=https://archive.org/details/pencilhistoryofd00petr|url-access=registration|title=The Pencil: A History of Design and Circumstance|last=Petroski|first=Henry|publisher=Knopf|year=1992|isbn=9780679734154|location=New York|pages=[https://archive.org/details/pencilhistoryofd00petr/page/104 104]–125}}</ref> This invention allowed profitable use of a graphite source found in [[New Hampshire]] that had been purchased in 1821 by Thoreau's uncle, Charles Dunbar. The process of mixing graphite and clay, known as the Conté process, had been first patented by [[Nicolas-Jacques Conté]] in 1795. The company's other source of graphite had been [[Tantiusques]], a mine operated by Native Americans in [[Sturbridge, Massachusetts]]. Later, Thoreau converted the pencil factory to produce plumbago, a name for graphite at the time, which was used in the [[electrotyping]] process.<ref>Conrad, Randall. (Fall 2005). [http://thoreau.eserver.org/pencils.html "Machine in the Wetland: Re-imagining Thoreau's Plumbago-Grinder"] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070609102739/http://thoreau.eserver.org/pencils.html |date=June 9, 2007 }}. ''[http://www.thoreausociety.org/_activities_tsb.htm Thoreau Society Bulletin] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20071223191911/http://www.thoreausociety.org/_activities_tsb.htm |date=December 23, 2007 }}'' 253.</ref>', 34 => '', 35 => 'Once back in Concord, Thoreau went through a restless period. In April 1844 he and his friend Edward Hoar accidentally set a fire that consumed {{convert|300|acre|ha|-1|abbr=off}} of Walden Woods.<ref>[http://www.calliope.org/thoreau/thorotime.html ''A Chronology of Thoreau's Life, with Events of the Times''] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160213001457/http://www.calliope.org/thoreau/thorotime.html |date=February 13, 2016 }}. The Thoreau Project, Calliope Film Resources. Accessed June 11, 2007.</ref>', 36 => '', 37 => '==="Civil Disobedience" and the Walden years, 1845–1850===', 38 => '[[File:Thoreau sites in Walden Pond.svg|thumb|left|Thoreau sites at Walden Pond]]', 39 => '', 40 => '{{blockquote|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 practise 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, "Where I Lived, and What I Lived For", in ''[[Walden]]''<ref>''Grammardog Guide to Walden''. Grammardog. p. 25. {{ISBN|1-60857-084-3}}.</ref>}}', 41 => '', 42 => 'Thoreau felt a need to concentrate and work more on his writing. In 1845, Ellery Channing told Thoreau, "Go out upon that, build yourself a hut, & there begin the grand process of devouring yourself alive. I see no other alternative, no other hope for you."{{sfn|Packer|2007|p=[https://books.google.com/books?id=FBHgfLqH_RUC&pg=PA183 183]}} Thus, on July 4, 1845, Thoreau embarked on a two-year experiment in [[simple living]], moving to a small house he had built on land owned by Emerson in a [[secondary forest|second growth forest]] around the shores of [[Walden Pond]]. The house was in "a pretty pasture and woodlot" of {{convert|14|acre|ha|1|abbr=off}} that Emerson had bought,<ref>Richardson. ''Emerson: The Mind on Fire''. p. 399.</ref> {{convert|1+1/2|mi|km|round=0.5|abbr=off|sp=us}} from his family home.<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.google.com/maps/search/concord+mass/@42.449808,-71.342769,15z?dg=dbrw&newdg=1|title=Google Maps|access-date=October 13, 2018|archive-date=January 25, 2020|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200125151513/https://www.google.com/maps/search/concord+mass/@42.449808,-71.342769,15z?dg=dbrw&newdg=1|url-status=live}}</ref> Whilst there, he wrote his only extended piece of literary criticism, "[[Thomas Carlyle and His Works]]".<ref>{{Cite journal |last=Gravett |first=Sharon L. |date=1995 |title=Carlyle's Demanding Companion: Henry David Thoreau |url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/44946086 |journal=Carlyle Studies Annual |publisher=Saint Joseph's University Press |issue=15 |pages=21–31 |jstor=44946086 |url-access=registration |via=JSTOR}}</ref>', 43 => '[[File:Walden Thoreau.jpg|thumb|Original title page of ''Walden'', with an illustration from a drawing by Thoreau's sister Sophia]]', 44 => '', 45 => 'On July 24 or July 25, 1846, Thoreau ran into the local [[tax collector]], Sam Staples, who asked him to pay six years of delinquent [[Poll tax (United States)|poll taxes]]. Thoreau refused because of his opposition to the [[Mexican–American War]] and [[Slavery in the United States|slavery]], and he spent a night in jail because of this refusal. The next day Thoreau was freed when someone, likely to have been his aunt, paid the tax, against his wishes.<ref name=":2">Rosenwald, Lawrence. "[http://thoreau.eserver.org/theory.html The Theory, Practice and Influence of Thoreau's Civil Disobedience]". William Cain, ed. (2006). ''A Historical Guide to Henry David Thoreau''. Cambridge: Oxford University Press. {{Webarchive|url=https://archive.today/20131014012153/http://thoreau.eserver.org/theory.html|date=October 14, 2013|title=Archived}}</ref> The experience had a strong impact on Thoreau. In January and February 1848, he delivered lectures on "The Rights and Duties of the Individual in relation to Government",<ref>Thoreau, H. D., letter to Ralph Waldo Emerson, February 23, 1848.</ref> explaining his tax resistance at the [[Concord Lyceum]]. Bronson Alcott attended the lecture, writing in his journal on January 26:', 46 => '', 47 => '{{blockquote|Heard Thoreau's lecture before the Lyceum on the relation of the individual to the State—an admirable statement of the rights of the individual to self-government, and an attentive audience. His allusions to the Mexican War, to Mr. [[Samuel Hoar|Hoar]]'s expulsion from Carolina, his own imprisonment in Concord Jail for refusal to pay his tax, Mr. Hoar's payment of mine when taken to prison for a similar refusal, were all pertinent, well considered, and reasoned. I took great pleasure in this deed of Thoreau's.|Bronson Alcott|''Journals''<ref>Alcott, Bronson (1938). ''Journals''. Boston: Little, Brown.</ref>}}', 48 => '', 49 => 'Thoreau revised the lecture into an essay titled "[[Civil Disobedience (Thoreau)|Resistance to Civil Government]]" (also known as "Civil Disobedience"). It was published by [[Elizabeth Peabody]] in the ''Aesthetic Papers'' in May 1849. Thoreau had taken up a version of [[Percy Shelley]]'s principle in the political poem "[[The Mask of Anarchy]]" (1819), which begins with the powerful images of the unjust forms of authority of his time and then imagines the stirrings of a radically new form of social action.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.morrissociety.org/JWMS/SP94.10.4.Nichols.pdf |title=Morrissociety.org |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110105232938/http://www.morrissociety.org/JWMS/SP94.10.4.Nichols.pdf |archive-date=January 5, 2011 }}</ref>', 50 => '', 51 => 'At Walden Pond, Thoreau completed a first draft of ''[[A Week on the Concord and Merrimack Rivers]]'', an [[elegy]] to his brother John, describing their trip to the [[White Mountains (New Hampshire)|White Mountains]] in 1839. Thoreau did not find a publisher for the book and instead printed 1,000 copies at his own expense; fewer than 300 were sold.<ref name="Cheever" />{{Rp|234}} He self-published the book on the advice of Emerson, using Emerson's publisher, Munroe, who did little to publicize the book.', 52 => '', 53 => '{{multiple image', 54 => '| align = left', 55 => '| direction = vertical', 56 => '| caption_align = center', 57 => '| width = 225', 58 => '| image1 = Thoreau's cabin inside.jpg', 59 => '| alt1 =', 60 => '| caption1 = Reconstruction of the interior of Thoreau's cabin', 61 => '| image2 = Replica of Thoreau's cabin near Walden Pond and his statue.jpg', 62 => '| alt2 =', 63 => '| caption2 = Replica of Thoreau's cabin and a statue of him near Walden Pond', 64 => '}}', 65 => '', 66 => 'In August 1846, Thoreau briefly left Walden to make a trip to [[Mount Katahdin]] in [[Maine]], a journey later recorded in "Ktaadn", the first part of ''The Maine Woods''.', 67 => '', 68 => 'Thoreau left Walden Pond on September 6, 1847.<ref name="Cheever" />{{Rp|244}} At Emerson's request, he immediately moved back to the Emerson house to help Emerson's wife, Lidian, manage the household while her husband was on an extended trip to Europe.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.thoreausociety.org/_news_abouthdt.htm |title=Thoreausociety.org |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20101129085846/http://thoreausociety.org/_news_abouthdt.htm |archive-date=November 29, 2010 }}</ref> Over several years, as he worked to pay off his debts, he continuously revised the manuscript of what he eventually published as ''[[Walden|Walden, or Life in the Woods]]'' in 1854, recounting the two years, two months, and two days he had spent at Walden Pond. The book compresses that time into a single calendar year, using the passage of the four seasons to symbolize human development. Part [[memoir]] and part spiritual quest, ''Walden'' at first won few admirers, but later critics have regarded it as a classic American work that explores natural simplicity, harmony, and beauty as models for just social and cultural conditions.', 69 => '', 70 => 'The American poet [[Robert Frost]] wrote of Thoreau, "In one book ... he surpasses everything we have had in America."<ref>Frost, Robert (1968). Letter to Wade Van Dore, June 24, 1922, in ''Twentieth Century Interpretations of Walden''. Richard Ruland, ed. Englewood Cliffs, N.J.: Prentice Hall. p. 8. {{LCCN|6814480}}.</ref>', 71 => '', 72 => 'The American author [[John Updike]] said of the book, "A century and a half after its publication, Walden has become such a totem of the back-to-nature, preservationist, anti-business, civil-disobedience mindset, and Thoreau so vivid a protester, so perfect a crank and hermit saint, that the book risks being as revered and unread as the Bible."<ref>Updike, John (2004). "A Sage for All Seasons". [https://www.theguardian.com/books/2004/jun/26/classics ''The Guardian''] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210827194247/https://www.theguardian.com/books/2004/jun/26/classics |date=August 27, 2021 }}.</ref>', 73 => '', 74 => 'Thoreau moved out of Emerson's house in July 1848 and stayed at a house on nearby Belknap Street. In 1850, he moved into a house at [[Thoreau-Alcott House|255 Main Street]], where he lived until his death.<ref>Ehrlich, Eugene; Carruth, Gorton (1982). ''The Oxford Illustrated Literary Guide to the United States''. New York: Oxford University Press. p. 45. {{ISBN|0-19-503186-5}}.</ref>', 75 => '', 76 => 'In the summer of 1850, Thoreau and Channing journeyed from Boston to [[Montreal]] and [[Quebec City]]. These would be Thoreau's only travels outside the United States.<ref>{{cite journal|last1=Weisman|first1=Adam Paul|title=Postcolonialism in North America: Imaginative Colonization in Henry David Thoreau's "A Yankee in Canada" and Jacques Poulin's "Volkswagen Blues"|journal=The Massachusetts Review|date=Autumn 1995|volume=36|issue=3|pages=478–479}}</ref> It is as a result of this trip that he developed lectures that eventually became ''A Yankee in Canada''. He jested that all he got from this adventure "was a cold".<ref>{{cite book|last1=Thoreau|first1=Henry David|title=A Yankee in Canada|url=https://archive.org/details/yankeeincanada0000thor|url-access=registration|date=1961|publisher=Harvest House|location=Montreal|page=[https://archive.org/details/yankeeincanada0000thor/page/13 13]}}</ref> In fact, this proved an opportunity to contrast American civic spirit and democratic values with a colony apparently ruled by illegitimate religious and military power. Whereas his own country had had its revolution, in Canada history had failed to turn.<ref name="ReferenceB">{{cite journal|last1=Lacroix|first1=Patrick|title=Finding Thoreau in French Canada: The Ideological Legacy of the American Revolution|journal=American Review of Canadian Studies|date=Fall 2017|volume=47|issue=3|pages=266–279|doi=10.1080/02722011.2017.1370719|s2cid=148808283}}</ref>', 77 => '', 78 => '===Later years, 1851–1862===', 79 => '[[File:VII. Rowse.jpg|thumb|Thoreau in 1854]]', 80 => 'In 1851, Thoreau became increasingly fascinated with [[natural history]] and narratives of travel and expedition. He read avidly on [[botany]] and often wrote observations on this topic into his journal. He admired [[William Bartram]] and [[Charles Darwin]]'s ''[[The Voyage of the Beagle|Voyage of the Beagle]]''. He kept detailed observations on Concord's nature lore, recording everything from how the fruit ripened over time to the fluctuating depths of Walden Pond and the days certain birds migrated. The point of this task was to "anticipate" the seasons of nature, in his word.<ref>[http://www.walden.org/documents/file/Library/Thoreau/writings/correspondence/LettersBlake.pdf#page34 Letters to H.&nbsp;G.&nbsp;O. Blake] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110617003953/http://www.walden.org/documents/file/Library/Thoreau/writings/correspondence/LettersBlake.pdf |date=June 17, 2011 }}. Walden.org</ref><ref>Thoreau, Henry David (1862). "Autumnal Tints". ''The Atlantic Monthly'', October. pp. 385–402. [http://www.walden.org/Institute/thoreau/writings/essays/Thoreau_Autumnal%20Tints.pdf Reprint] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20100307053611/http://www.walden.org/Institute/thoreau/writings/essays/Thoreau_Autumnal%20Tints.pdf |date=March 7, 2010 }}. Retrieved November 21, 2009.</ref>', 81 => '', 82 => 'He became a [[Surveying|land surveyor]] and continued to write increasingly detailed observations on the natural history of the town, covering an area of {{convert|26|sqmi|km2|abbr=off|sp=us}}, in his journal, a two-million-word document he kept for 24 years. He also kept a series of notebooks, and these observations became the source of his late writings on natural history, such as "Autumnal Tints", "The Succession of Trees", and "Wild Apples", an essay lamenting the destruction of the local [[wild apple]] species.', 83 => '', 84 => 'With the rise of [[environmental history]] and [[ecocriticism]] as academic disciplines, several new readings of Thoreau began to emerge, showing him to have been both a philosopher and an analyst of ecological patterns in fields and woodlots.<ref>{{cite book|last1=Thorson|first1=Robert M.|title=Walden's Shore: Henry David Thoreau and Nineteenth-Century Science|date=December 6, 2013|publisher=Harvard University Press|location=Cambridge, Massachusetts|isbn=978-0674724785}}</ref><ref>{{cite news|last1=Primack|first1=Richard B.|title=Tracking Climate Change with the Help of Henry David Thoreau|url=http://www.elsevier.com/connect/tracking-climate-change-with-the-help-of-henry-david-thoreau|access-date=September 23, 2015|date=June 13, 2013|archive-date=September 23, 2015|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150923155958/http://www.elsevier.com/connect/tracking-climate-change-with-the-help-of-henry-david-thoreau|url-status=live}}</ref> For instance, "The Succession of Forest Trees", shows that he used experimentation and analysis to explain how forests regenerate after fire or human destruction, through the dispersal of seeds by winds or animals. In this lecture, first presented to a cattle show in Concord, and considered his greatest contribution to ecology, Thoreau explained why one species of tree can grow in a place where a different tree did previously. He observed that [[squirrel]]s often carry nuts far from the tree from which they fell to create stashes. These seeds are likely to germinate and grow should the squirrel die or abandon the stash. He credited the squirrel for performing a "great service ... in the economy of the universe."<ref>{{cite book|last1=Worster|first1=Donald|title=Nature's Economy|date=1977|publisher=Cambridge University|location=New York|isbn=0-521-45273-2|pages=69–71}}</ref>', 85 => '[[File:Walden Pond, 2010.jpg|thumb|left|[[Walden Pond]]]]', 86 => '', 87 => 'He traveled to [[Canada East]] once, [[Cape Cod]] four times, and Maine three times; these landscapes inspired his "excursion" books, ''[[A Yankee in Canada]]'', ''Cape Cod'', and ''The Maine Woods'', in which travel itineraries frame his thoughts about geography, history and philosophy. Other travels took him southwest to [[Philadelphia]] and New York City in 1854 and west across the [[Great Lakes region (North America)|Great Lakes region]] in 1861, when he visited [[Niagara Falls]], Detroit, Chicago, [[Milwaukee]], [[St. Paul, Minnesota|St. Paul]] and [[Mackinac Island]].<ref>Thoreau, Henry David (1970). ''The Annotated Walden''. Philip Van Doren Stern, ed. pp. 96, 132.</ref> He was provincial in his own travels, but he read widely about travel in other lands. He devoured all the first-hand travel accounts available in his day, at a time when the last unmapped regions of the earth were being explored. He read [[Ferdinand Magellan|Magellan]] and [[James Cook]]; the [[arctic explorer]]s [[John Franklin]], [[Alexander Mackenzie (explorer)|Alexander Mackenzie]] and [[William Parry (explorer)|William Parry]]; [[David Livingstone]] and [[Richard Francis Burton]] on Africa; [[Lewis and Clark]]; and hundreds of lesser-known works by explorers and literate travelers.<ref>Christie, John Aldrich (1965). ''Thoreau as World Traveler''. New York: Columbia University Press.</ref> Astonishing amounts of reading fed his endless curiosity about the peoples, cultures, religions and natural history of the world and left its traces as commentaries in his voluminous journals. He processed everything he read, in the local laboratory of his Concord experience. Among his famous aphorisms is his advice to "live at home like a traveler".<ref>[http://www.walden.org/Library/The_Writings_of_Henry_David_Thoreau:_The_Digital_Collection/Correspondence Letters of H.&nbsp;G.&nbsp;O. Blake] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110617003655/http://www.walden.org/Library/The_Writings_of_Henry_David_Thoreau%3A_The_Digital_Collection/Correspondence |date=June 17, 2011 }} in ''The Writings of Henry David Thoreau: The Digital Collection''.</ref>', 88 => '', 89 => 'After [[John Brown's raid on Harpers Ferry]], many prominent voices in the abolitionist movement distanced themselves from Brown or [[Damn with faint praise|damned him with faint praise]]. Thoreau was disgusted by this, and he composed a key speech, ''[[A Plea for Captain John Brown]]'', which was uncompromising in its defense of Brown and his actions. Thoreau's speech proved persuasive: the abolitionist movement began to accept Brown as a martyr, and by the time of the [[American Civil War]] entire armies of the North were [[John Brown's Body|literally singing Brown's praises]]. As a biographer of Brown put it, "If, as Alfred Kazin suggests, without John Brown there would have been no Civil War, we would add that without the Concord Transcendentalists, John Brown would have had little cultural impact."<ref>Reynolds, David S. (2005). ''John Brown, Abolitionist''. Knopf. p. 4.</ref>', 90 => '[[File:Henry David Thoreau - Dunshee ambrotpe 1861.jpg|thumb|left|Thoreau in his second and final photographic sitting, August 1861]]', 91 => '', 92 => '===Death===', 93 => 'Thoreau contracted [[tuberculosis]] in 1835 and suffered from it sporadically afterwards. In 1860, following a late-night excursion to count the rings of tree stumps during a rainstorm, he became ill with [[bronchitis]].<ref>{{Cite book|last=Richardson|first=Robert D. Jr.|title=Faith in a Seed: The First Publication of Thoreau's Last Manuscript|publisher=Island Press|year=1993|editor-last=Dean|editor-first=Bradley P.|location=Washington, D.C.|pages=17|chapter=Introduction}}</ref><ref>[https://www.walden.org/Library/About_Thoreau's_Life_and_Writings:_The_Research_Collections/Thoreau,_the_Man About Thoreau: Thoreau, the Man] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160620045648/http://www.walden.org/Library/About_Thoreau%27s_Life_and_Writings%3A_The_Research_Collections/Thoreau%2C_the_Man |date=June 20, 2016 }}.</ref><ref>[http://thoreau.eserver.org/wfchron.html Thoreau Chronology] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170620133904/http://thoreau.eserver.org/wfchron.html |date=June 20, 2017 }}.</ref> His health declined, with brief periods of remission, and he eventually became bedridden. Recognizing the terminal nature of his disease, Thoreau spent his last years revising and editing his unpublished works, particularly ''The Maine Woods'' and [[Excursions (anthology)|''Excursions'']], and petitioning publishers to print revised editions of ''A Week'' and ''Walden''. He wrote letters and journal entries until he became too weak to continue. His friends were alarmed at his diminished appearance and were fascinated by his tranquil acceptance of death. When his aunt Louisa asked him in his last weeks if he had made his peace with God, Thoreau responded, "I did not know we had ever quarreled."<ref>{{cite book|first=Simon|last=Critchley|title=The Book of Dead Philosophers|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=ME-6IKs4a2sC&pg=PA181|page=181|location=New York|publisher=Random House|date=2009|isbn=978-0307472632|access-date=June 20, 2015|archive-date=August 27, 2021|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210827194251/https://books.google.com/books?id=ME-6IKs4a2sC&pg=PA181|url-status=live}}</ref>', 94 => '', 95 => '[[File:Grave of Henry David Thoreau.jpeg|thumb|Grave of Thoreau at [[Sleepy Hollow Cemetery (Concord, Massachusetts)|Sleepy Hollow Cemetery]] in Concord]] [[File:David Henry Thoreau.jpg|thumb|Geodetic Marker at Thoreau's gravesite]]', 96 => 'Aware he was dying, Thoreau's last words were "Now comes good sailing", followed by two lone words, "moose" and "Indian".<ref>{{cite web|url=http://writersalmanac.publicradio.org/programs/2008/05/05/|title=The Writer's Almanac|publisher=American Public Media|access-date=June 1, 2017|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170708225006/http://writersalmanac.publicradio.org/programs/2008/05/05/|archive-date=July 8, 2017|url-status=dead}}</ref> He died on May 6, 1862, at age 44. [[Amos Bronson Alcott]] planned the service and read selections from Thoreau's works, and Channing presented a hymn.<ref>{{cite book |last=Packer |first=Barbara L. |year=2007 |title=The Transcendentalists |location=Athens, Georgia |publisher=University of Georgia Press |page=272 |isbn=978-0-8203-2958-1}}</ref> Emerson wrote the eulogy spoken at the funeral.<ref>{{cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=NWACAAAAIAAJ&pg=PA239|last= Emerson|first= Ralph Waldo |title=Thoreau|work=The Atlantic|date= August 1862}}</ref> Thoreau was buried in the Dunbar family plot; his remains and those of members of his immediate family were eventually moved to [[Sleepy Hollow Cemetery (Concord, Massachusetts)|Sleepy Hollow Cemetery]] in Concord, Massachusetts.', 97 => '', 98 => '===Nature and human existence===', 99 => '{{blockquote|Most of the luxuries and many of the so-called comforts of life are not only not indispensable, but positive hindrances to the elevation of mankind.| Thoreau<ref>''Walden, or Life in the Woods'' (Chapter 1: "Economy")</ref>}}', 100 => '', 101 => 'Thoreau was an early advocate of recreational hiking and [[canoeing]], of conserving natural resources on private land, and of preserving wilderness as public land. He was himself a highly skilled canoeist; [[Nathaniel Hawthorne]], after a ride with him, noted that "Mr. Thoreau managed the boat so perfectly, either with two paddles or with one, that it seemed instinct with his own will, and to require no physical effort to guide it."<ref>Nathaniel Hawthorne, Passages From the American Note-Books, entry for September 2, 1842.</ref>', 102 => '', 103 => 'He was not a strict vegetarian, though he said he preferred that diet<ref>Brooks, Van Wyck. ''The Flowering of New England''. New York: E. P. Dutton and Company, Inc., 1952. p. 310</ref> and advocated it as a means of self-improvement. He wrote in ''Walden'', "The practical objection to animal food in my case was its uncleanness; and besides, when I had caught and cleaned and cooked and eaten my fish, they seemed not to have fed me essentially. It was insignificant and unnecessary, and cost more than it came to. A little bread or a few potatoes would have done as well, with less trouble and filth."<ref name="Cheever241">Cheever, Susan (2006). ''American Bloomsbury: Louisa May Alcott, Ralph Waldo Emerson, Margaret Fuller, Nathaniel Hawthorne, and Henry David Thoreau; Their Lives, Their Loves, Their Work''. Detroit: Thorndike Press. Large print edition. p. 241. {{ISBN|0-7862-9521-X}}.</ref>', 104 => '', 105 => '[[File:Thoreaus quote near his cabin site, Walden Pond.jpg|thumb|Thoreau's famous quotation, near his cabin site at Walden Pond]]', 106 => 'Thoreau neither rejected civilization nor fully embraced wilderness. Instead he sought a middle ground, the [[pastoral]] realm that integrates nature and culture. His philosophy required that he be a didactic arbitrator between the wilderness he based so much on and the spreading mass of humanity in North America. He decried the latter endlessly but felt that a teacher needs to be close to those who needed to hear what he wanted to tell them. The wildness he enjoyed was the nearby swamp or forest, and he preferred "partially cultivated country". His idea of being "far in the recesses of the wilderness" of Maine was to "travel the logger's path and the Indian trail", but he also hiked on pristine land. In the essay "Henry David Thoreau, Philosopher" [[Roderick Nash]] wrote, "Thoreau left Concord in 1846 for the first of three trips to northern Maine. His expectations were high because he hoped to find genuine, primeval America. But contact with real wilderness in Maine affected him far differently than had the idea of wilderness in Concord. Instead of coming out of the woods with a deepened appreciation of the wilds, Thoreau felt a greater respect for civilization and realized the necessity of balance."<ref>Nash, Roderick. ''Wilderness and the American Mind: Henry David Thoreau: Philosopher''.</ref>', 107 => '', 108 => 'Of alcohol, Thoreau wrote, "I would fain keep sober always. ... I believe that water is the only drink for a wise man; wine is not so noble a liquor. ... Of all ebriosity, who does not prefer to be intoxicated by the air he breathes?"<ref name="Cheever241" />', 109 => '', 110 => '===Sexuality===', 111 => 'Thoreau [[bachelor|never married]] and was childless. In 1840, when he was 23, he proposed to eighteen-year old Ellen Sewall, but she refused him, on the advice of her father.<ref name="Sewall">{{Cite web |url=https://www.americanantiquarian.org/sewall-intro', 112 => '|title=Introduction', 113 => '|last=Knoles |first=Thomas |work=American Antiquarian Society', 114 => '|quote= She was in Watertown when Henry wrote to her with his own proposal, probably in early November [1840]...'I wrote to H. T. that evening. I never felt so badly at sending a letter in my life.' ', 115 => '|date=2016 |access-date=December 17, 2021}}</ref>', 116 => '', 117 => 'Thoreau's sexuality has long been the subject of speculation, including by his contemporaries. Critics have called him heterosexual, [[Homosexuality|homosexual]], or [[Asexuality|asexual]].<ref name=harding/><ref>{{cite book | url=https://archive.org/details/millennialseduct00quin | url-access=registration | title=Millennial Seduction | publisher=Cornell University Press | author=Quinby, Lee | page=[https://archive.org/details/millennialseduct00quin/page/68 68]| isbn=978-0801486012 | year=1999 }}</ref> There is no evidence to suggest he had physical relations with anyone, man or woman. Some scholars have suggested that homoerotic sentiments run through his writings and concluded that he was homosexual.<ref name=harding>Harding, Walter (1991). "Thoreau's Sexuality". ''Journal of Homosexuality'' 21.3. pp. 23–45.</ref><ref>{{cite book |last=Bronski |first=Michael |title=A Queer History of the United States |publisher=Beacon Press |year=2012 |isbn=978-0807044650 |page=50|title-link=A Queer History of the United States }}</ref><ref>Michael, Warner (1991). "Walden's Erotic Economy" in ''Comparative American Identities: Race, Sex and Nationality in the Modern Text''. Hortense Spillers, ed. New York: Routledge. pp. 157–173.</ref> The elegy "Sympathy" was inspired by the eleven-year-old Edmund Sewall, who had just spent five days in the Thoreau household in 1839.<ref>{{cite document|last=Robbins|first= Paula Ivaska|title=The Natural Thoreau|work= The Gay And Lesbian Review, September–October 2011|id= {{ProQuest|890209875}}}}</ref> One scholar has suggested that he wrote the poem to Edmund because he could not bring himself to write it to Edmund's sister Anna,<ref>Richardson, Robert; Moser, Barry (1986). ''Henry Thoreau: A Life of the Mind''. University of California Press. pp. 58–63.</ref> and another that Thoreau's "emotional experiences with women are memorialized under a camouflage of masculine pronouns",<ref>Canby, Henry Seidel (1939). ''Thoreau''. Houghton Mifflin. p. 117.</ref> but other scholars dismiss this.<ref name=harding /><ref>Katz, Jonathan Ned (1992). ''Gay American History: Lesbians and Gay Men in the USA''. New York: Meridian. pp. 481–492.</ref> It has been argued that the long paean in ''Walden'' to the French-Canadian woodchopper Alek Therien, which includes allusions to [[Achilles and Patroclus]], is an expression of conflicted desire.<ref>López, Robert Oscar (2007). "Thoreau, Homer and Community", in ''Henry David Thoreau''. Harold Bloom, ed. New York: Infobase Publishing. pp. 153–174.</ref> In some of Thoreau's writing there is the sense of a secret self.<ref>Summers, Claude J ''The Gay and Lesbian Literary Heritage'', Routledge, New York, 2002, p. 202</ref> In 1840 he writes in his journal: "My friend is the apology for my life. In him are the spaces which my orbit traverses".<ref>Bergman, David, ed. (2009). ''Gay American Autobiography: Writings From Whitman to Sedaris''. University of Wisconsin Press. p. 10</ref> Thoreau was strongly influenced by the moral reformers of his time, and this may have instilled anxiety and guilt over sexual desire.<ref>Lebeaux, Richard (1984). ''Thoreau's Seasons''. University of Massachusetts Press. p. 386, n. 31.</ref>', 118 => '', 119 => '===Politics===', 120 => '{{Green anarchism |expanded=People}}', 121 => '[[File:John Brown - Treason broadside, 1859.png|thumb|left|John Brown "Treason" Broadside, 1859]]', 122 => '', 123 => 'Thoreau was fervently against [[Slavery in the United States|slavery]] and actively supported the abolitionist movement.<ref name=":6"/> He participated as a conductor in the [[Underground Railroad]], delivered lectures that attacked the [[Fugitive Slave Law of 1850|Fugitive Slave Law]], and in opposition to the popular opinion of the time, supported radical abolitionist militia leader [[John Brown (abolitionist)|John Brown]] and his party.<ref name=":6">{{cite encyclopedia|last=Furtak|first=Rick|title=Henry David Thoreau|url=http://plato.stanford.edu/entries/thoreau/|encyclopedia=The Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy|access-date=July 27, 2013|archive-date=August 13, 2013|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130813055226/http://plato.stanford.edu/entries/thoreau/|url-status=live}}</ref> Two weeks after the ill-fated [[raid on Harpers Ferry]] and in the weeks leading up to Brown's execution, Thoreau delivered a speech to the citizens of Concord, Massachusetts, in which he compared the American government to [[Pontius Pilate]] and likened Brown's execution to the [[crucifixion of Jesus Christ]]:', 124 => '', 125 => '{{blockquote|Some eighteen hundred years ago Christ was crucified; this morning, perchance, Captain Brown was hung. These are the two ends of a chain which is not without its links. He is not Old Brown any longer; he is an angel of light.<ref name="ReferenceA" />}}', 126 => '', 127 => 'In ''[[The Last Days of John Brown]]'', Thoreau described the words and deeds of John Brown as noble and an example of heroism.<ref name=":1">[http://www.walden.org/Library/The_Writings_of_Henry_David_Thoreau:_The_Digital_Collection/Essays The Last Days of John Brown] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20101222023007/http://www.walden.org/Library/The_Writings_of_Henry_David_Thoreau%3A_The_Digital_Collection/Essays |date=December 22, 2010 }} from the Writings of Henry David Thoreau: The Digital Collection</ref> In addition, he lamented the newspaper editors who dismissed Brown and his scheme as "crazy".<ref name=":1"/>', 128 => '', 129 => 'Thoreau was a proponent of [[limited government]] and [[individualism]]. Although he was hopeful that mankind could potentially have, through self-betterment, the kind of government which "governs not at all", he distanced himself from contemporary "no-government men" ([[anarchists]]), writing: "I ask for, not at once no government, but at once a better government."<ref name="resistance" />', 130 => '', 131 => 'Thoreau deemed the evolution from [[absolute monarchy]] to [[limited monarchy]] to [[democracy]] as "a progress toward true respect for the individual" and theorized about further improvements "towards recognizing and organizing the rights of man".<ref name="resistance" /> Echoing this belief, he went on to write: "There will never be a really free and enlightened State until the State comes to recognize the individual as a higher and independent power, from which all its power and authority are derived, and treats him accordingly."<ref name="resistance" />', 132 => '', 133 => 'It is on this basis that Thoreau could so strongly inveigh against the British administration and [[Catholicism]] in ''A Yankee in Canada''. Despotic authority, Thoreau argued, had crushed the people's sense of ingenuity and enterprise; the Canadian ''habitants'' had been reduced, in his view, to a perpetual childlike state. Ignoring the recent rebellions, he argued that there would be no revolution in the St. Lawrence River valley.<ref name="ReferenceB"/><ref>{{cite book|last1=Thoreau|first1=Henry David|title=A Yankee in Canada|url=https://archive.org/details/yankeeincanada0000thor|url-access=registration|date=1961|publisher=Harvest House|location=Montreal|pages=[https://archive.org/details/yankeeincanada0000thor/page/105 105–107]}}</ref>', 134 => '', 135 => 'Although Thoreau believed resistance to unjustly exercised authority could be both violent (exemplified in his support for John Brown) and nonviolent (his own example of [[tax resistance]] displayed in ''Resistance to Civil Government''), he regarded [[Pacifism|pacifist]] [[nonresistance]] as temptation to passivity,<ref name=":4">[http://www.walden.org/Library/The_Writings_of_Henry_David_Thoreau:_The_Digital_Collection/Essays The Service] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20101222023007/http://www.walden.org/Library/The_Writings_of_Henry_David_Thoreau%3A_The_Digital_Collection/Essays |date=December 22, 2010 }} from the Writings of Henry David Thoreau: The Digital Collection</ref> writing: "Let not our Peace be proclaimed by the rust on our swords, or our inability to draw them from their scabbards; but let her at least have so much work on her hands as to keep those swords bright and sharp."<ref name=":4"/> Furthermore, in a formal lyceum debate in 1841, he debated the subject "Is it ever proper to offer forcible resistance?", arguing the affirmative.<ref>[http://thoreau.eserver.org/mjf/MJF1.html Transcendental Ethos] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130919100132/http://thoreau.eserver.org/MJF/MJF1.html |date=September 19, 2013 }} from The Thoreau Reader</ref>', 136 => '', 137 => 'Likewise, his condemnation of the [[Mexican–American War]] did not stem from pacifism, but rather because he considered Mexico "unjustly overrun and conquered by a foreign army" as a means to expand the slave territory.<ref name=":5" />', 138 => '', 139 => 'Thoreau was [[ambivalence|ambivalent]] towards [[industrialization]] and [[capitalism]]. On one hand he regarded commerce as "unexpectedly confident and serene, adventurous, and unwearied"<ref name="ReferenceA" /> and expressed admiration for its associated [[cosmopolitanism]], writing:', 140 => '', 141 => '{{blockquote|I am refreshed and expanded when the freight train rattles past me, and I smell the stores which go dispensing their odors all the way from Long Wharf to Lake Champlain, reminding me of foreign parts, of coral reefs, and Indian oceans, and tropical climes, and the extent of the globe. I feel more like a citizen of the world at the sight of the palm-leaf which will cover so many flaxen New England heads the next summer.<ref name="ReferenceA" />}}', 142 => '', 143 => 'On the other hand, he wrote disparagingly of the factory system:', 144 => '', 145 => '{{blockquote|I cannot believe that our factory system is the best mode by which men may get clothing. The condition of the operatives is becoming every day more like that of the English; and it cannot be wondered at, since, as far as I have heard or observed, the principal object is, not that mankind may be well and honestly clad, but, unquestionably, that the corporations may be enriched.<ref name="ReferenceA" />}}', 146 => '', 147 => 'Thoreau also favored [[bioregionalism]], the protection of animals and wild areas, [[free trade]], and taxation for schools and highways.<ref name=":6"/> He disapproved of the subjugation of Native Americans, slavery, [[technological utopianism]], [[consumerism]], [[philistinism]], mass entertainment, and frivolous applications of technology.<ref name=":6"/>', 148 => '', 149 => '===Intellectual interests, influences, and affinities===', 150 => '====Indian sacred texts and philosophy====', 151 => 'Thoreau was influenced by [[Hindu texts|Indian spiritual thought]]. In ''Walden'', there are many overt references to the sacred texts of India. For example, in the first chapter ("Economy"), he writes: "How much more admirable the [[Bhagvat-geeta|Bhagvat-Geeta]] than all the ruins of the East!"<ref name="ReferenceA" /> ''American Philosophy: An Encyclopedia'' classes him as one of several figures who "took a more [[Pantheism|pantheist]] or [[Pandeism|pandeist]] approach by rejecting views of God as separate from the world",<ref>{{Cite book |title = American Philosophy: An Encyclopedia |author = [[John Lachs]] and [[Robert Talisse]] |date = 2007 |isbn = 978-0415939263 |page = 310 }}</ref> also a characteristic of Hinduism.', 152 => '', 153 => 'Furthermore, in "The Pond in Winter", he equates Walden Pond with the sacred [[Ganges in Hinduism|Ganges river]], writing:', 154 => '{{blockquote|In the morning I bathe my intellect in the stupendous and cosmogonal philosophy of the Bhagvat Geeta since whose composition years of the gods have elapsed, and in comparison with which our modern world and its literature seem puny and trivial; and I doubt if that philosophy is not to be referred to a previous state of existence, so remote is its sublimity from our conceptions. I lay down the book and go to my well for water, and lo! there I meet the servant of the Brahmin, priest of Brahma and Vishnu and Indra, who still sits in his temple on the Ganges reading the Vedas, or dwells at the root of a tree with his crust and water jug. I meet his servant come to draw water for his master, and our buckets as it were grate together in the same well. The pure Walden water is mingled with the [[Sacred waters|sacred water]] of the Ganges.<ref name="ReferenceA" />}}', 155 => '', 156 => 'Thoreau was aware his Ganges imagery could have been factual. He wrote about ice harvesting at Walden Pond. And he knew that New England's [[Ice trade|ice merchants]] were shipping ice to foreign ports, including [[Calcutta]].<ref>{{Cite journal|last=Dickason|first=David G.|date=1991|title=The Nineteenth-Century Indo-American Ice Trade: An Hyperborean Epic|url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/312669|journal=Modern Asian Studies|volume=25|issue=1|pages=53–89|doi=10.1017/S0026749X00015845|jstor=312669|s2cid=144932927|issn=0026-749X|via=JSTOR|access-date=April 18, 2021|archive-date=April 18, 2021|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210418213408/https://www.jstor.org/stable/312669|url-status=live}}</ref>', 157 => '', 158 => 'Additionally, Thoreau followed various [[Hinduism|Hindu]] customs, including a diet largely consisting of rice ("It was fit that I should live on rice, mainly, who loved so well the philosophy of India."<ref name="ReferenceA" />), [[flute playing]] (reminiscent of the favorite musical pastime of [[Krishna]]),<ref>{{Cite web|last=|first=|last2=|last3=|first3=|date=July 12, 2020|title=Simplicity Day 2020: How Bhagavad Gita inspired American philosopher Henry David Thoreau|url=https://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/india/simplicity-day-2020-how-bhagwat-geeta-inspired-american-philosopher-henry-david-thoreau/articleshow/76918441.cms|url-status=live|access-date=April 18, 2021|website=Times of India|language=en|archive-date=April 18, 2021|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210418213408/https://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/india/simplicity-day-2020-how-bhagwat-geeta-inspired-american-philosopher-henry-david-thoreau/articleshow/76918441.cms}}</ref> and [[yoga]].<ref>{{Cite journal|last=Davis|first=Richard H.|date=January 2018|title=Henry David Thoreau, Yogi|url=https://doi.org/10.1215/0961754X-4253822|journal=Common Knowledge|volume=24|issue=1|pages=56–89|doi=10.1215/0961754X-4253822|issn=0961-754X|via=Duke University Press}}</ref>', 159 => '', 160 => 'In an 1849 letter to his friend H.G.O. Blake, he wrote about yoga and its meaning to him:', 161 => '', 162 => '{{blockquote|Free in this world as the birds in the air, disengaged from every kind of chains, those who practice yoga gather in Brahma the certain fruits of their works. Depend upon it that, rude and careless as I am, I would fain practice the yoga faithfully. The yogi, absorbed in contemplation, contributes in his degree to creation; he breathes a divine perfume, he hears wonderful things. Divine forms traverse him without tearing him, and united to the nature which is proper to him, he goes, he acts as animating original matter. To some extent, and at rare intervals, even I am a yogi.<ref>Miller, Barbara S. "Why Did Henry David Thoreau Take the Bhagavad-Gita to Walden Pond?" ''Parabola'' 12.1 (Spring 1986): 58–63.</ref>}}', 163 => '', 164 => '====Biology====', 165 => '[[File:Eggs BSNH 1930.png|thumb|right|Bird eggs found by Thoreau and given to the [[Boston Society of Natural History]]. Those in the nest are of [[yellow warbler]], the other two of [[red-tailed hawk]].]]', 166 => 'Thoreau read contemporary works in the new science of biology, including the works of [[Alexander von Humboldt]], [[Charles Darwin]], and [[Asa Gray]] (Charles Darwin's staunchest American ally).<ref name=":0" /> Thoreau was deeply influenced by Humboldt, especially his work [[Cosmos (Humboldt book)|''Cosmos'']].<ref>Wulf, Andrea. ''The Invention of Nature: Alexander Humboldt's New World''. New York: Alfred A. Knopf 2015, p. 250.</ref>', 167 => '', 168 => 'In 1859, Thoreau purchased and read Darwin's ''[[On the Origin of Species]]''. Unlike many natural historians at the time, including [[Louis Agassiz]] who publicly opposed Darwinism in favor of a static view of nature, Thoreau was immediately enthusiastic about the theory of [[evolution by natural selection]] and endorsed it,<ref>Cain, William E. ''A Historical Guide to Henry David Thoreau''. {{ISBN|0195138635}}, p. 146.</ref> stating:', 169 => '', 170 => '{{blockquote|1=The development theory implies a greater vital force in Nature, because it is more flexible and accommodating, and equivalent to a sort of constant new creation. (A quote from ''On the Origin of Species'' follows this sentence.)<ref name=":0">Berger, Michael Benjamin. ''Thoreau's Late Career and The Dispersion of Seeds: The Saunterer's Synoptic Vision''. {{ISBN|157113168X}}, p. 52.</ref>}}', 171 => '', 172 => '==Influence==', 173 => '[[File:ThoreauBust.jpg|thumb|right|A [[Bust (sculpture)|bust]] of Thoreau from the [[Hall of Fame for Great Americans]] at the [[Bronx Community College]]]]', 174 => '', 175 => '{{blockquote|text=Thoreau's careful observations and devastating conclusions have rippled into time, becoming stronger as the weaknesses Thoreau noted have become more pronounced ... Events that seem to be completely unrelated to his stay at Walden Pond have been influenced by it, including the national park system, the British labor movement, the creation of India, the civil rights movement, the hippie revolution, the environmental movement, and the wilderness movement. Today, Thoreau's words are quoted with feeling by liberals, socialists, anarchists, libertarians, and conservatives alike.|sign=Ken Kifer|source=''Analysis and Notes on Walden: Henry Thoreau's Text with Adjacent Thoreauvian Commentary''<ref>[http://www.kenkifer.com/Thoreau/ Analysis and Notes on Walden: Henry Thoreau's Text with Adjacent Thoreauvian Commentary] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20060318110150/http://www.kenkifer.com/Thoreau/ |date=March 18, 2006 }} by Ken Kifer, 2002</ref>}}', 176 => '', 177 => 'Thoreau's political writings had little impact during his lifetime, as "his contemporaries did not see him as a theorist or as a radical", viewing him instead as a naturalist. They either dismissed or ignored his political essays, including ''Civil Disobedience''. The only two complete books (as opposed to essays) published in his lifetime, ''Walden'' and ''A Week on the Concord and Merrimack Rivers'' (1849), both dealt with nature, in which he "loved to wander".<ref name=McElroy/> His obituary was lumped in with others rather than as a separate article in an 1862 yearbook.<ref>{{cite book|title=Appletons' annual cyclopaedia and register of important events of the year: 1862|date=1863|publisher=D. Appleton & Company|location=New York|page=666|url=https://archive.org/stream/1862appletonsan02newyuoft#page/n673/mode/1up}}</ref> Nevertheless, Thoreau's writings went on to influence many public figures. Political leaders and reformers like [[Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi|Mohandas Gandhi]], U.S. President [[John F. Kennedy]], American civil rights activist [[Martin Luther King Jr.]], U.S. Supreme Court Justice [[William O. Douglas]], and [[Russian (citizen)|Russian]] author [[Leo Tolstoy]] all spoke of being strongly affected by Thoreau's work, particularly ''Civil Disobedience'', as did "[[Right-wing politics|right-wing]] theorist [[Frank Chodorov]] [who] devoted an entire issue of his monthly, ''Analysis'', to an appreciation of Thoreau".<ref name=Rothbard>[[Murray Rothbard|Rothbard, Murray]]. [http://archive.lewrockwell.com/rothbard/rothbard77.html Confessions of a Right-Wing Liberal] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150618045209/http://archive.lewrockwell.com/rothbard/rothbard77.html |date=June 18, 2015 }}, ''[[Ramparts (magazine)|Ramparts]]'', VI, 4, June 15, 1968</ref>', 178 => '', 179 => 'Thoreau also influenced many artists and authors including [[Edward Abbey]], [[Willa Cather]], [[Marcel Proust]], [[William Butler Yeats]], [[Sinclair Lewis]], [[Ernest Hemingway]], [[Upton Sinclair]],<ref>Maynard, W. Barksdale, ''Walden Pond: A History''. Oxford University Press, 2005. p. 265</ref> [[E. B. White]], [[Lewis Mumford]],<ref>Mumford, Lewis, ''The Golden Day: A Study in American Experience and Culture''. Boni and Liveright, 1926. pp. 56–59,</ref> [[Frank Lloyd Wright]], [[Alexander Posey]],<ref>Posey, Alexander. ''Lost Creeks: Collected Journals''. (Edited by Matthew Wynn Sivils) University of Nebraska Press, 2009. p. 38</ref> and [[Gustav Stickley]].<ref>Saunders, Barry. ''A Complex Fate: Gustav Stickley and the Craftsman Movement''. Preservation Press, 1996. p. 4</ref> Thoreau also influenced naturalists like [[John Burroughs]], [[John Muir]], [[E. O. Wilson]], [[Edwin Way Teale]], [[Joseph Wood Krutch]], [[B. F. Skinner]], [[David Brower]], and [[Loren Eiseley]], whom ''Publishers Weekly'' called "the modern Thoreau".<ref>Kifer, Ken ''[http://www.kenkifer.com/Thoreau/ Analysis and Notes on Walden: Henry Thoreau's Text with Adjacent Thoreauvian Commentary] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20060318110150/http://www.kenkifer.com/Thoreau/ |date=March 18, 2006 }}''</ref>', 180 => '', 181 => 'Thoreau's friend [[William Ellery Channing (poet)|William Ellery Channing]] published his first biography, ''Thoreau the Poet-Naturalist'', in 1873.<ref>{{Cite book|last1=Channing|first1=William Ellery|url=http://archive.org/details/poetnatthoreau00chanrich|title=Thoreau, the poet-naturalist, with Memorial verses|last2=Merrymount Press|last3=Sanborn|first3=F. B. (Franklin Benjamin)|last4=Updike|first4=Daniel Berkeley|date=1902|publisher=Boston, C. E. Goodspeed|others=University of California Libraries}}</ref> English writer [[Henry Stephens Salt]] wrote a biography of Thoreau in 1890, which popularized Thoreau's ideas in Britain: [[George Bernard Shaw]], [[Edward Carpenter]], and [[Robert Blatchford]] were among those who became Thoreau enthusiasts as a result of Salt's advocacy.<ref>Hendrick, George and Oehlschlaeger, Fritz (eds.) ''Toward the Making of Thoreau's Modern Reputation'', University of Illinois Press, 1979.</ref> Mohandas Gandhi first read ''Walden'' in 1906 while working as a civil rights activist in [[Johannesburg]], South Africa. He first read ''Civil Disobedience'' "while he sat in a South African prison for the crime of nonviolently protesting discrimination against the Indian population in the [[Transvaal Colony|Transvaal]]. The essay galvanized Gandhi, who wrote and published a synopsis of Thoreau's argument, calling its 'incisive logic ... unanswerable' and referring to Thoreau as 'one of the greatest and most moral men America has produced'."<ref>[[Wendy McElroy|McElroy, Wendy]] (May 4, 2011) [https://mises.org/daily/5250/Here-the-State-Is-Nowhere-to-Be-Seen Here, the State Is Nowhere to Be Seen] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140913214409/http://mises.org/daily/5250/Here-the-State-Is-Nowhere-to-Be-Seen |date=September 13, 2014 }}, [[Mises Institute]]</ref><ref>"Although he was practicing civil disobedience before he read Thoreau's essay, Gandhi was quick to point out the debt he owed to Thoreau and other thinkers like him".Shawn Chandler Bingham, ''Thoreau and the sociological imagination : the wilds of society''. Lanham, Md. : Rowman and Littlefield Publishers, 2008. {{ISBN|978-0742560581}} p. 31.</ref> He told American reporter [[Webb Miller (journalist)|Webb Miller]], "[Thoreau's] ideas influenced me greatly. I adopted some of them and recommended the study of Thoreau to all of my friends who were helping me in the cause of Indian Independence. Why I actually took the name of my movement from Thoreau's essay 'On the Duty of Civil Disobedience', written about 80&nbsp;years ago."<ref>Miller, Webb. I Found No Peace. Garden City, 1938. 238–239</ref>', 182 => '', 183 => '[[Martin Luther King Jr.]] noted in his autobiography that his first encounter with the idea of nonviolent resistance was reading "On Civil Disobedience" in 1944 while attending [[Morehouse College]]. He wrote in his autobiography that it was,', 184 => '', 185 => '<blockquote>Here, in this courageous New Englander's refusal to pay his taxes and his choice of jail rather than support a war that would spread slavery's territory into Mexico, I made my first contact with the theory of nonviolent resistance. Fascinated by the idea of refusing to cooperate with an evil system, I was so deeply moved that I reread the work several times. I became convinced that noncooperation with evil is as much a moral obligation as is cooperation with good. No other person has been more eloquent and passionate in getting this idea across than Henry David Thoreau. As a result of his writings and personal witness, we are the heirs of a legacy of creative protest. The teachings of Thoreau came alive in our civil rights movement; indeed, they are more alive than ever before. Whether expressed in a sit-in at lunch counters, a freedom ride into Mississippi, a peaceful protest in Albany, Georgia, a bus boycott in Montgomery, Alabama, these are outgrowths of Thoreau's insistence that evil must be resisted and that no moral man can patiently adjust to injustice.<ref>King, M.L. ''[http://www.stanford.edu/group/King//publications/autobiography/chp_2.htm Autobiography of Martin Luther King, Jr.] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070308023614/http://www.stanford.edu/group/King/publications/autobiography/chp_2.htm |date=March 8, 2007 }}'' chapter two</ref></blockquote>', 186 => '', 187 => 'American psychologist B. F. Skinner wrote that he carried a copy of Thoreau's ''Walden'' with him in his youth.<ref>Skinner, B. F., ''A Matter of Consequences''</ref> In 1945 he wrote ''[[Walden Two]]'', a fictional utopia about 1,000 members of a community living together inspired by the life of Thoreau.<ref>Skinner, B. F., ''Walden Two'' (1948)</ref> Thoreau and his fellow [[Transcendentalists]] from [[Concord, Massachusetts|Concord]] were a major inspiration of the composer [[Charles Ives]]. The 4th movement of the [[Concord Sonata]] for piano (with a part for flute, Thoreau's instrument) is a character picture, and he also set Thoreau's words.<ref>Burkholder, James Peter. ''Charles Ives and His World.'' Princeton University Press, 1996 (pp. 50–51)</ref>', 188 => '', 189 => 'Actor [[Ron Thompson (actor)|Ron Thompson]] did a dramatic portrayal of Henry David Thoreau on the 1976 [[NBC]] television series ''[[The Rebels (TV series)|The Rebels]]''.<ref>{{cite web|title=Tele-Vues, Sunday, June 6, 1976|date=June 6, 1976|work=[[Independent Press-Telegram]]|location=[[Long Beach, California]]|page=170|url=https://www.newspapers.com/newspage/30664120/|access-date=October 27, 2015|archive-date=November 5, 2018|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20181105214432/https://www.newspapers.com/newspage/30664120/|url-status=live}}</ref><ref>{{cite web|date=June 5, 1976|work=[[Redlands Daily Facts]]|title=TV Log|location=[[Redlands, California]]|page=10|url=https://www.newspapers.com/newspage/15447614/|access-date=October 27, 2015|archive-date=September 29, 2015|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150929050424/http://www.newspapers.com/newspage/15447614/|url-status=live}}</ref><ref>{{cite video|work=[[NBC]]|url=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3FdGBFTxkHY |archive-url=https://ghostarchive.org/varchive/youtube/20211211/3FdGBFTxkHY| archive-date=December 11, 2021 |url-status=live|title=Actor Ron Thompson as Henry David Thoreau in The Rebels|date=June 6, 1976}}{{cbignore}}</ref>', 190 => '', 191 => 'Thoreau's ideas have impacted and resonated with various strains in the [[Anarchism|anarchist]] movement, with [[Emma Goldman]] referring to him as "the greatest American anarchist".<ref>{{cite book|author=Goldman, Emma|url=https://archive.org/details/bub_gb_U5ZYAAAAMAAJ|title=Anarchism and Other Essays|publisher=Mother Earth Publishing Association|page=[https://archive.org/details/bub_gb_U5ZYAAAAMAAJ/page/n67 62]|year=1917|author-link = Emma Goldman}}</ref> [[Green anarchism]] and [[anarcho-primitivism]] in particular have both derived inspiration and ecological points-of-view from the writings of Thoreau. [[John Zerzan]] included Thoreau's text "Excursions" (1863) in his edited compilation of works in the anarcho-primitivist tradition titled ''Against civilization: Readings and reflections''.<ref>{{cite book|url=https://www.amazon.fr/dp/toc/0922915989|title=Against Civilization: Readings And Reflections|first=John|last=Zerzan|via=Amazon|access-date=December 13, 2017|archive-date=August 7, 2020|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200807043841/https://www.amazon.fr/dp/toc/0922915989|url-status=live}}</ref> Additionally, [[Murray Rothbard]], the founder of [[anarcho-capitalism]], has opined that Thoreau was one of the "great intellectual heroes" of his movement.<ref name="Rothbard" /> Thoreau was also an important influence on late-19th-century [[anarchist]] [[naturist|naturism]].<ref name="naturismolibertario">{{Cite web|url=http://www.soliobrera.org/pdefs/cuaderno4.pdf#search=%22Antonia%20Maym%C3%B3n%22|archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20160102181805/http://www.soliobrera.org/pdefs/cuaderno4.pdf|url-status=dead|title=El naturismo libertario en la Península Ibérica (1890–1939) by Jose Maria Rosello|archivedate=January 2, 2016}}</ref><ref name="ortega">{{cite web|url=https://www.naturismo.org/adn/ediciones/2003/invierno/7e.html|title=Anarchism, Nudism, Naturism|first=Carlos|last=Ortega|access-date=July 20, 2018|archive-date=September 9, 2020|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200909150845/https://www.naturismo.org/adn/ediciones/2003/invierno/7e.html|url-status=live}}</ref> Globally, Thoreau's concepts also held importance within [[individualist anarchist]] circles<ref name="spanishind">{{Cite web|url=http://www.acracia.org/xdiez.html|archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20060526224800/http://www.acracia.org/xdiez.html|url-status=dead|title="La insumisión voluntaria. El anarquismo individualista Español durante la dictadura y la segunda República (1923–1938)" by Xavier Diez|archivedate=May 26, 2006}}</ref><ref name="aujourdhui">"Les anarchistes individualistes du début du siècle l'avaient bien compris, et intégraient le naturisme dans leurs préoccupations. Il est vraiment dommage que ce discours se soit peu à peu effacé, d'antan plus que nous assistons, en ce moment, à un retour en force du puritanisme (conservateur par essence)."[http://ytak.club.fr/natytak.html "Anarchisme et naturisme, aujourd'hui." by Cathy Ytak] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090225212442/http://ytak.club.fr/natytak.html |date=February 25, 2009 }}</ref> in Spain,<ref name="naturismolibertario" /><ref name="ortega" /><ref name="spanishind" /> France,<ref name="spanishind" /><ref name="france">[http://ytak.club.fr/natbiblioarmand.html Recension des articles de l'En-Dehors consacrés au naturisme et au nudisme] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20081014165702/http://ytak.club.fr/natbiblioarmand.html |date=October 14, 2008 }}</ref> and Portugal.<ref name="portugal">Freire, João. "Anarchisme et naturisme au Portugal, dans les années 1920" in ''Les anarchistes du Portugal''. [Bibliographic data necessary for this ref.]</ref>', 192 => '', 193 => 'For the 200th anniversary of his birth, publishers released several new editions of his work: a recreation of ''Walden''{{'s}} 1902 edition with illustrations, a picture book with excerpts from ''Walden'', and an annotated collection of Thoreau's essays on slavery.<ref>{{Cite news |last1=Williams |first1=John |title=Alcoholism in America |work=[[The New York Times]] |date=July 7, 2017 |url=https://www.nytimes.com/2017/07/07/books/review/alcoholism-in-america.html |issn=0362-4331 |access-date=August 23, 2017 |archive-date=August 4, 2017 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170804204030/https://www.nytimes.com/2017/07/07/books/review/alcoholism-in-america.html |url-status=live }}</ref> The United States Postal Service issued a commemorative stamp honoring Thoreau on May 23, 2017, in Concord, MA.<ref>{{cite web|url=https://stamps.org/US-New-Issues-2017|title=American Philatelic Society|website=stamps.org|access-date=August 10, 2018|archive-date=August 6, 2018|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180806210814/https://stamps.org/US-New-Issues-2017|url-status=live}}</ref>', 194 => '', 195 => '===Adaptations===', 196 => 'In 2017, ''[[Walden, a Game]]'' was released on itch.io. Created by [[Tracy Fullerton]], it is an open world, first person videogame adaptation of Thoreau's ''[[Walden]]''. Players can build the protagonist's cabin, explore the environment, record flora and fauna, farm the land, visit Emerson's house and the town of Concord. At the end of each day players are invited to reflect on their journal which gradually fills up with reflections based on the player's journey and day-to-day experiences. The game also includes letters between Thoreau and his contemporaries, including Amos Bronson Alcott and Ralph Waldo Emerson. It also includes letters between his contemporaries to build a picture of Thoreau's reception as a writer and his connections in the literary and Transcendentalist scene in America at the time. The game was released for PlayStation 4 in 2018.', 197 => '', 198 => '==Criticism==', 199 => 'Although his writings would receive widespread acclaim, Thoreau's ideas were not universally applauded. Scottish author [[Robert Louis Stevenson]] criticized Thoreau as a "skulker," saying "He did not wish virtue to go out of him among his fellow-men, but slunk into a corner to hoard it for himself."<ref name="RLS">{{Cite web |url=http://thoreau.eserver.org/stevens1.html', 200 => '|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20061012063926/http://thoreau.eserver.org/stevens1.html', 201 => '|archive-date=October 12, 2006', 202 => '|title=Henry David Thoreau: His Character and Opinions', 203 => '|author=Stevenson, Robert Louis |work=Cornhill Magazine', 204 => '|quote=Now Thoreau's content and ecstasy in living was, we may say, like a plant that he had watered and tended with womanish solicitude; for there is apt to be something unmanly, something almost dastardly, in a life that does not move with dash and freedom, and that fears the bracing contact of the world. In one word, Thoreau was a skulker', 205 => '|date=1880 |access-date=December 3, 2021}}</ref>', 206 => '', 207 => '[[Nathaniel Hawthorne]] had mixed feelings about Thoreau. He noted that "He is a keen and delicate observer of nature—a genuine observer—which, I suspect, is almost as rare a character as even an original poet; and Nature, in return for his love, seems to adopt him as her especial child, and shows him secrets which few others are allowed to witness."<ref>Nathaniel Hawthorne, ''Passages From the American Note-Books'', entry for September 2, 1842.</ref> On the other hand, he also wrote that Thoreau "repudiated all regular modes of getting a living, and seems inclined to lead a sort of Indian life among civilized men".<ref>Hawthorne, ''The Heart of Hawthorne's Journals'', p. 106.</ref><ref>Borst, Raymond R. ''The Thoreau Log: A Documentary Life of Henry David Thoreau, 1817–1862.'' New York: G.K. Hall, 1992.</ref>', 208 => '', 209 => 'In a similar vein, poet [[John Greenleaf Whittier]] detested what he deemed to be the "wicked" and "heathenish" message of ''Walden'', claiming that Thoreau wanted man to "lower himself to the level of a [[woodchuck]] and walk on four legs".<ref>Wagenknecht, Edward. ''John Greenleaf Whittier: A Portrait in Paradox''. New York: Oxford University Press, 1967: 112.</ref>', 210 => '', 211 => 'In response to such criticisms, English novelist [[George Eliot]], writing for the ''[[Westminster Review]]'', characterized such critics as uninspired and narrow-minded:', 212 => '{{blockquote|text=People—very wise in their own eyes—who would have every man's life ordered according to a particular pattern, and who are intolerant of every existence the utility of which is not palpable to them, may pooh-pooh Mr. Thoreau and this episode in his history, as unpractical and dreamy.<ref>''[[The New England Quarterly]]'', Vol. 6, No. 4 (Dec., 1933), pp. 733–746</ref>}}', 213 => '', 214 => 'Thoreau himself also responded to the criticism in a paragraph of his work ''Walden'' by illustrating the irrelevance of their inquiries:', 215 => '', 216 => '{{blockquote|text=I should not obtrude my affairs so much on the notice of my readers if very particular inquiries had not been made by my townsmen concerning my mode of life, which some would call impertinent, though they do not appear to me at all impertinent, but, considering the circumstances, very natural and pertinent. Some have asked what I got to eat; if I did not feel lonesome; if I was not afraid; and the like. Others have been curious to learn what portion of my income I devoted to charitable purposes; and some, who have large families, how many poor children I maintained. ... Unfortunately, I am confined to this theme by the narrowness of my experience. Moreover, I, on my side, require of every writer, first or last, a simple and sincere account of his own life, and not merely what he has heard of other men's lives; ... I trust that none will stretch the seams in putting on the coat, for it may do good service to him whom it fits.<ref>Thoreau ''Walden'' (1854)</ref>}}', 217 => '', 218 => 'Recent criticism has accused Thoreau of hypocrisy, misanthropy, and being sanctimonious, based on his writings in ''Walden'',<ref name=neworker1>{{cite magazine|url=http://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2015/10/19/pond-scum |title=Henry David Thoreau, Hypocrite |last1=Schultz |first1=Kathryn |date=October 19, 2015 |magazine=The New Yorker |access-date=October 19, 2015 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20151019170355/http://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2015/10/19/pond-scum |archive-date=October 19, 2015 }}</ref> although this criticism has been perceived as highly selective.<ref name=medium1>{{cite web|url=https://medium.com/@TheNewThoreau/why-do-we-love-thoreau-because-he-was-right-175251814c |title=Why do we love Thoreau? Because he was right. |date=October 19, 2015 |publisher=Medium |access-date=October 19, 2015 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20151019170355/https://medium.com/%40TheNewThoreau/why-do-we-love-thoreau-because-he-was-right-175251814c |archive-date=October 19, 2015 }}</ref><ref name=newrepublic>{{cite magazine|url=https://newrepublic.com/article/123151/defense-thoreau |title=Henry David Thoreau's Radical Optimism |first1=Jonathan |last1=Malesic |date=October 19, 2015 |magazine=New Republic |access-date=October 19, 2015 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20151019204535/http://www.newrepublic.com/article/123151/defense-thoreau |archive-date=October 19, 2015 }}</ref><ref name=newrepublic2>{{cite magazine|url=https://newrepublic.com/article/123162/everybody-hates-henry-david-thoreau |title=Everybody Hates Henry |first1=Donovan |last1=Hohn |date=October 21, 2015 |magazine=New Republic |access-date=October 21, 2015 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20151026134755/http://www.newrepublic.com/article/123162/everybody-hates-henry-david-thoreau |archive-date=October 26, 2015 }}</ref>', 219 => '', 220 => '==Selected works==', 221 => 'Many of Thoreau's works were not published during his lifetime, including his journals and numerous unfinished manuscripts.', 222 => '* ''Aulus Persius Flaccus'' (1840)<ref>[http://www.walden.org/Library/The_Writings_of_Henry_David_Thoreau:_The_Digital_Collection/Essays Aulus Persius Flaccus] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20101222023007/http://www.walden.org/Library/The_Writings_of_Henry_David_Thoreau%3A_The_Digital_Collection/Essays |date=December 22, 2010 }} from the Writings of Henry David Thoreau: The Digital Collection</ref>', 223 => '* ''[[The Service]]'' (1840)<ref name=":4" />', 224 => '* ''[[A Walk to Wachusett]]'' (1842)<ref>[http://www.walden.org/Library/The_Writings_of_Henry_David_Thoreau:_The_Digital_Collection/Essays A Walk to Wachusett] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20101222023007/http://www.walden.org/Library/The_Writings_of_Henry_David_Thoreau%3A_The_Digital_Collection/Essays |date=December 22, 2010 }} from the Writings of Henry David Thoreau: The Digital Collection</ref>', 225 => '* ''[[Paradise (to be) Regained]]'' (1843)<ref>[http://www.walden.org/Library/The_Writings_of_Henry_David_Thoreau:_The_Digital_Collection/Essays Paradise (to be) Regained] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20101222023007/http://www.walden.org/Library/The_Writings_of_Henry_David_Thoreau%3A_The_Digital_Collection/Essays |date=December 22, 2010 }} from the Writings of Henry David Thoreau: The Digital Collection</ref>', 226 => '* ''The Landlord'' (1843)<ref>{{Cite web|url=http://collections.library.cornell.edu/moa_new/browse.html?frames=1&cite=http://cdl.library.cornell.edu/cgi-bin/moa/moa-cgi?notisid=AGD1642-0013-6&coll=moa&root=/moa/usde/usde0013/&tif=00445.TIF&view=100|title=Browse &#124; Cornell University Library Making of America Collection|website=collections.library.cornell.edu}}</ref>', 227 => '* ''[[Sir Walter Raleigh (essay)|Sir Walter Raleigh]]'' (1844)', 228 => '* ''[[Herald of Freedom (essay)|Herald of Freedom]]'' (1844)<ref>[http://www.walden.org/Library/The_Writings_of_Henry_David_Thoreau:_The_Digital_Collection/Essays Herald of Freedom] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20101222023007/http://www.walden.org/Library/The_Writings_of_Henry_David_Thoreau%3A_The_Digital_Collection/Essays |date=December 22, 2010 }} from the Writings of Henry David Thoreau: The Digital Collection</ref>', 229 => '* ''[[Wendell Phillips Before the Concord Lyceum]]'' (1845)<ref>[http://www.walden.org/Library/The_Writings_of_Henry_David_Thoreau:_The_Digital_Collection/Essays Wendell Phillips Before the Concord Lyceum] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20101222023007/http://www.walden.org/Library/The_Writings_of_Henry_David_Thoreau%3A_The_Digital_Collection/Essays |date=December 22, 2010 }} from the Writings of Henry David Thoreau: The Digital Collection</ref>', 230 => '* ''[[Reform and the Reformers]]'' (1846–48)', 231 => '* ''[[Thomas Carlyle and His Works]]'' (1847)<ref>[http://www.walden.org/Library/The_Writings_of_Henry_David_Thoreau:_The_Digital_Collection/Essays Thomas Carlyle and His Works] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20101222023007/http://www.walden.org/Library/The_Writings_of_Henry_David_Thoreau%3A_The_Digital_Collection/Essays |date=December 22, 2010 }} from the Writings of Henry David Thoreau: The Digital Collection</ref>', 232 => '* ''[[A Week on the Concord and Merrimack Rivers]]'' (1849)<ref>{{cite web|url=https://onlinebooks.library.upenn.edu/webbin/book/search?title=A+Week+on+the+Concord+and+Merrimack+Rivers&tmode=start&c=x|title=A Week on the Concord and Merrimack Rivers from Project Gutenberg|access-date=December 22, 2018|archive-date=December 23, 2018|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20181223073558/https://onlinebooks.library.upenn.edu/webbin/book/search?title=A+Week+on+the+Concord+and+Merrimack+Rivers&tmode=start&c=x|url-status=live}}</ref>', 233 => '* ''[[Civil Disobedience (Thoreau)|Resistance to Civil Government]]'', or ''Civil Disobedience'', or ''On the Duty of Civil Disobedience'' (1849)<ref>{{cite book|url=https://archive.org/details/aestheticpapers00peabrich|title=Aesthetic papers|first1=Elizabeth Palmer|last1=Peabody|first2=Ralph Waldo|last2=Emerson|first3=Nathaniel|last3=Hawthorne|first4=Henry David|last4=Thoreau|date=January 1, 1849|publisher=Boston, : The editor; New York, : G.P. Putnam|via=Internet Archive}}</ref>', 234 => '* ''An Excursion to Canada'' (1853)<ref>[http://www.walden.org/Library/The_Writings_of_Henry_David_Thoreau:_The_Digital_Collection/A_Yankee_in_Canada A Yankee in Canada] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110617002714/http://www.walden.org/Library/The_Writings_of_Henry_David_Thoreau%3A_The_Digital_Collection/A_Yankee_in_Canada |date=June 17, 2011 }} from the Writings of Henry David Thoreau: The Digital Collection</ref>', 235 => '* ''[[Slavery in Massachusetts]]'' (1854)<ref>[http://www.walden.org/Library/The_Writings_of_Henry_David_Thoreau:_The_Digital_Collection/Essays Slavery in Massachusetts] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20101222023007/http://www.walden.org/Library/The_Writings_of_Henry_David_Thoreau%3A_The_Digital_Collection/Essays |date=December 22, 2010 }} from the Writings of Henry David Thoreau: The Digital Collection</ref>', 236 => '* ''[[Walden]]'' (1854)<ref>[http://www.walden.org/Library/The_Writings_of_Henry_David_Thoreau:_The_Digital_Collection/Walden Walden] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20100926152652/http://www.walden.org/Library/The_Writings_of_Henry_David_Thoreau%3A_The_Digital_Collection/Walden |date=September 26, 2010 }} from the Writings of Henry David Thoreau: The Digital Collection</ref>', 237 => '* ''[[A Plea for Captain John Brown]]'' (1859)<ref name=":3">[http://www.walden.org/Library/The_Writings_of_Henry_David_Thoreau:_The_Digital_Collection/Essays A Plea for Captain John Brown] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20101222023007/http://www.walden.org/Library/The_Writings_of_Henry_David_Thoreau%3A_The_Digital_Collection/Essays |date=December 22, 2010 }} from the Writings of Henry David Thoreau: The Digital Collection</ref>', 238 => '* ''[[Remarks After the Hanging of John Brown]]'' (1859)<ref>[http://www.walden.org/Library/The_Writings_of_Henry_David_Thoreau:_The_Digital_Collection/Essays After the Death of John Brown] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20101222023007/http://www.walden.org/Library/The_Writings_of_Henry_David_Thoreau%3A_The_Digital_Collection/Essays |date=December 22, 2010 }} from the Writings of Henry David Thoreau: The Digital Collection</ref>', 239 => '* ''[[The Last Days of John Brown]]'' (1860)<ref name=":1" />', 240 => '* ''[[Walking (Thoreau)|Walking]]'' (1862)<ref>{{cite web|url=https://onlinebooks.library.upenn.edu/webbin/book/search?author=Thoreau&amode=words&title=Walking&tmode=start&c=x|title=Walking|access-date=December 22, 2018|archive-date=December 23, 2018|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20181223073511/https://onlinebooks.library.upenn.edu/webbin/book/search?author=Thoreau&amode=words&title=Walking&tmode=start&c=x|url-status=live}}</ref>', 241 => '* ''Autumnal Tints'' (1862)<ref>[http://www.walden.org/Library/The_Writings_of_Henry_David_Thoreau:_The_Digital_Collection/Essays Autumnal Tints] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20101222023007/http://www.walden.org/Library/The_Writings_of_Henry_David_Thoreau%3A_The_Digital_Collection/Essays |date=December 22, 2010 }} from the Writings of Henry David Thoreau: The Digital Collection</ref>', 242 => '* ''Wild Apples: The History of the Apple Tree'' (1862)<ref>{{cite web|url=http://onlinebooks.library.upenn.edu/webbin/gutbook/lookup?num=4066|title=Wild Apples, from Project Gutenberg|access-date=November 6, 2003|archive-date=December 26, 2007|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20071226192031/http://onlinebooks.library.upenn.edu/webbin/gutbook/lookup?num=4066|url-status=live}}</ref>', 243 => '* ''The Fall of the Leaf'' (1863)<ref name=":5">{{cite web|url=http://www.walden.org/Library/About_Thoreau%27s_Life_and_Writings:_The_Research_Collections/Civil_Disobedience |work=Walden.org |title=The Walden Woods Project |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160620124518/http://www.walden.org/Library/About_Thoreau%27s_Life_and_Writings%3A_The_Research_Collections/Civil_Disobedience |archive-date=June 20, 2016 }}</ref><ref>{{cite book|date=1863|publisher=[[Riverside Publishing|The Riverside Press, Cambridge]]|pages=407–408|title=The Writings of Henry David Thoreau: Excursions, translations, and poems|author1=Henry David Thoreau|author2=Bradford Torrey|author3=Franklin Benjamin Sanborn|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=wpA9AQAAMAAJ&pg=PA407|access-date=November 16, 2015|archive-date=April 14, 2021|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210414235017/https://books.google.com/books?id=wpA9AQAAMAAJ&pg=PA407|url-status=live}}</ref>', 244 => '* ''[[Excursions (anthology)|Excursions]]'' (1863)<ref>{{cite book|url=https://archive.org/details/excursionhenry00thorrich|title=Excursions|first1=Henry David|last1=Thoreau|last2=Houghton (H. O.) & Company. (1863) bkp CU-BANC|first3=Ralph Waldo|last3=Emerson|first4=Sophia E.|last4=Thoreau|date=January 1, 1863|publisher=Boston, Ticknor and Fields|via=Internet Archive}}</ref>', 245 => '* ''[[Life Without Principle]]'' (1863)<ref>{{cite web|url=http://cdl.library.cornell.edu/cgi-bin/moa/moa-cgi?notisid=ABK2934-0012-65|title=The Atlantic Monthly Volume 0012 Issue 71 (September 1863)|access-date=March 2, 2008|archive-date=July 7, 2012|archive-url=https://archive.today/20120707023632/http://cdl.library.cornell.edu/cgi-bin/moa/moa-cgi?notisid=ABK2934-0012-65|url-status=live}}</ref>', 246 => '* ''Night and Moonlight'' (1863)<ref>{{cite web|url=http://cdl.library.cornell.edu/cgi-bin/moa/moa-cgi?notisid=ABK2934-0012-77|title=The Atlantic Monthly Volume 0012 Issue 72 (November 1863)|access-date=March 2, 2008|archive-date=July 8, 2012|archive-url=https://archive.today/20120708171335/http://cdl.library.cornell.edu/cgi-bin/moa/moa-cgi?notisid=ABK2934-0012-77|url-status=live}}</ref>', 247 => '* ''The Highland Light'' (1864)<ref name="u of adelaide">{{cite web|title=Henry David Thoreau, 1817–1862|url=https://ebooks.adelaide.edu.au/t/thoreau/henry_david/|website=ebooks.adelaide.edu|publisher=The University of Adelaide|access-date=January 1, 2018|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170824024207/https://ebooks.adelaide.edu.au/t/thoreau/henry_david/|archive-date=August 24, 2017|url-status=dead}}</ref>', 248 => '* ''The Maine Woods'' (1864)<ref>[http://thoreau.eserver.org/mewoods.html The Maine Woods] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080811060820/http://thoreau.eserver.org/mewoods.html |date=August 11, 2008 }} from The Thoreau Reader</ref><ref>{{cite book|url=https://archive.org/details/mainewoods00thorrich|title=The Maine woods|first1=Henry David|last1=Thoreau|first2=Sophia E.|last2=Thoreau|first3=William Ellery|last3=Channing|date=January 1, 1864|publisher=Boston, Ticknor and Fields|via=Internet Archive}}</ref> Fully Annotated Edition. [[Jeffrey S. Cramer]], ed., Yale University Press, 2009', 249 => '* ''Cape Cod'' (1865)<ref name=":9">{{cite web|url=http://thoreau.eserver.org/capecd00.html|title=Thoreau's Cape Cod – an annotated edition|first=Richard|last=Lenat|access-date=September 2, 2008|archive-date=August 22, 2008|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080822133026/http://thoreau.eserver.org/capecd00.html|url-status=live}}</ref>', 250 => '* ''Letters to Various Persons'' (1865)<ref>{{cite book|url=https://archive.org/details/lettersvarpersons00thorrich|title=Letters to various persons|first=Henry David|last=Thoreau|date=January 1, 1865|publisher=Boston : Ticknor and Fields|via=Internet Archive}}</ref>', 251 => '* ''[[A Yankee in Canada, with Anti-Slavery and Reform Papers]]'' (1866)<ref>{{cite book|url=https://archive.org/details/yankeeincanada00thorrich|title=A Yankee in Canada, with Anti-slavery and reform papers|first=Henry David|last=Thoreau|date=January 1, 1866|publisher=Boston, Ticknor and Fields|via=Internet Archive}}</ref>', 252 => '* ''Early Spring in Massachusetts'' (1881)', 253 => '* ''Summer'' (1884)<ref>{{cite book|url=https://archive.org/details/summerjournal00thorrich|title=Summer : from the Journal of Henry D. Thoreau|first1=Henry David|last1=Thoreau|first2=H. G. O. (Harrison Gray Otis)|last2=Blake|date=January 1, 1884|publisher=London : T. Fisher Unwin|via=Internet Archive}}</ref>', 254 => '* ''Winter'' (1888)<ref>{{cite book|url=https://archive.org/details/winterjournal00thorrich|title=Winter : from the Journal of Henry D. Thoreau|first1=Henry David|last1=Thoreau|first2=H. G. O.|last2=Blake|date=January 1, 1888|publisher=Boston : Houghton, Mifflin|via=Internet Archive}}</ref>', 255 => '* ''Autumn'' (1892)<ref>{{cite book|url=https://archive.org/details/autumnjournal00thorrich|title=Autumn. From the Journal of Henry D. Thoreau|first1=Henry David|last1=Thoreau|first2=Harrison Gray Otis|last2=Blake|publisher=Boston, Houghton, Mifflin|via=Internet Archive|date=December 3, 1892}}</ref>', 256 => '* ''Miscellanies'' (1894)<ref>[https://www.walden.org/work/cape-cod/ Miscellanies] from the Writings of Henry David Thoreau: The Digital Collection</ref>', 257 => '* ''Familiar Letters of Henry David Thoreau'' (1894)<ref>{{cite book|url=https://archive.org/details/familiarletters00thorrich|title=Familiar letters of Henry David Thoreau|first1=Henry David|last1=Thoreau|first2=F. B. (Franklin Benjamin)|last2=Sanborn|date=January 1, 1894|publisher=Boston : Houghton, Mifflin|via=Internet Archive}}</ref>', 258 => '* ''Poems of Nature'' (1895)<ref name="u of adelaide" />', 259 => '* ''Some Unpublished Letters of Henry D. and Sophia E. Thoreau'' (1898)<ref name="u of adelaide" />', 260 => '* ''The First and Last Journeys of Thoreau'' (1905)<ref>{{cite book|url=https://archive.org/details/firstlastjourneys01thorrich|title=The first and last journeys of Thoreau : lately discovered among his unpublished journals and manuscripts|first1=Henry David|last1=Thoreau|first2=Mass )|last2=Bibliophile Society (Boston|first3=Mass )|last3=Bibliophile Society (Boston|first4=F. B. (Franklin Benjamin)|last4=Sanborn|date=January 1, 1905|publisher=Boston : Printed exclusively for members of the Bibliophile Society|via=Internet Archive}}</ref><ref>{{cite book|url=https://archive.org/details/firstlastjourneys02thorrich|title=The first and last journeys of Thoreau : lately discovered among his unpublished journals and manuscripts|first1=Henry David|last1=Thoreau|first2=Mass )|last2=Bibliophile Society (Boston|first3=Mass )|last3=Bibliophile Society (Boston)|first4=F. B. (Franklin Benjamin)|last4=Sanborn|date=January 1, 1905|publisher=Boston : Printed exclusively for members of the Bibliophile Society|via=Internet Archive}}</ref>', 261 => '* ''Journal of Henry David Thoreau'' (1906)<ref>[http://www.walden.org/Library/The_Writings_of_Henry_David_Thoreau:_The_Digital_Collection/Journal The Journal of Henry D. Thoreau] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20100505210829/http://www.walden.org/Library/The_Writings_of_Henry_David_Thoreau%3A_The_Digital_Collection/Journal |date=May 5, 2010 }} from the Writings of Henry David Thoreau: The Digital Collection</ref>', 262 => '* ''The Correspondence of Henry David Thoreau'' edited by Walter Harding and Carl Bode (Washington Square: New York University Press, 1958)<ref>[http://www.walden.org/Library/The_Writings_of_Henry_David_Thoreau:_The_Digital_Collection/Correspondence The Correspondence of Thoreau] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110617003655/http://www.walden.org/Library/The_Writings_of_Henry_David_Thoreau%3A_The_Digital_Collection/Correspondence |date=June 17, 2011 }} from the Writings of Henry David Thoreau: The Digital Collection</ref>', 263 => '* ''I Was Made Erect and Lone''<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.poetryfoundation.org/poem/184857|title=I Was Made Erect and Lone|date=December 3, 2018|access-date=December 13, 2012|archive-date=February 15, 2012|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120215180100/http://www.poetryfoundation.org/poem/184857|url-status=live}}</ref>', 264 => '* ''The Bluebird Carries the Sky on His Back'' (Stanyan, 1970)<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://medium.com/@alpharust/the-bluebird-carries-the-sky-on-his-back-ac96daf58a4d|title=The bluebird carries the sky on his back|last=Rastogi|first=Gaurav|date=May 11, 2015|website=Medium|language=en|access-date=January 15, 2020|archive-date=January 15, 2020|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200115123427/https://medium.com/@alpharust/the-bluebird-carries-the-sky-on-his-back-ac96daf58a4d|url-status=live}}</ref>', 265 => '* ''The Dispersion of Seeds'' published as ''Faith in a Seed'' (Island Press, 1993)<ref>{{Cite book|url=https://archive.org/details/faithinseeddispe00thor|title=Faith in a Seed: The Dispersion of Seeds and Other Late Natural History Writings|last=Thoreau|first=Henry David|year=1996|website=Island Press|isbn=978-1559631822|access-date=January 29, 2018|url-access=registration}}</ref>', 266 => '* ''The Indian Notebooks'' (1847–1861) [https://www.walden.org/wp-content/uploads/2016/03/IndianNotebooks-1.pdf selections by Richard F. Fleck]', 267 => '* ''Wild Fruits'' (Unfinished at his death, W.W. Norton, 1999)<ref>{{Cite book|last=Thoreau|first=Henry David |title=Wild fruits: Thoreau's rediscovered last manuscript |date=2000 |publisher=W.W. Norton |editor=Bradley P. Dean |isbn=0-393-04751-2 |edition=1st |location=New York |oclc=41404600}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web|last=Richard|first=Frances|title=Thoreau's "Wild Fruits" {{!}} Frances Richard|url=http://cabinetmagazine.org/issues/23/richard.php|access-date=April 11, 2021|website=cabinetmagazine.org|language=en|archive-date=April 24, 2021|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210424050556/https://www.cabinetmagazine.org/issues/23/richard.php|url-status=live}}</ref>', 268 => '', 269 => '==See also==', 270 => '* [[American philosophy]]', 271 => '* [[List of American philosophers]]', 272 => '* [[List of peace activists]]', 273 => '* [[Thoreau Society]]', 274 => '* [[Walden Woods Project]]', 275 => '', 276 => '==References==', 277 => '{{Reflist|30em}}', 278 => '', 279 => '==Further reading==', 280 => '{{Refbegin}}', 281 => '* Balthrop‐Lewis, Alda. "Exemplarist Environmental Ethics: Thoreau's Political Ascetism against Solution Thinking." ''Journal of Religious Ethics'' 47.3 (2019): 525–550.', 282 => '* Bode, Carl. ''Best of Thoreau's Journals''. Southern Illinois University Press. 1967.', 283 => '* Botkin, Daniel. ''No Man's Garden''', 284 => '* Buell, Lawrence. ''The Environmental Imagination: Thoreau, Nature Writing, and the Formation of American Culture'' (Harvard UP, 1995)', 285 => '* Cafaro, Philip. ''Thoreau's Living Ethics: "Walden" and the Pursuit of Virtue'' (U of Georgia Press, 2004)', 286 => '* [[Frank Chodorov|Chodorov, Frank]]. [https://mises.org/daily/5033/The-Disarming-Honesty-of-Henry-David-Thoreau ''The Disarming Honesty of Henry David Thoreau''] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140914003039/https://mises.org/daily/5033/The-Disarming-Honesty-of-Henry-David-Thoreau |date=September 14, 2014 }}', 287 => '* Conrad, Randall. [http://thoreau.eserver.org/whowhy.html ''Who He Was & Why He Matters''] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20061012062735/http://thoreau.eserver.org/whowhy.html |date=October 12, 2006 }}', 288 => '* Cramer, Jeffrey S. ''Solid Seasons: The Friendship of Henry David Thoreau and Ralph Waldo Emerson'' (Counterpoint Press, 2019).', 289 => '* Dean, Bradley P. ed., ''Letters to a Spiritual Seeker''. New York: W. W. Norton & Company, 2004.', 290 => '* Finley, James S., ed. ''Henry David Thoreau in Context'' (Cambridge UP, 2017).', 291 => '* Furtak, Rick, Ellsworth, Jonathan, and Reid, James D., eds. ''Thoreau's Importance for Philosophy''. New York: Fordham University Press, 2012.', 292 => '* Gionfriddo, Michael. "Thoreau, the Work of Breathing, and Building Castles in the Air: Reading Walden's 'Conclusion'." ''The Concord Saunterer'' 25 (2017): 49-90 [https://www.jstor.org/stable/44652797 online] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210417023523/https://www.jstor.org/stable/44652797 |date=April 17, 2021 }}.', 293 => '* Guhr, Sebastian. ''Mr. Lincoln & Mr. Thoreau''. S. Marix Verlag, Wiesbaden 2021.', 294 => '* Harding, Walter. ''The Days of Henry Thoreau''. Princeton University Press, 1982.', 295 => '* Hendrick, George. "The Influence of Thoreau's 'Civil Disobedience' on Gandhi's Satyagraha." ''The New England Quarterly'' 29, no. 4 (December 1956). 462–471.', 296 => '* {{Cite journal |last1=Hess |first1=Scott |title=Walden Pond as Thoreau's Landscape of Genius |journal=Nineteenth-Century Literature |volume=74 |issue=2 |pages=224–250 |date=2019 |language=en |doi=10.1525/ncl.2019.74.2.224 |s2cid=204481348 |issn=0891-9356 }}', 297 => '* Howarth, William. ''The Book of Concord: Thoreau's Life as a Writer''. Viking Press, 1982', 298 => '* Judd, Richard W. ''Finding Thoreau: The Meaning of Nature in the Making of an Environmental Icon'' (2018) [https://www.amazon.com/Finding-Thoreau-Meaning-Nature-Environmental/dp/1625343884/ excerpt] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210723101739/https://www.amazon.com/Finding-Thoreau-Meaning-Nature-Environmental/dp/1625343884 |date=July 23, 2021 }}', 299 => '* McGregor, Robert Kuhn. ''A Wider View of the Universe: Henry Thoreau's Study of Nature'' (U of Illinois Press, 1997).', 300 => '* [[Annie Russell Marble|Marble, Annie Russell]]. ''Thoreau: His Home, Friends and Books''. New York: AMS Press. 1969 [1902]', 301 => '* Myerson, Joel et al. ''The Cambridge Companion to Henry David Thoreau''. Cambridge University Press. 1995', 302 => '* Nash, Roderick. ''Henry David Thoreau, Philosopher''', 303 => '* Paolucci, Stefano. [https://www.academia.edu/16692328/The_Foundations_of_Thoreaus_Castles_in_the_Air_ "The Foundations of Thoreau's 'Castles in the Air'"] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210827194255/https://www.academia.edu/16692328/The_Foundations_of_Thoreaus_Castles_in_the_Air_ |date=August 27, 2021 }}, ''Thoreau Society Bulletin'', No. 290 (Summer 2015), 10. (See also the [https://www.academia.edu/25773131/Stefano_Paolucci_The_Foundations_of_Thoreaus_Castles_in_the_Air_Full_Uncensored_Version_ Full Unedited Version] of the same article.)', 304 => '* Parrington, Vernon. ''[http://xroads.virginia.edu/~HYPER/parrington/vol2/bk03_03_ch03.html Main Current in American Thought] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20060901091713/http://xroads.virginia.edu/~Hyper/Parrington/vol2/bk03_03_ch03.html |date=September 1, 2006 }}''. V 2 online. 1927', 305 => '* Parrington, Vernon L. [http://thoreau.eserver.org/currents.html ''Henry Thoreau: Transcendental Economist''] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070612042458/http://thoreau.eserver.org/currents.html |date=June 12, 2007 }}', 306 => '* Petroski, Henry. "H. D. Thoreau, Engineer." ''American Heritage of Invention and Technology'', Vol. 5, No. 2, pp.&nbsp;8–16', 307 => '* Petrulionis, Sandra Harbert, ed., ''Thoreau in His Own Time: A Biographical Chronicle of His Life, Drawn From Recollections, Interviews, and Memoirs by Family, Friends, and Associates.'' Iowa City: University of Iowa Press, 2012. {{ISBN|1-60938-087-8}}', 308 => '* Richardson, Robert D. ''Henry Thoreau: A Life of the Mind''. University of California Press Berkeley and Los Angeles. 1986. {{ISBN|0-520-06346-5}}', 309 => '* {{cite encyclopedia |last=Riggenbach |first=Jeff |title=Thoreau, Henry David (1817–1862) |editor-first=Ronald |editor-last=Hamowy |editor-link=Ronald Hamowy |encyclopedia=The Encyclopedia of Libertarianism |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=yxNgXs3TkJYC |date=2008 |publisher=[[SAGE Publishing|Sage]]; [[Cato Institute]] |location=[[Thousand Oaks, California]] |doi=10.4135/9781412965811.n309 |isbn=978-1412965804 |oclc=750831024 |lccn=2008009151 |pages=506–507 |access-date=June 20, 2015 |archive-date=September 30, 2020 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200930100756/https://books.google.com/books?id=yxNgXs3TkJYC%2F |url-status=live }}', 310 => '* {{Cite journal|last=Riggenbach|first=Jeff|title=Henry David Thoreau: Founding Father of American Libertarian Thought|journal=Mises Daily|date=July 15, 2010|url=https://mises.org/daily/4562/Henry-David-Thoreau-Founding-Father-of-American-Libertarian-Thought|access-date=September 13, 2014|archive-date=September 14, 2014|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140914000502/https://mises.org/daily/4562/Henry-David-Thoreau-Founding-Father-of-American-Libertarian-Thought|url-status=live}}', 311 => '* Ridl, Jack. "[http://magazine.scintillapress.com/moose-indian.html Moose. Indian.] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210827194541/https://www.facebook.com/v2.3/plugins/share_button.php?app_id=249643311490&channel=https%3A%2F%2Fstaticxx.facebook.com%2Fx%2Fconnect%2Fxd_arbiter%2F%3Fversion%3D46%23cb%3Df1bcdc517dd912c%26domain%3Dmagazine.scintillapress.com%26is_canvas%3Dfalse%26origin%3Dhttp%253A%252F%252Fmagazine.scintillapress.com%252Ff3686018c8f8d2%26relation%3Dparent.parent&container_width=0&href=http%3A%2F%2Fmagazine.scintillapress.com%2Fmoose-indian.html&layout=button_count&locale=en_US&sdk=joey |date=August 27, 2021 }}" Scintilla (poem on Thoreau's last words)', 312 => '* Schneider, Richard ''Civilizing Thoreau: Human Ecology and the Emerging Social Sciences in the Major Works'' [[Rochester, New York]]. Camden House. 2016. {{ISBN|978-1-57113-960-3}}', 313 => '* Smith, David C. "The Transcendental Saunterer: Thoreau and the Search for Self." [[Savannah, Georgia]]: Frederic C. Beil, 1997. {{ISBN|0-913720-74-7}}', 314 => '* Sullivan, Mark W. "Henry David Thoreau in the American Art of the 1950s." ''The Concord Saunterer: A Journal of Thoreau Studies'', New Series, Vol. 18 (2010), pp.&nbsp;68–89.', 315 => '* Sullivan, Mark W. ''Picturing Thoreau: Henry David Thoreau in American Visual Culture.'' [[Lanham, Maryland]]: Lexington Books, 2015', 316 => '* [[Alfred I. Tauber|Tauber, Alfred I]]. ''Henry David Thoreau and the Moral Agency of Knowing''. University of California, Berkeley. 2001. {{ISBN|0-520-23915-6}}', 317 => '* [http://www.iep.utm.edu/thoreau/ Henry David Thoreau] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160304121233/http://www.iep.utm.edu/thoreau/ |date=March 4, 2016 }}{{nbsp}}– ''[[Internet Encyclopedia of Philosophy]]''', 318 => '* [http://plato.stanford.edu/entries/thoreau/ Henry David Thoreau] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20101204075542/http://plato.stanford.edu/entries/thoreau/ |date=December 4, 2010 }}{{nbsp}}– ''[[Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy]]''', 319 => '* Thorson, Robert M. ''The Boatman: Henry David Thoreau's River Years'' (Harvard UP, 2017), on his scientific study of the Concord River in the late 1850s.', 320 => '* Thorson, Robert M. ''Walden's Shore: Henry David Thoreau and Nineteenth-Century Science'' (2015).', 321 => '* Thorson, Robert M. ''The Guide to Walden Pond: An Exploration of the History, Nature, Landscape, and Literature of One of America's Most Iconic Places'' (2018).', 322 => '* {{cite journal|last1=Traub|first1=Courtney|title='First-Rate Fellows': Excavating Thoreau's Radical Egalitarian Reflections in a Late Draft of "Allegash"|journal=The Concord Saunterer: A Journal of Thoreau Studies|date=2015|volume=23|pages=74–96}}', 323 => '* [[Laura Walls|Walls, Laura Dassow]]. ''Seeing New Worlds: Henry David Thoreau and 19th Century Science''. University of Wisconsin. 1995. {{ISBN|0-299-14744-4}}', 324 => '* [[Laura Walls|Walls, Laura Dassow]]. ''Henry David Thoreau: A Life''. The University of Chicago Press. 2017. {{ISBN|978-0-226-34469-0}}', 325 => '{{Refend}}', 326 => '* [[John William Ward (professor)|Ward, John William]]. 1969 ''Red, White, and Blue: Men, Books, and Ideas in American Culture''. New York: Oxford University Press', 327 => '', 328 => '==External links==', 329 => '{{Wikisource author}}', 330 => '{{Wikiquote}}', 331 => '{{Commons}}', 332 => '{{EB1911 Poster|Thoreau, Henry David}}', 333 => '{{Library resources box|onlinebooks=yes|by=yes}}', 334 => '* [http://www.thoreausociety.org/ The Thoreau Society]', 335 => '* [http://www.library.ucsb.edu/thoreau/ The Thoreau Edition]', 336 => '* [http://www.c-span.org/video/?164015-1/writings-emerson-thoreau "Writings of Emerson and Thoreau"] from [[C-SPAN]]'s ''[[American Writers: A Journey Through History]]''', 337 => '', 338 => '===Texts===', 339 => '* {{StandardEbooks|Standard Ebooks URL=https://standardebooks.org/ebooks/henry-david-thoreau}}', 340 => '* {{Gutenberg author | id=54 | name=Henry David Thoreau}}', 341 => '* {{FadedPage|id=Thoreau, Henry D.|name=Henry D. Thoreau|author=yes}}', 342 => '* {{Internet Archive author |sname=Henry David Thoreau}}', 343 => '* {{Librivox author |id=371}}', 344 => '* [https://openlibrary.org/search?q=henry+david+thoreau&author_key=OL19690A Works by Thoreau] at Open Library', 345 => '* [https://www.poets.org/poetsorg/poems/45769 Poems by Thoreau] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20171019154300/https://www.poets.org/poetsorg/poems/45769 |date=October 19, 2017 }} at the Academy of American Poets', 346 => '* [http://thoreau.eserver.org/ The Thoreau Reader] by ''[[Thoreau Society|The Thoreau Society]]''', 347 => '* [https://www.walden.org/thoreau/the-writings-of-henry-david-thoreau-the-digital-collection/ The Writings of Henry David Thoreau] at ''The Walden Woods Project''', 348 => '* [http://www.concordlibrary.org/scollect/Thoreau_Surveys/Thoreau_Surveys.htm Scans of Thoreau's Land Surveys] at the Concord Free Public Library', 349 => '* [http://www.thoreau-online.org/ Henry David Thoreau Online]{{nbsp}}– The Works and Life of Henry D. Thoreau', 350 => '', 351 => '{{Henry David Thoreau}}', 352 => '{{anarchism}}', 353 => '{{Mahatma Gandhi}}', 354 => '{{Hall of Fame for Great Americans}}', 355 => '{{simple living}}', 356 => '{{social and political philosophy}}', 357 => '{{Portal bar|Biography|Environment|Poetry|Politics|United States}}', 358 => '{{authority control}}', 359 => '', 360 => '{{DEFAULTSORT:Thoreau, Henry David}}', 361 => '[[Category:Henry David Thoreau| ]]', 362 => '[[Category:1817 births]]', 363 => '[[Category:1862 deaths]]', 364 => '[[Category:19th-century American philosophers]]', 365 => '[[Category:19th-century American poets]]', 366 => '[[Category:19th-century deaths from tuberculosis]]', 367 => '[[Category:19th-century diarists]]', 368 => '[[Category:American abolitionists]]', 369 => '[[Category:American anarchists]]', 370 => '[[Category:American diarists]]', 371 => '[[Category:American environmentalists]]', 372 => '[[Category:American essayists]]', 373 => '[[Category:American male essayists]]', 374 => '[[Category:American male non-fiction writers]]', 375 => '[[Category:American male poets]]', 376 => '[[Category:American naturalists]]', 377 => '[[Category:American nature writers]]', 378 => '[[Category:American naturists]]', 379 => '[[Category:American nomads]]', 380 => '[[Category:American non-fiction environmental writers]]', 381 => '[[Category:American opinion journalists]]', 382 => '[[Category:American people of French descent]]', 383 => '[[Category:American political philosophers]]', 384 => '[[Category:American social commentators]]', 385 => '[[Category:American spiritual writers]]', 386 => '[[Category:American surveyors]]', 387 => '[[Category:American tax resisters]]', 388 => '[[Category:American travel writers]]', 389 => '[[Category:Anarchism]]', 390 => '[[Category:Anarchist writers]]', 391 => '[[Category:Anti-consumerists]]', 392 => '[[Category:Civil disobedience]]', 393 => '[[Category:Critics of work and the work ethic]]', 394 => '[[Category:American cultural critics]]', 395 => '[[Category:Ecological succession]]', 396 => '[[Category:Environmental writers]]', 397 => '[[Category:Green anarchists]]', 398 => '[[Category:Hall of Fame for Great Americans inductees]]', 399 => '[[Category:Harvard College alumni]]', 400 => '[[Category:Hasty Pudding alumni]]', 401 => '[[Category:Hikers]]', 402 => '[[Category:Tuberculosis deaths in Massachusetts]]', 403 => '[[Category:Lecturers]]', 404 => '[[Category:Left-libertarians]]', 405 => '[[Category:Nature writers]]', 406 => '[[Category:Pantheists]]', 407 => '[[Category:People from Concord, Massachusetts]]', 408 => '[[Category:Philosophers from Massachusetts]]', 409 => '[[Category:Philosophers of culture]]', 410 => '[[Category:Philosophers of history]]', 411 => '[[Category:Philosophers of love]]', 412 => '[[Category:Philosophers of mind]]', 413 => '[[Category:Philosophers of science]]', 414 => '[[Category:Poets from Massachusetts]]', 415 => '[[Category:Simple living advocates]]', 416 => '[[Category:Social critics]]', 417 => '[[Category:Social philosophers]]', 418 => '[[Category:Underground Railroad people]]' ]
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'<div class="mw-parser-output"><div class="shortdescription nomobile noexcerpt noprint searchaux" style="display:none">American essayist, poet, and philosopher (1817–1862)</div> <style data-mw-deduplicate="TemplateStyles:r1033289096">.mw-parser-output .hatnote{font-style:italic}.mw-parser-output div.hatnote{padding-left:1.6em;margin-bottom:0.5em}.mw-parser-output .hatnote i{font-style:normal}.mw-parser-output .hatnote+link+.hatnote{margin-top:-0.5em}</style><div role="note" class="hatnote navigation-not-searchable">"Thoreau" redirects here. For other uses, see <a href="/wiki/Thoreau_(disambiguation)" class="mw-disambig" title="Thoreau (disambiguation)">Thoreau (disambiguation)</a>.</div> <p class="mw-empty-elt"> </p> <style data-mw-deduplicate="TemplateStyles:r1066479718">.mw-parser-output .infobox-subbox{padding:0;border:none;margin:-3px;width:auto;min-width:100%;font-size:100%;clear:none;float:none;background-color:transparent}.mw-parser-output .infobox-3cols-child{margin:auto}.mw-parser-output .infobox .navbar{font-size:100%}body.skin-minerva .mw-parser-output .infobox-header,body.skin-minerva .mw-parser-output .infobox-subheader,body.skin-minerva .mw-parser-output .infobox-above,body.skin-minerva .mw-parser-output .infobox-title,body.skin-minerva .mw-parser-output .infobox-image,body.skin-minerva .mw-parser-output .infobox-full-data,body.skin-minerva .mw-parser-output .infobox-below{text-align:center}</style><table class="infobox biography vcard"><tbody><tr><th colspan="2" class="infobox-above" style="font-size:125%;"><div class="fn" style="display:inline">Henry David Thoreau</div></th></tr><tr><td colspan="2" class="infobox-image"><a href="/wiki/File:Benjamin_D._Maxham_-_Henry_David_Thoreau_-_Restored_-_greyscale_-_straightened.jpg" class="image"><img alt="Benjamin D. Maxham - Henry David Thoreau - Restored - greyscale - straightened.jpg" src="//upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/2/2a/Benjamin_D._Maxham_-_Henry_David_Thoreau_-_Restored_-_greyscale_-_straightened.jpg/220px-Benjamin_D._Maxham_-_Henry_David_Thoreau_-_Restored_-_greyscale_-_straightened.jpg" decoding="async" width="220" height="319" srcset="//upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/2/2a/Benjamin_D._Maxham_-_Henry_David_Thoreau_-_Restored_-_greyscale_-_straightened.jpg/330px-Benjamin_D._Maxham_-_Henry_David_Thoreau_-_Restored_-_greyscale_-_straightened.jpg 1.5x, //upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/2/2a/Benjamin_D._Maxham_-_Henry_David_Thoreau_-_Restored_-_greyscale_-_straightened.jpg/440px-Benjamin_D._Maxham_-_Henry_David_Thoreau_-_Restored_-_greyscale_-_straightened.jpg 2x" data-file-width="2089" data-file-height="3027" /></a><div class="infobox-caption">Thoreau in 1856</div></td></tr><tr><th scope="row" class="infobox-label">Born</th><td class="infobox-data"><div style="display:inline" class="nickname">David Henry Thoreau</div><br /><span style="display:none">(<span class="bday">1817-07-12</span>)</span>July 12, 1817<br /><div style="display:inline" class="birthplace"><a href="/wiki/Concord,_Massachusetts" title="Concord, Massachusetts">Concord, Massachusetts</a>, U.S.</div></td></tr><tr><th scope="row" class="infobox-label">Died</th><td class="infobox-data">May 6, 1862<span style="display:none">(1862-05-06)</span> (aged&#160;44)<br /><div style="display:inline" class="deathplace">Concord, Massachusetts, U.S.</div></td></tr><tr><th scope="row" class="infobox-label">Alma&#160;mater</th><td class="infobox-data"><a href="/wiki/Harvard_College" title="Harvard College">Harvard College</a></td></tr><tr><td colspan="2" class="infobox-full-data"><link rel="mw-deduplicated-inline-style" href="mw-data:TemplateStyles:r1066479718"/></td></tr><tr><th scope="row" class="infobox-label">Era</th><td class="infobox-data category"><a href="/wiki/19th-century_philosophy" title="19th-century philosophy">19th-century philosophy</a></td></tr><tr><th scope="row" class="infobox-label">Region</th><td class="infobox-data category"><a href="/wiki/Western_philosophy" title="Western philosophy">Western philosophy</a></td></tr><tr><th scope="row" class="infobox-label"><a href="/wiki/List_of_schools_of_philosophy" title="List of schools of philosophy">School</a></th><td class="infobox-data category"><a href="/wiki/Transcendentalism" title="Transcendentalism">Transcendentalism</a><sup id="cite_ref-:6_1-0" class="reference"><a href="#cite_note-:6-1">&#91;1&#93;</a></sup></td></tr><tr><th scope="row" class="infobox-label"><div style="display: inline-block; line-height: 1.2em; padding: .1em 0;">Main interests</div></th><td class="infobox-data"><div class="hlist hlist-separated"><ul><li><a href="/wiki/Ethics" title="Ethics">Ethics</a></li><li><a href="/wiki/Poetry" title="Poetry">poetry</a></li><li><a href="/wiki/Religion" title="Religion">religion</a></li><li><a href="/wiki/Politics" title="Politics">politics</a></li><li><a href="/wiki/Biology" title="Biology">biology</a></li><li><a href="/wiki/Philosophy" title="Philosophy">philosophy</a></li><li><a href="/wiki/History" title="History">history</a></li></ul></div></td></tr><tr class="note"><th scope="row" class="infobox-label"><div style="display: inline-block; line-height: 1.2em; padding: .1em 0;">Notable ideas</div></th><td class="infobox-data"><div class="hlist hlist-separated"><ul><li><a href="/wiki/Abolitionism_in_the_United_States" title="Abolitionism in the United States">Abolitionism</a></li><li><a href="/wiki/Tax_resistance" title="Tax resistance">tax resistance</a></li><li><a href="/wiki/Development_criticism" class="mw-redirect" title="Development criticism">development criticism</a></li><li><a href="/wiki/Civil_disobedience" title="Civil disobedience">civil disobedience</a></li><li><a href="/wiki/Conscientious_objector" title="Conscientious objector">conscientious objection</a></li><li><a href="/wiki/Direct_action" title="Direct action">direct action</a></li><li><a href="/wiki/Environmentalism" title="Environmentalism">environmentalism</a></li><li><a href="/wiki/Anarchism" title="Anarchism">anarchism</a></li><li><a href="/wiki/Simple_living" title="Simple living">simple living</a></li></ul></div></td></tr><tr class="note"><td colspan="2" class="infobox-full-data"><div class="mw-collapsible mw-collapsed" style="text-align: center; font-size: 95%;"> <div style="line-height: 1.6em; font-weight: bold; font-size: 100%; text-align: left;"><div>Influences</div></div> <ul class="mw-collapsible-content" style="font-size: 105%; margin-top: 0; margin-bottom: 0; line-height: inherit; text-align: left; list-style: none; margin-left: 0;"><li style="line-height: inherit; margin: 0"><div class="center" style="width:auto; margin-left:auto; margin-right:auto;"><div class="hlist hlist-separated"><ul><li><a href="/wiki/Indian_philosophy" title="Indian philosophy">Indian philosophy</a></li><li><a href="/wiki/Aristotle" title="Aristotle">Aristotle</a></li><li><a href="/wiki/Homer" title="Homer">Homer</a></li><li><a href="/wiki/Aeschylus" title="Aeschylus">Aeschylus</a></li><li><a href="/wiki/Pindar" title="Pindar">Pindar</a></li><li><a href="/wiki/Cato_the_Elder" title="Cato the Elder">Cato the Elder</a></li><li><a href="/wiki/%C3%89tienne_de_La_Bo%C3%A9tie" title="Étienne de La Boétie">Étienne de La Boétie</a></li><li><a href="/wiki/Ralph_Waldo_Emerson" title="Ralph Waldo Emerson">Ralph Waldo Emerson</a></li><li><a href="/wiki/Thomas_Carlyle" title="Thomas Carlyle">Thomas Carlyle</a></li><li><a href="/wiki/Charles_Darwin" title="Charles Darwin">Charles Darwin</a></li><li><a href="/wiki/Alexander_von_Humboldt" title="Alexander von Humboldt">Alexander von Humboldt</a><sup id="cite_ref-2" class="reference"><a href="#cite_note-2">&#91;2&#93;</a></sup></li></ul></div></div></li></ul> </div></td></tr><tr class="note"><td colspan="2" class="infobox-full-data"><div class="mw-collapsible mw-collapsed" style="text-align: center; font-size: 95%;"> <div style="line-height: 1.6em; font-weight: bold; font-size: 100%; text-align: left;"><div>Influenced</div></div> <ul class="mw-collapsible-content" style="font-size: 105%; margin-top: 0; margin-bottom: 0; line-height: inherit; text-align: left; list-style: none; margin-left: 0;"><li style="line-height: inherit; margin: 0"><div class="center" style="width:auto; margin-left:auto; margin-right:auto;"><div class="hlist hlist-separated"><ul><li><a href="/wiki/Mahatma_Gandhi" title="Mahatma Gandhi">Mahatma Gandhi</a></li><li><a href="/wiki/John_F._Kennedy" title="John F. Kennedy">John F. Kennedy</a></li><li><a href="/wiki/Martin_Luther_King_Jr." title="Martin Luther King Jr.">Martin Luther King Jr.</a></li><li><a href="/wiki/Walt_Whitman" title="Walt Whitman">Walt Whitman</a></li><li><a href="/wiki/Leo_Tolstoy" title="Leo Tolstoy">Leo Tolstoy</a></li><li><a href="/wiki/Marcel_Proust" title="Marcel Proust">Marcel Proust</a></li><li><a href="/wiki/W._B._Yeats" title="W. B. Yeats">W.&#160;B. Yeats</a></li><li><a href="/wiki/Sinclair_Lewis" title="Sinclair Lewis">Sinclair Lewis</a></li><li><a href="/wiki/Ernest_Hemingway" title="Ernest Hemingway">Ernest Hemingway</a></li><li><a href="/wiki/Upton_Sinclair" title="Upton Sinclair">Upton Sinclair</a></li><li><a href="/wiki/Emma_Goldman" title="Emma Goldman">Emma Goldman</a></li><li><a href="/wiki/E._B._White" title="E. B. White">E.&#160;B. White</a></li><li><a href="/wiki/E._O._Wilson" title="E. O. Wilson">E.&#160;O. Wilson</a></li><li><a href="/wiki/Christopher_McCandless" class="mw-redirect" title="Christopher McCandless">Christopher McCandless</a></li><li><a href="/wiki/B._F._Skinner" title="B. F. Skinner">B.&#160;F. Skinner</a></li><li><a href="/wiki/George_Bernard_Shaw" title="George Bernard Shaw">George Bernard Shaw</a></li><li><a href="/wiki/John_Zerzan" title="John Zerzan">John Zerzan</a></li><li><a href="/wiki/John_Muir" title="John Muir">John Muir</a></li><li><a href="/wiki/Glenn_Gould" title="Glenn Gould">Glenn Gould</a></li><li><a href="/wiki/Stanley_Cavell" title="Stanley Cavell">Stanley Cavell</a></li><li><a href="/wiki/John_Cage" title="John Cage">John Cage</a></li><li><a href="/wiki/Jonas_Mekas" title="Jonas Mekas">Jonas Mekas</a></li></ul></div></div></li></ul> </div></td></tr><tr style="display:none"><td colspan="2"> </td></tr><tr><th colspan="2" class="infobox-header">Signature</th></tr><tr><td colspan="2" class="infobox-full-data"><a href="/wiki/File:Henry_David_Thoreau_Signature_SVG.svg" class="image"><img alt="Henry David Thoreau Signature SVG.svg" src="//upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/9/98/Henry_David_Thoreau_Signature_SVG.svg/150px-Henry_David_Thoreau_Signature_SVG.svg.png" decoding="async" width="150" height="36" srcset="//upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/9/98/Henry_David_Thoreau_Signature_SVG.svg/225px-Henry_David_Thoreau_Signature_SVG.svg.png 1.5x, //upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/9/98/Henry_David_Thoreau_Signature_SVG.svg/300px-Henry_David_Thoreau_Signature_SVG.svg.png 2x" data-file-width="512" data-file-height="123" /></a></td></tr></tbody></table> <style data-mw-deduplicate="TemplateStyles:r1045330069">.mw-parser-output .sidebar{width:22em;float:right;clear:right;margin:0.5em 0 1em 1em;background:#f8f9fa;border:1px solid #aaa;padding:0.2em;text-align:center;line-height:1.4em;font-size:88%;border-collapse:collapse;display:table}body.skin-minerva .mw-parser-output .sidebar{display:table!important;float:right!important;margin:0.5em 0 1em 1em!important}.mw-parser-output .sidebar-subgroup{width:100%;margin:0;border-spacing:0}.mw-parser-output .sidebar-left{float:left;clear:left;margin:0.5em 1em 1em 0}.mw-parser-output .sidebar-none{float:none;clear:both;margin:0.5em 1em 1em 0}.mw-parser-output .sidebar-outer-title{padding:0 0.4em 0.2em;font-size:125%;line-height:1.2em;font-weight:bold}.mw-parser-output .sidebar-top-image{padding:0.4em}.mw-parser-output .sidebar-top-caption,.mw-parser-output .sidebar-pretitle-with-top-image,.mw-parser-output .sidebar-caption{padding:0.2em 0.4em 0;line-height:1.2em}.mw-parser-output .sidebar-pretitle{padding:0.4em 0.4em 0;line-height:1.2em}.mw-parser-output .sidebar-title,.mw-parser-output .sidebar-title-with-pretitle{padding:0.2em 0.8em;font-size:145%;line-height:1.2em}.mw-parser-output .sidebar-title-with-pretitle{padding:0.1em 0.4em}.mw-parser-output .sidebar-image{padding:0.2em 0.4em 0.4em}.mw-parser-output .sidebar-heading{padding:0.1em 0.4em}.mw-parser-output .sidebar-content{padding:0 0.5em 0.4em}.mw-parser-output .sidebar-content-with-subgroup{padding:0.1em 0.4em 0.2em}.mw-parser-output .sidebar-above,.mw-parser-output .sidebar-below{padding:0.3em 0.8em;font-weight:bold}.mw-parser-output .sidebar-collapse .sidebar-above,.mw-parser-output .sidebar-collapse .sidebar-below{border-top:1px solid #aaa;border-bottom:1px solid #aaa}.mw-parser-output .sidebar-navbar{text-align:right;font-size:115%;padding:0 0.4em 0.4em}.mw-parser-output .sidebar-list-title{padding:0 0.4em;text-align:left;font-weight:bold;line-height:1.6em;font-size:105%}.mw-parser-output .sidebar-list-title-c{padding:0 0.4em;text-align:center;margin:0 3.3em}@media(max-width:720px){body.mediawiki .mw-parser-output .sidebar{width:100%!important;clear:both;float:none!important;margin-left:0!important;margin-right:0!important}}</style><table class="sidebar sidebar-collapse nomobile nowraplinks"><tbody><tr><td class="sidebar-pretitle">Part of <a href="/wiki/Category:Libertarianism" title="Category:Libertarianism">a series</a> on</td></tr><tr><th class="sidebar-title-with-pretitle"><a href="/wiki/Libertarianism" title="Libertarianism">Libertarianism</a></th></tr><tr><td class="sidebar-content"> <div class="sidebar-list mw-collapsible mw-collapsed"><div class="sidebar-list-title" style="background:transparent;border-top:1px solid #aaa;text-align:center;">Origins</div><div class="sidebar-list-content mw-collapsible-content hlist"> <ul><li><a href="/wiki/Anarchism" title="Anarchism">Anarchism</a></li> <li><a href="/wiki/Anarcho-communism" title="Anarcho-communism">Anarcho-communism</a></li> <li><a href="/wiki/Liberalism" title="Liberalism">Liberalism</a></li> <li><a href="/wiki/Libertarian_communism" class="mw-redirect" title="Libertarian communism">Libertarian communism</a></li> <li><a href="/wiki/Libertarian_Marxism" title="Libertarian Marxism">Libertarian Marxism</a></li> <li><a href="/wiki/Libertarian_socialism" title="Libertarian socialism">Libertarian socialism</a></li> <li><a href="/wiki/Classical_radicalism" title="Classical radicalism">Radicalism</a></li> <li><a href="/wiki/Social_anarchism" title="Social anarchism">Social anarchism</a></li></ul></div></div></td> </tr><tr><td class="sidebar-content"> <div class="sidebar-list mw-collapsible mw-collapsed"><div class="sidebar-list-title" style="background:transparent;border-top:1px solid #aaa;text-align:center;">Concepts</div><div class="sidebar-list-content mw-collapsible-content hlist"> <ul><li><a href="/wiki/Abstention" title="Abstention">Abstention</a></li> <li><a href="/wiki/Age_of_consent_reform" title="Age of consent reform">Age of consent reform</a></li> <li><a href="/wiki/Anti-authoritarianism" title="Anti-authoritarianism">Anti-authoritarianism</a></li> <li><a href="/wiki/Anti-capitalism" title="Anti-capitalism">Anti-capitalism</a></li> <li><a href="/wiki/Anti-militarism" class="mw-redirect" title="Anti-militarism">Anti-militarism</a></li> <li><a href="/wiki/Anti-statism" title="Anti-statism">Anti-statism</a></li> <li><a href="/wiki/Autarchism" title="Autarchism">Autarchism</a></li> <li><a href="/wiki/Civil_libertarianism" title="Civil libertarianism">Civil libertarianism</a></li> <li><a href="/wiki/Class_conflict" title="Class conflict">Class conflict</a></li> <li><a href="/wiki/Intentional_community" title="Intentional community">Commune</a></li> <li><a href="/wiki/Confederalism" class="mw-redirect" title="Confederalism">Confederalism</a></li> <li><a href="/wiki/Decentralization" title="Decentralization">Decentralization</a></li> <li><a href="/wiki/Direct_action" title="Direct action">Direct action</a></li> <li><a href="/wiki/Egalitarianism" title="Egalitarianism">Egalitarianism</a></li> <li><a href="/wiki/Expropriative_anarchism" title="Expropriative anarchism">Expropriative anarchism</a></li> <li><a href="/wiki/Federalism" title="Federalism">Federalism</a></li> <li><a href="/wiki/Free_association_(Marxism_and_anarchism)" class="mw-redirect" title="Free association (Marxism and anarchism)">Free association</a></li> <li><a href="/wiki/Free_love" title="Free love">Free love</a></li> <li><a href="/wiki/Free_market" title="Free market">Free market</a></li> <li><a href="/wiki/Free-market_anarchism" title="Free-market anarchism">Free-market anarchism</a></li> <li><a href="/wiki/Free-market_environmentalism" title="Free-market environmentalism">Free-market environmentalism</a></li> <li><a href="/wiki/Free_migration" title="Free migration">Free migration</a></li> <li><a href="/wiki/Freedom_of_association" title="Freedom of association">Freedom of association</a></li> <li><a href="/wiki/Gift_economy" title="Gift economy">Gift economy</a></li> <li><a href="/wiki/Global_justice_movement" title="Global justice movement">Global justice movement</a></li> <li><a href="/wiki/Individualism" title="Individualism">Individualism</a></li> <li><i><a href="/wiki/Laissez-faire" title="Laissez-faire">Laissez-faire</a></i></li> <li><a href="/wiki/Liberty" title="Liberty">Liberty</a></li> <li><a href="/wiki/Natural_law" title="Natural law">Natural law</a></li> <li><a href="/wiki/Participatory_economics" title="Participatory economics">Participatory economics</a></li> <li><a href="/wiki/Propaganda_of_the_deed" title="Propaganda of the deed">Propaganda of the deed</a></li> <li><a href="/wiki/Property_is_theft!" title="Property is theft!">Property is theft!</a></li> <li><a href="/wiki/Refusal_of_work" title="Refusal of work">Refusal of work</a></li> <li><a href="/wiki/Self-governance" title="Self-governance">Self-governance</a></li> <li><a href="/wiki/Self-ownership" title="Self-ownership">Self-ownership</a></li> <li><a href="/wiki/Social_ecology_(Bookchin)" title="Social ecology (Bookchin)">Social ecology</a></li> <li><a href="/wiki/Squatting" title="Squatting">Squatting</a></li> <li><a href="/wiki/Stateless_society" title="Stateless society">Stateless society</a></li> <li><a href="/wiki/Taxation_as_theft" title="Taxation as theft">Taxation as theft</a></li> <li><a href="/wiki/Taxation_as_slavery" title="Taxation as slavery">Taxation as slavery</a></li> <li><a href="/wiki/Works_council" title="Works council">Works council</a></li> <li><a href="/wiki/Workers%27_self-management" title="Workers&#39; self-management">Workers' self-management</a></li></ul></div></div></td> </tr><tr><td class="sidebar-content"> <div class="sidebar-list mw-collapsible mw-collapsed"><div class="sidebar-list-title" style="background:transparent;border-top:1px solid #aaa;text-align:center;">People</div><div class="sidebar-list-content mw-collapsible-content hlist"> <ul><li><a href="/wiki/Stephen_Pearl_Andrews" title="Stephen Pearl Andrews">Andrews</a></li> <li><a href="/wiki/%C3%89mile_Armand" title="Émile Armand">Armand</a></li> <li><a href="/wiki/Mikhail_Bakunin" title="Mikhail Bakunin">Bakunin</a></li> <li><a href="/wiki/Alexander_Berkman" title="Alexander Berkman">Berkman</a></li> <li><a href="/wiki/Murray_Bookchin" title="Murray Bookchin">Bookchin</a></li> <li><a href="/wiki/Voltairine_de_Cleyre" title="Voltairine de Cleyre">Cleyre</a></li> <li><a href="/wiki/Noam_Chomsky" title="Noam Chomsky">Chomsky</a></li> <li><a href="/wiki/Joseph_D%C3%A9jacque" title="Joseph Déjacque">Déjacque</a></li> <li><a href="/wiki/Buenaventura_Durruti" title="Buenaventura Durruti">Durruti</a></li> <li><a href="/wiki/Francisco_Ferrer" title="Francisco Ferrer">Ferrer</a></li> <li><a href="/wiki/Milton_Friedman" title="Milton Friedman">Friedman</a></li> <li><a href="/wiki/Luigi_Galleani" title="Luigi Galleani">Galleani</a></li> <li><a href="/wiki/William_Godwin" title="William Godwin">Godwin</a></li> <li><a href="/wiki/Emma_Goldman" title="Emma Goldman">Goldman</a></li> <li><a href="/wiki/Paul_Goodman" title="Paul Goodman">Goodman</a></li> <li><a href="/wiki/David_Graeber" title="David Graeber">Graeber</a></li> <li><a href="/wiki/William_Batchelder_Greene" title="William Batchelder Greene">Greene</a></li> <li><a href="/wiki/Friedrich_Hayek" title="Friedrich Hayek">Hayek</a></li> <li><a href="/wiki/Henry_Hazlitt" title="Henry Hazlitt">Hazlitt</a></li> <li><a href="/wiki/Thomas_Hodgskin" title="Thomas Hodgskin">Hodgskin</a></li> <li><a href="/wiki/John_Hospers" title="John Hospers">Hospers</a></li> <li><a href="/wiki/Peter_Kropotkin" title="Peter Kropotkin">Kropotkin</a></li> <li><a href="/wiki/%C3%89tienne_de_La_Bo%C3%A9tie" title="Étienne de La Boétie">La Boétie</a></li> <li><a href="/wiki/Gustav_Landauer" title="Gustav Landauer">Landauer</a></li> <li><a href="/wiki/Laozi" title="Laozi">Laozi</a></li> <li><a href="/wiki/Ricardo_Flores_Mag%C3%B3n" title="Ricardo Flores Magón">Magón</a></li> <li><a href="/wiki/Nestor_Makhno" title="Nestor Makhno">Makhno</a></li> <li><a href="/wiki/Errico_Malatesta" title="Errico Malatesta">Malatesta</a></li> <li><a href="/wiki/Francesc_Pi_i_Margall" class="mw-redirect" title="Francesc Pi i Margall">Margall</a></li> <li><a href="/wiki/Louise_Michel" title="Louise Michel">Michel</a></li> <li><a href="/wiki/Ludwig_von_Mises" title="Ludwig von Mises">Mises</a></li> <li><a href="/wiki/Johann_Most" title="Johann Most">Most</a></li> <li><a href="/wiki/Marco_Pannella" title="Marco Pannella">Pannella</a></li> <li><a href="/wiki/Isabel_Paterson" title="Isabel Paterson">Paterson</a></li> <li><a href="/wiki/Ron_Paul" title="Ron Paul">Paul</a></li> <li><a href="/wiki/Pierre-Joseph_Proudhon" title="Pierre-Joseph Proudhon">Proudhon</a></li> <li><a href="/wiki/Rudolf_Rocker" title="Rudolf Rocker">Rocker</a></li> <li><a href="/wiki/Murray_Rothbard" title="Murray Rothbard">Rothbard</a></li> <li><a href="/wiki/Lysander_Spooner" title="Lysander Spooner">Spooner</a></li> <li><a href="/wiki/Max_Stirner" title="Max Stirner">Stirner</a></li> <li><a href="/wiki/John_Stossel" title="John Stossel">Stossel</a></li> <li><a class="mw-selflink selflink">Thoreau</a></li> <li><a href="/wiki/Benjamin_Tucker" title="Benjamin Tucker">Tucker</a></li> <li><a href="/wiki/Voline" class="mw-redirect" title="Voline">Voline</a></li> <li><a href="/wiki/Josiah_Warren" title="Josiah Warren">Warren</a></li></ul></div></div></td> </tr><tr><td class="sidebar-content"> <div class="sidebar-list mw-collapsible mw-collapsed"><div class="sidebar-list-title" style="background:transparent;border-top:1px solid #aaa;text-align:center;">Regional variants</div><div class="sidebar-list-content mw-collapsible-content hlist"> <ul><li><a href="/wiki/Libertarianism_in_South_Africa" title="Libertarianism in South Africa">South Africa</a></li> <li><a href="/wiki/Libertarian_possibilism" title="Libertarian possibilism">Spain</a></li> <li><a href="/wiki/Libertarianism_in_the_United_Kingdom" title="Libertarianism in the United Kingdom">United Kingdom</a></li> <li><a href="/wiki/Libertarianism_in_the_United_States" title="Libertarianism in the United States">United States</a></li></ul></div></div></td> </tr><tr><td class="sidebar-content"> <div class="sidebar-list mw-collapsible mw-collapsed"><div class="sidebar-list-title" style="background:transparent;border-top:1px solid #aaa;text-align:center;">Related topics</div><div class="sidebar-list-content mw-collapsible-content hlist"> <ul><li><a href="/wiki/Criticism_of_libertarianism" title="Criticism of libertarianism">Criticism</a></li> <li><a href="/wiki/Left-libertarianism" title="Left-libertarianism">Left-libertarianism</a></li> <li><a href="/wiki/Libertarian_feminism" class="mw-redirect" title="Libertarian feminism">Libertarian feminism</a></li> <li><a href="/wiki/Philosophical_anarchism" title="Philosophical anarchism">Philosophical anarchism</a></li> <li><a href="/wiki/Right-libertarianism" title="Right-libertarianism">Right-libertarianism</a></li></ul></div></div></td> </tr><tr><td class="sidebar-below plainlist"> <ul><li><img alt="coin" src="//upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/7/76/2006_AEGold_Proof_Obv.png/16px-2006_AEGold_Proof_Obv.png" decoding="async" width="16" height="16" class="noviewer" srcset="//upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/7/76/2006_AEGold_Proof_Obv.png/24px-2006_AEGold_Proof_Obv.png 1.5x, //upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/7/76/2006_AEGold_Proof_Obv.png/32px-2006_AEGold_Proof_Obv.png 2x" data-file-width="1770" data-file-height="1762" />&#160;<a href="/wiki/Portal:Libertarianism" title="Portal:Libertarianism">Libertarianism&#32;portal</a></li> <li><img alt="flag" src="//upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/9/95/BlackFlagSymbol.svg/16px-BlackFlagSymbol.svg.png" decoding="async" width="16" height="16" class="noviewer thumbborder" srcset="//upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/9/95/BlackFlagSymbol.svg/24px-BlackFlagSymbol.svg.png 1.5x, //upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/9/95/BlackFlagSymbol.svg/32px-BlackFlagSymbol.svg.png 2x" data-file-width="456" data-file-height="456" />&#160;<a href="/wiki/Portal:Anarchism" title="Portal:Anarchism">Anarchism&#32;portal</a></li></ul></td></tr><tr><td class="sidebar-navbar"><style data-mw-deduplicate="TemplateStyles:r1063604349">.mw-parser-output .navbar{display:inline;font-size:88%;font-weight:normal}.mw-parser-output .navbar-collapse{float:left;text-align:left}.mw-parser-output .navbar-boxtext{word-spacing:0}.mw-parser-output .navbar ul{display:inline-block;white-space:nowrap;line-height:inherit}.mw-parser-output .navbar-brackets::before{margin-right:-0.125em;content:"[ "}.mw-parser-output .navbar-brackets::after{margin-left:-0.125em;content:" ]"}.mw-parser-output .navbar li{word-spacing:-0.125em}.mw-parser-output .navbar a>span,.mw-parser-output .navbar a>abbr{text-decoration:inherit}.mw-parser-output .navbar-mini abbr{font-variant:small-caps;border-bottom:none;text-decoration:none;cursor:inherit}.mw-parser-output .navbar-ct-full{font-size:114%;margin:0 7em}.mw-parser-output .navbar-ct-mini{font-size:114%;margin:0 4em}</style><div class="navbar plainlinks hlist navbar-mini"><ul><li class="nv-view"><a href="/wiki/Template:Libertarianism_sidebar" title="Template:Libertarianism sidebar"><abbr title="View this template">v</abbr></a></li><li class="nv-talk"><a href="/wiki/Template_talk:Libertarianism_sidebar" title="Template talk:Libertarianism sidebar"><abbr title="Discuss this template">t</abbr></a></li><li class="nv-edit"><a class="external text" href="https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Template:Libertarianism_sidebar&amp;action=edit"><abbr title="Edit this template">e</abbr></a></li></ul></div></td></tr></tbody></table> <link rel="mw-deduplicated-inline-style" href="mw-data:TemplateStyles:r1045330069"/><table class="sidebar sidebar-collapse nomobile nowraplinks"><tbody><tr><td class="sidebar-pretitle">Part of <a href="/wiki/Category:Libertarianism_in_the_United_States" title="Category:Libertarianism in the United States">a series</a> on</td></tr><tr><th class="sidebar-title-with-pretitle" style="background:#F5DD00; padding-top:0.25em; font-size:150%; font-weight:bold; color:black; line-height:1em;"><a href="/wiki/Libertarianism_in_the_United_States" title="Libertarianism in the United States">Libertarianism<br />in the United States</a></th></tr><tr><td class="sidebar-content"> <div class="sidebar-list mw-collapsible mw-collapsed"><div class="sidebar-list-title" style="background:transparent;border-top:1px solid #aaa;text-align:center;">Origins</div><div class="sidebar-list-content mw-collapsible-content hlist"> <ul><li><a href="/wiki/Abolitionism_in_the_United_States" title="Abolitionism in the United States">Abolitionism in the United States</a></li> <li><a href="/wiki/Age_of_Enlightenment" title="Age of Enlightenment">Age of Enlightenment</a></li> <li><a href="/wiki/Anti-Federalism" title="Anti-Federalism">Anti-Federalism</a></li> <li><a href="/wiki/Classical_liberalism" title="Classical liberalism">Classical liberalism</a></li> <li><a href="/wiki/Individualist_anarchism_in_the_United_States" title="Individualist anarchism in the United States">Individualist anarchism in the United States</a></li> <li><a href="/wiki/Transcendentalism" title="Transcendentalism">Transcendentalism</a></li></ul></div></div></td> </tr><tr><td class="sidebar-content"> <div class="sidebar-list mw-collapsible mw-collapsed"><div class="sidebar-list-title" style="background:transparent;border-top:1px solid #aaa;text-align:center;">Concepts</div><div class="sidebar-list-content mw-collapsible-content hlist"> <ul><li><a href="/wiki/Anti-imperialism" title="Anti-imperialism">Anti-imperialism</a></li> <li><a href="/wiki/Civil_libertarianism" title="Civil libertarianism">Civil libertarianism</a></li> <li><a href="/wiki/Counter-economics" title="Counter-economics">Counter-economics</a></li> <li><a href="/wiki/Decentralization" title="Decentralization">Decentralization</a></li> <li><a href="/wiki/Departurism" title="Departurism">Departurism</a></li> <li><a href="/wiki/Economic_freedom" title="Economic freedom">Economic freedom</a></li> <li><a href="/wiki/Evictionism" title="Evictionism">Evictionism</a></li> <li><a href="/wiki/Free_market" title="Free market">Free market</a></li> <li><a href="/wiki/Free-market_environmentalism" title="Free-market environmentalism">Free-market environmentalism</a></li> <li><a href="/wiki/Free_migration" title="Free migration">Free migration</a></li> <li><a href="/wiki/Free_trade" title="Free trade">Free trade</a></li> <li><a href="/wiki/Free_will" title="Free will">Free will</a></li> <li><a href="/wiki/Freedom_of_association" title="Freedom of association">Freedom of association</a></li> <li><a href="/wiki/Freedom_of_contract" title="Freedom of contract">Freedom of contract</a></li> <li><a href="/wiki/Freedom_of_speech" title="Freedom of speech">Freedom of speech</a></li> <li><a href="/wiki/Homestead_principle" title="Homestead principle">Homestead principle</a></li> <li><a href="/wiki/Individuality" class="mw-redirect" title="Individuality">Individuality</a></li> <li><a href="/wiki/Individualism" title="Individualism">Individualism</a></li> <li><a href="/wiki/Libertarianism" title="Libertarianism">Libertarianism</a></li> <li><a href="/wiki/Liberty" title="Liberty">Liberty</a></li> <li><a href="/wiki/Limited_government" title="Limited government">Limited government</a></li> <li><a href="/wiki/Localism_(politics)" title="Localism (politics)">Localism</a></li> <li><a href="/wiki/Marriage_privatization" title="Marriage privatization">Marriage privatization</a></li> <li><a href="/wiki/Natural_rights_and_legal_rights" title="Natural rights and legal rights">Natural rights and legal rights</a></li> <li><a href="/wiki/Non-aggression_principle" title="Non-aggression principle">Non-aggression principle</a></li> <li><a href="/wiki/Non-interventionism" title="Non-interventionism">Non-interventionism</a></li> <li><a href="/wiki/Non-politics" class="mw-redirect" title="Non-politics">Non-politics</a></li> <li><a href="/wiki/Non-voting" class="mw-redirect" title="Non-voting">Non-voting</a></li> <li><a href="/wiki/Polycentric_law" title="Polycentric law">Polycentric law</a></li> <li><a href="/wiki/Private_defense_agency" title="Private defense agency">Private defense agency</a></li> <li><a href="/wiki/Private_property" title="Private property">Private property</a></li> <li><a href="/wiki/Public_choice_theory" class="mw-redirect" title="Public choice theory">Public choice theory</a></li> <li><a href="/wiki/Restorative_justice" title="Restorative justice">Restorative justice</a></li> <li><a href="/wiki/Right_to_bear_arms" class="mw-redirect" title="Right to bear arms">Right to bear arms</a></li> <li><a href="/wiki/Rugged_Individualism" class="mw-redirect" title="Rugged Individualism">Rugged Individualism</a></li> <li><a href="/wiki/Self-ownership" title="Self-ownership">Self-ownership</a></li> <li><a href="/wiki/Single_tax" title="Single tax">Single tax</a></li> <li><a href="/wiki/Small_government" class="mw-redirect" title="Small government">Small government</a></li> <li><a href="/wiki/Spontaneous_order" title="Spontaneous order">Spontaneous order</a></li> <li><a href="/wiki/Stateless_society" title="Stateless society">Stateless society</a></li> <li><a href="/wiki/Tax_resistance" title="Tax resistance">Tax resistance</a></li> <li><a href="/wiki/Title-transfer_theory_of_contract" title="Title-transfer theory of contract">Title-transfer theory of contract</a></li> <li><a href="/wiki/Voluntary_association" title="Voluntary association">Voluntary association</a></li> <li><a href="/wiki/Voluntary_society" title="Voluntary society">Voluntary society</a></li></ul></div></div></td> </tr><tr><td class="sidebar-content"> <div class="sidebar-list mw-collapsible mw-collapsed"><div class="sidebar-list-title" style="background:transparent;border-top:1px solid #aaa;text-align:center;">Schools</div><div class="sidebar-list-content mw-collapsible-content hlist"> <ul><li><a href="/wiki/Austrian_School" title="Austrian School">Austro-libertarianism</a></li> <li><a href="/wiki/Neoclassical_liberalism" title="Neoclassical liberalism">Bleeding-heart libertarianism</a></li> <li><a href="/wiki/Christian_libertarianism" title="Christian libertarianism">Christian libertarianism</a></li> <li><a href="/wiki/Consequentialist_libertarianism" title="Consequentialist libertarianism">Consequentialist libertarianism</a></li> <li><a href="/wiki/Geolibertarianism" title="Geolibertarianism">Geolibertarianism</a></li> <li><a href="/wiki/Green_libertarianism" title="Green libertarianism">Green libertarianism</a></li> <li><a href="/wiki/Natural-rights_libertarianism" title="Natural-rights libertarianism">Natural-rights libertarianism</a></li> <li><a href="/wiki/Neo-libertarianism" title="Neo-libertarianism">Neo-libertarianism</a></li> <li><a href="/wiki/Paleolibertarianism" title="Paleolibertarianism">Paleolibertarianism</a></li> <li><a href="/wiki/Technolibertarianism" title="Technolibertarianism">Technolibertarianism</a></li></ul></div></div></td> </tr><tr><td class="sidebar-content"> <div class="sidebar-list mw-collapsible mw-collapsed"><div class="sidebar-list-title" style="background:transparent;border-top:1px solid #aaa;text-align:center;">Theory</div><div class="sidebar-list-content mw-collapsible-content hlist"> <ul><li><a href="/wiki/Agorism" title="Agorism">Agorism</a></li> <li><a href="/wiki/Anarcho-capitalism" title="Anarcho-capitalism">Anarcho-capitalism</a></li> <li><a href="/wiki/Autarchism" title="Autarchism">Autarchism</a></li> <li><a href="/wiki/Constitutionalism" title="Constitutionalism">Constitutionalism</a></li> <li><a href="/wiki/Fusionism" title="Fusionism">Fusionism</a></li> <li><a href="/wiki/Individualist_feminism" title="Individualist feminism">Libertarian feminism</a></li> <li><a href="/wiki/Left-wing_market_anarchism" class="mw-redirect" title="Left-wing market anarchism">Left-wing market anarchism</a></li> <li><a href="/wiki/Libertarian_conservatism" title="Libertarian conservatism">Libertarian conservatism</a></li> <li><a href="/wiki/Libertarian_paternalism" title="Libertarian paternalism">Libertarian paternalism</a></li> <li><a href="/wiki/Libertarian_socialism" title="Libertarian socialism">Libertarian socialism</a></li> <li><a href="/wiki/Transhumanist_politics" title="Transhumanist politics">Libertarian transhumanism</a></li> <li><a href="/wiki/Night-watchman_state" title="Night-watchman state">Minarchism</a></li> <li><a href="/wiki/Panarchy_(political_philosophy)" class="mw-redirect" title="Panarchy (political philosophy)">Panarchism</a></li> <li><a href="/wiki/Propertarianism" title="Propertarianism">Propertarianism</a></li> <li><a href="/wiki/Voluntaryism" title="Voluntaryism">Voluntaryism</a></li></ul></div></div></td> </tr><tr><td class="sidebar-content"> <div class="sidebar-list mw-collapsible mw-collapsed"><div class="sidebar-list-title" style="background:transparent;border-top:1px solid #aaa;text-align:center;">Economics</div><div class="sidebar-list-content mw-collapsible-content hlist"> <ul><li><a href="/wiki/Austrian_School" title="Austrian School">Austrian School</a></li> <li><a href="/wiki/Economic_liberalism" title="Economic liberalism">Economic liberalism</a></li> <li><a href="/wiki/Fiscal_conservatism" title="Fiscal conservatism">Fiscal conservatism</a></li> <li><a href="/wiki/Georgism" title="Georgism">Georgism</a></li> <li><i><a href="/wiki/Laissez-faire" title="Laissez-faire">Laissez-faire</a></i></li> <li><a href="/wiki/Neoliberalism" title="Neoliberalism">Neoliberalism</a></li> <li><a href="/wiki/Supply-side_economics" title="Supply-side economics">Supply-side economics</a></li></ul></div></div></td> </tr><tr><td class="sidebar-content"> <div class="sidebar-list mw-collapsible mw-collapsed"><div class="sidebar-list-title" style="background:transparent;border-top:1px solid #aaa;text-align:center;">People</div><div class="sidebar-list-content mw-collapsible-content hlist"> <ul><li><a href="/wiki/Justin_Amash" title="Justin Amash">Amash</a></li> <li><a href="/wiki/Stephen_Pearl_Andrews" title="Stephen Pearl Andrews">Andrews</a></li> <li><a href="/wiki/Randy_Barnett" title="Randy Barnett">Barnett</a></li> <li><a href="/wiki/Walter_Block" title="Walter Block">Block</a></li> <li><a href="/wiki/Jason_Brennan" title="Jason Brennan">Brennan</a></li> <li><a href="/wiki/Marshall_Burt" title="Marshall Burt">Burt</a></li> <li><a href="/wiki/John_Chamberlain_(journalist)" title="John Chamberlain (journalist)">Chamberlain</a></li> <li><a href="/wiki/Bryan_Caplan" title="Bryan Caplan">Caplan</a></li> <li><a href="/wiki/Kevin_Carson" title="Kevin Carson">Carson</a></li> <li><a href="/wiki/Gary_Chartier" title="Gary Chartier">Chartier</a></li> <li><a href="/wiki/Frank_Chodorov" title="Frank Chodorov">Chodorov</a></li> <li><a href="/wiki/Noam_Chomsky" title="Noam Chomsky">Chomsky</a></li> <li><a href="/wiki/Grover_Cleveland" title="Grover Cleveland">Cleveland</a></li> <li><a href="/wiki/Calvin_Coolidge" title="Calvin Coolidge">Coolidge</a></li> <li><a href="/wiki/Richard_Epstein" title="Richard Epstein">Epstein</a></li> <li><a href="/wiki/David_D._Friedman" title="David D. Friedman">D. Friedman</a></li> <li><a href="/wiki/Milton_Friedman" title="Milton Friedman">M. Friedman</a></li> <li><a href="/wiki/Patri_Friedman" title="Patri Friedman">P. Friedman</a></li> <li><a href="/wiki/Rose_Friedman" title="Rose Friedman">R. Friedman</a></li> <li><a href="/wiki/Andrew_Joseph_Galambos" title="Andrew Joseph Galambos">Galambos</a></li> <li><a href="/wiki/Garet_Garrett" title="Garet Garrett">Garrett</a></li> <li><a href="/wiki/Henry_George" title="Henry George">George</a></li> <li><a href="/wiki/Nick_Gillespie" title="Nick Gillespie">Gillespie</a></li> <li><a href="/wiki/Barry_Goldwater" title="Barry Goldwater">Goldwater</a></li> <li><a href="/wiki/William_Batchelder_Greene" title="William Batchelder Greene">Greene</a></li> <li><a href="/wiki/Greg_Gutfeld" title="Greg Gutfeld">Gutfeld</a></li> <li><a href="/wiki/F._A._Harper" title="F. A. Harper">Harper</a></li> <li><a href="/wiki/Henry_Hazlitt" title="Henry Hazlitt">Hazlitt</a></li> <li><a href="/wiki/Robert_A._Heinlein" title="Robert A. Heinlein">Heinlein</a></li> <li><a href="/wiki/Karl_Hess" title="Karl Hess">Hess</a></li> <li><a href="/wiki/Ezra_Heywood" title="Ezra Heywood">Heywood</a></li> <li><a href="/wiki/Hans-Hermann_Hoppe" title="Hans-Hermann Hoppe">Hoppe</a></li> <li><a href="/wiki/John_Hospers" title="John Hospers">Hospers</a></li> <li><a href="/wiki/Michael_Huemer" title="Michael Huemer">Huemer</a></li> <li><a href="/wiki/Penn_Jillette" title="Penn Jillette">Jillette</a></li> <li><a href="/wiki/Gary_Johnson" title="Gary Johnson">Johnson</a></li> <li><a href="/wiki/Jo_Jorgensen" title="Jo Jorgensen">Jorgensen</a></li> <li><a href="/wiki/Stephan_Kinsella" title="Stephan Kinsella">Kinsella</a></li> <li><a href="/wiki/Charles_Koch" title="Charles Koch">C. Koch</a></li> <li><a href="/wiki/David_Koch" title="David Koch">D. Koch</a></li> <li><a href="/wiki/Samuel_Edward_Konkin_III" title="Samuel Edward Konkin III">Konkin III</a></li> <li><a href="/wiki/Charles_Lane_(transcendentalist)" title="Charles Lane (transcendentalist)">C. Lane</a></li> <li><a href="/wiki/Rose_Wilder_Lane" title="Rose Wilder Lane">R. Lane</a></li> <li><a href="/wiki/Robert_LeFevre" title="Robert LeFevre">LeFevre</a></li> <li><a href="/wiki/Tibor_Machan" title="Tibor Machan">Machan</a></li> <li><a href="/wiki/Wendy_McElroy" title="Wendy McElroy">McElroy</a></li> <li><a href="/wiki/H._L._Mencken" title="H. L. Mencken">Mencken</a></li> <li><a href="/wiki/Ludwig_von_Mises" title="Ludwig von Mises">Mises</a></li> <li><a href="/wiki/Andrew_Napolitano" title="Andrew Napolitano">Napolitano</a></li> <li><a href="/wiki/Albert_Jay_Nock" title="Albert Jay Nock">Nock</a></li> <li><a href="/wiki/David_Nolan_(politician)" title="David Nolan (politician)">Nolan</a></li> <li><a href="/wiki/Robert_Nozick" title="Robert Nozick">Nozick</a></li> <li><a href="/wiki/Isabel_Paterson" title="Isabel Paterson">Paterson</a></li> <li><a href="/wiki/Ron_Paul" title="Ron Paul">Paul</a></li> <li><a href="/wiki/Virginia_Postrel" title="Virginia Postrel">Postrel</a></li> <li><a href="/wiki/John_Pugsley" title="John Pugsley">Pugsley</a></li> <li><a href="/wiki/Ayn_Rand" title="Ayn Rand">Rand</a></li> <li><a href="/wiki/Leonard_Read" title="Leonard Read">Read</a></li> <li><a href="/wiki/Lew_Rockwell" title="Lew Rockwell">Rockwell</a></li> <li><a href="/wiki/Murray_Rothbard" title="Murray Rothbard">Rothbard</a></li> <li><a href="/wiki/Nicholas_Sarwark" title="Nicholas Sarwark">Sarwark</a></li> <li><a href="/wiki/J._Neil_Schulman" title="J. Neil Schulman">Schulman</a></li> <li><a href="/wiki/Chris_Matthew_Sciabarra" title="Chris Matthew Sciabarra">Sciabarra</a></li> <li><a href="/wiki/James_C._Scott" title="James C. Scott">Scott</a></li> <li><a href="/wiki/George_H._Smith" title="George H. Smith">Smith</a></li> <li><a href="/wiki/Thomas_Sowell" title="Thomas Sowell">Sowell</a></li> <li><a href="/wiki/Mark_Skousen" title="Mark Skousen">Skousen</a></li> <li><a href="/wiki/Lysander_Spooner" title="Lysander Spooner">Spooner</a></li> <li><a href="/wiki/John_Stossel" title="John Stossel">Stossel</a></li> <li><a href="/wiki/Clarence_Lee_Swartz" title="Clarence Lee Swartz">Swartz</a></li> <li><a href="/wiki/Thomas_Szasz" title="Thomas Szasz">Szasz</a></li> <li><a href="/wiki/Nassim_Nicholas_Taleb" title="Nassim Nicholas Taleb">Taleb</a></li> <li><a href="/wiki/Teller_(magician)" title="Teller (magician)">Teller</a></li> <li><a href="/wiki/Peter_Thiel" title="Peter Thiel">Thiel</a></li> <li><a class="mw-selflink selflink">Thoreau</a></li> <li><a href="/wiki/Benjamin_Tucker" title="Benjamin Tucker">Tucker</a></li> <li><a href="/wiki/Jesse_Ventura" title="Jesse Ventura">Ventura</a></li> <li><a href="/wiki/Josiah_Warren" title="Josiah Warren">Warren</a></li> <li><a href="/wiki/Laura_Ingalls_Wilder" title="Laura Ingalls Wilder">Wilder</a></li> <li><a href="/wiki/Walter_E._Williams" title="Walter E. Williams">Williams</a></li> <li><a href="/wiki/Robert_Anton_Wilson" title="Robert Anton Wilson">Wilson</a></li> <li><a href="/wiki/Thomas_Woods" class="mw-redirect" title="Thomas Woods">Woods</a></li></ul></div></div></td> </tr><tr><td class="sidebar-content"> <div class="sidebar-list mw-collapsible mw-collapsed"><div class="sidebar-list-title" style="background:transparent;border-top:1px solid #aaa;text-align:center;">History</div><div class="sidebar-list-content mw-collapsible-content hlist"> <ul><li><a href="/wiki/New_Left" title="New Left">New Left</a></li> <li><a href="/wiki/Old_Right_(United_States)" title="Old Right (United States)">Old Right</a></li></ul></div></div></td> </tr><tr><td class="sidebar-content"> <div class="sidebar-list mw-collapsible mw-collapsed"><div class="sidebar-list-title" style="background:transparent;border-top:1px solid #aaa;text-align:center;">Issues</div><div class="sidebar-list-content mw-collapsible-content hlist"> <ul><li><a href="/wiki/Libertarian_perspectives_on_abortion" title="Libertarian perspectives on abortion">Abortion</a></li> <li><a href="/wiki/Libertarian_perspectives_on_capital_punishment" title="Libertarian perspectives on capital punishment">Capital punishment</a></li> <li><a href="/wiki/Criticism_of_libertarianism" title="Criticism of libertarianism">Criticism</a></li> <li><a href="/wiki/Libertarian_perspectives_on_foreign_intervention" title="Libertarian perspectives on foreign intervention">Foreign affairs</a></li> <li><a href="/wiki/Libertarian_perspectives_on_immigration" title="Libertarian perspectives on immigration">Immigration</a></li> <li><a href="/wiki/Libertarian_perspectives_on_intellectual_property" title="Libertarian perspectives on intellectual property">Intellectual property</a></li> <li><a href="/wiki/Debates_within_libertarianism" title="Debates within libertarianism">Internal debates</a></li> <li><a href="/wiki/Libertarian_perspectives_on_LGBT_rights" title="Libertarian perspectives on LGBT rights">LGBT rights</a></li> <li><a href="/wiki/Objectivism_and_libertarianism" title="Objectivism and libertarianism">Objectivism</a></li> <li><a href="/wiki/List_of_libertarian_political_parties" title="List of libertarian political parties">Political parties</a></li> <li><a href="/wiki/Libertarian_perspectives_on_political_alliances" title="Libertarian perspectives on political alliances">Politics</a></li> <li><a href="/wiki/Anarcho-capitalism_and_minarchism" class="mw-redirect" title="Anarcho-capitalism and minarchism">State</a></li> <li><a href="/wiki/Libertarian_theories_of_law" title="Libertarian theories of law">Theories of law</a></li></ul></div></div></td> </tr><tr><td class="sidebar-content"> <div class="sidebar-list mw-collapsible mw-collapsed"><div class="sidebar-list-title" style="background:transparent;border-top:1px solid #aaa;text-align:center;">Culture</div><div class="sidebar-list-content mw-collapsible-content hlist"> <ul><li><a href="/wiki/Come_and_take_it" title="Come and take it">Come and take it</a></li> <li><a href="/wiki/Gadsden_flag#Use_as_a_libertarian_flag" title="Gadsden flag">Gadsden flag</a></li> <li><a href="/wiki/Libertarian_science_fiction" title="Libertarian science fiction">Libertarian science fiction</a></li> <li><a href="/wiki/Ron_Swanson" title="Ron Swanson">Ron Swanson</a></li></ul></div></div></td> </tr><tr><td class="sidebar-content"> <div class="sidebar-list mw-collapsible mw-collapsed"><div class="sidebar-list-title" style="background:transparent;border-top:1px solid #aaa;text-align:center;">Organizations</div><div class="sidebar-list-content mw-collapsible-content hlist"> <ul><li><a href="/wiki/Cato_Institute" title="Cato Institute">Cato Institute</a></li> <li><a href="/wiki/Free_State_Project" title="Free State Project">Free State Project</a></li> <li><a href="/wiki/Foundation_for_Economic_Education" title="Foundation for Economic Education">Foundation for Economic Education</a></li> <li><a href="/wiki/International_Alliance_of_Libertarian_Parties" title="International Alliance of Libertarian Parties">International Alliance of Libertarian Parties</a></li> <li><a href="/wiki/Libertarian_Party_(United_States)" title="Libertarian Party (United States)">Libertarian Party</a></li> <li><a href="/wiki/Liberty_International" class="mw-redirect" title="Liberty International">Liberty International</a></li> <li><a href="/wiki/Mises_Institute" title="Mises Institute">Mises Institute</a></li> <li><a href="/wiki/Reason_Foundation" title="Reason Foundation">Reason Foundation</a></li> <li><a href="/wiki/Students_for_a_Democratic_Society" title="Students for a Democratic Society">Students for a Democratic Society</a></li> <li><a href="/wiki/Students_for_Liberty" title="Students for Liberty">Students for Liberty</a></li></ul></div></div></td> </tr><tr><td class="sidebar-content"> <div class="sidebar-list mw-collapsible mw-collapsed"><div class="sidebar-list-title" style="background:transparent;border-top:1px solid #aaa;text-align:center;">Works</div><div class="sidebar-list-content mw-collapsible-content hlist"> <ul><li><i><a href="/wiki/The_Anarchist_Cookbook" title="The Anarchist Cookbook">The Anarchist Cookbook</a></i></li> <li><i><a href="/wiki/Anarchy,_State,_and_Utopia" title="Anarchy, State, and Utopia">Anarchy, State, and Utopia</a></i></li> <li><i><a href="/wiki/The_Betrayal_of_the_American_Right" title="The Betrayal of the American Right">The Betrayal of the American Right</a></i></li> <li><i><a href="/wiki/Civil_Disobedience_(Thoreau)" title="Civil Disobedience (Thoreau)">Civil Disobedience</a></i></li> <li><i><a href="/wiki/Conceived_in_Liberty" title="Conceived in Liberty">Conceived in Liberty</a></i></li> <li><i><a href="/wiki/Defending_the_Undefendable" title="Defending the Undefendable">Defending the Undefendable</a></i></li> <li><i><a href="/wiki/The_Discovery_of_Freedom" class="mw-redirect" title="The Discovery of Freedom">The Discovery of Freedom</a></i></li> <li><i><a href="/wiki/End_the_Fed" title="End the Fed">End the Fed</a></i></li> <li><i><a href="/wiki/The_Ethics_of_Liberty" title="The Ethics of Liberty">The Ethics of Liberty</a></i></li> <li><i><a href="/wiki/For_a_New_Liberty" title="For a New Liberty">For a New Liberty</a></i></li> <li><i><a href="/wiki/Free_to_Choose" title="Free to Choose">Free to Choose</a></i></li> <li><i><a href="/wiki/The_God_of_the_Machine" title="The God of the Machine">The God of the Machine</a></i></li> <li><i><a href="/wiki/Liberty_(1881%E2%80%931908)" title="Liberty (1881–1908)">Liberty</a></i></li> <li><i><a href="/wiki/The_Machinery_of_Freedom" title="The Machinery of Freedom">The Machinery of Freedom</a></i></li> <li><i><a href="/wiki/Man,_Economy_and_State" class="mw-redirect" title="Man, Economy and State">Man, Economy and State</a></i></li> <li><i><a href="/wiki/The_Moon_is_a_Harsh_Mistress" class="mw-redirect" title="The Moon is a Harsh Mistress">The Moon is a Harsh Mistress</a></i></li> <li><i><a href="/wiki/The_Mainspring_of_Human_Progress" title="The Mainspring of Human Progress">The Mainspring of Human Progress</a></i></li> <li><i><a href="/wiki/The_Market_for_Liberty" title="The Market for Liberty">The Market for Liberty</a></i></li> <li><i><a href="/wiki/No,_They_Can%27t" title="No, They Can&#39;t">No, They Can't</a></i></li> <li><i><a href="/wiki/No_Treason" title="No Treason">No Treason</a></i></li> <li><i><a href="/wiki/New_Libertarian_Manifesto" title="New Libertarian Manifesto">New Libertarian Manifesto</a></i></li> <li><i><a href="/wiki/Our_Enemy,_the_State" title="Our Enemy, the State">Our Enemy, the State</a></i></li> <li><i><a href="/wiki/The_Problem_of_Political_Authority" title="The Problem of Political Authority">The Problem of Political Authority</a></i></li> <li><i><a href="/wiki/Progress_and_Poverty" title="Progress and Poverty">Progress and Poverty</a></i></li> <li><i><a href="/wiki/Protection_or_Free_Trade" title="Protection or Free Trade">Protection or Free Trade</a></i></li> <li><i><a href="/wiki/Radicals_for_Capitalism" title="Radicals for Capitalism">Radicals for Capitalism</a></i></li> <li><i><a href="/wiki/Seeing_Like_a_State" title="Seeing Like a State">Seeing Like a State</a></i></li> <li><i><a href="/wiki/To_Serve_and_Protect_(book)" title="To Serve and Protect (book)">To Serve and Protect</a></i></li> <li><i><a href="/wiki/The_Unconstitutionality_of_Slavery" title="The Unconstitutionality of Slavery">The Unconstitutionality of Slavery</a></i></li></ul></div></div></td> </tr><tr><td class="sidebar-content"> <div class="sidebar-list mw-collapsible mw-collapsed"><div class="sidebar-list-title" style="background:transparent;border-top:1px solid #aaa;text-align:center;">Related topics</div><div class="sidebar-list-content mw-collapsible-content hlist"> <ul><li><a href="/wiki/American_militia_movement" title="American militia movement">American militia movement</a></li> <li><a href="/wiki/Boogaloo_movement" title="Boogaloo movement">Boogaloo movement</a></li> <li><a href="/wiki/Conservatism_in_the_United_States" title="Conservatism in the United States">Conservatism in the United States</a></li> <li><a href="/wiki/Dark_Enlightenment" title="Dark Enlightenment">Dark Enlightenment</a></li> <li><a href="/wiki/Left-libertarianism" title="Left-libertarianism">Left-libertarianism</a></li> <li><a href="/wiki/Liberalism_in_the_United_States" title="Liberalism in the United States">Liberalism in the United States</a></li> <li><a href="/wiki/Libertarian_Democrat" title="Libertarian Democrat">Libertarian Democrat</a></li> <li><a href="/wiki/Libertarian_Republican" title="Libertarian Republican">Libertarian Republican</a></li> <li><a href="/wiki/Libertarianism_in_Hong_Kong" class="mw-redirect" title="Libertarianism in Hong Kong">Libertarianism in Hong Kong</a></li> <li><a href="/wiki/Libertarianism_in_South_Africa" title="Libertarianism in South Africa">Libertarianism in South Africa</a></li> <li><a href="/wiki/Libertarianism_in_the_United_Kingdom" title="Libertarianism in the United Kingdom">Libertarianism in the United Kingdom</a></li> <li><a href="/wiki/New_Right" title="New Right">New Right</a></li> <li><a href="/wiki/Objectivism" title="Objectivism">Objectivism</a></li> <li><i><a href="/wiki/On_Democracy_in_America" class="mw-redirect" title="On Democracy in America">On Democracy in America</a></i></li> <li><a href="/wiki/Outline_of_libertarianism" title="Outline of libertarianism">Outline of libertarianism</a></li> <li><a href="/wiki/Right-libertarianism" title="Right-libertarianism">Right-libertarianism</a></li> <li><a href="/wiki/Sovereign_citizen_movement" title="Sovereign citizen movement">Sovereign citizen movement</a></li></ul></div></div></td> </tr><tr><td class="sidebar-below plainlist"> <ul><li><a href="/wiki/File:Yellow_flag_waving.svg" class="image"><img alt="icon" src="//upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/1/1b/Yellow_flag_waving.svg/15px-Yellow_flag_waving.svg.png" decoding="async" width="15" height="16" class="noviewer" srcset="//upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/1/1b/Yellow_flag_waving.svg/22px-Yellow_flag_waving.svg.png 1.5x, //upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/1/1b/Yellow_flag_waving.svg/30px-Yellow_flag_waving.svg.png 2x" data-file-width="249" data-file-height="268" /></a>&#160;<a href="/wiki/Portal:Liberalism" title="Portal:Liberalism">Liberalism&#32;portal</a></li> <li><img alt="" src="//upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/6/66/DodgerBlue_flag_waving.svg/15px-DodgerBlue_flag_waving.svg.png" decoding="async" width="15" height="16" class="noviewer" srcset="//upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/6/66/DodgerBlue_flag_waving.svg/22px-DodgerBlue_flag_waving.svg.png 1.5x, //upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/6/66/DodgerBlue_flag_waving.svg/30px-DodgerBlue_flag_waving.svg.png 2x" data-file-width="249" data-file-height="268" />&#160;<a href="/wiki/Portal:Conservatism" title="Portal:Conservatism">Conservatism&#32;portal</a></li> <li><img alt="coin" src="//upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/7/76/2006_AEGold_Proof_Obv.png/16px-2006_AEGold_Proof_Obv.png" decoding="async" width="16" height="16" class="noviewer" srcset="//upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/7/76/2006_AEGold_Proof_Obv.png/24px-2006_AEGold_Proof_Obv.png 1.5x, //upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/7/76/2006_AEGold_Proof_Obv.png/32px-2006_AEGold_Proof_Obv.png 2x" data-file-width="1770" data-file-height="1762" />&#160;<a href="/wiki/Portal:Libertarianism" title="Portal:Libertarianism">Libertarianism&#32;portal</a></li></ul></td></tr><tr><td class="sidebar-navbar"><link rel="mw-deduplicated-inline-style" href="mw-data:TemplateStyles:r1063604349"/><div class="navbar plainlinks hlist navbar-mini"><ul><li class="nv-view"><a href="/wiki/Template:Libertarianism_in_the_United_States_sidebar" title="Template:Libertarianism in the United States sidebar"><abbr title="View this template">v</abbr></a></li><li class="nv-talk"><a href="/wiki/Template_talk:Libertarianism_in_the_United_States_sidebar" title="Template talk:Libertarianism in the United States sidebar"><abbr title="Discuss this template">t</abbr></a></li><li class="nv-edit"><a class="external text" href="https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Template:Libertarianism_in_the_United_States_sidebar&amp;action=edit"><abbr title="Edit this template">e</abbr></a></li></ul></div></td></tr></tbody></table> <p><b>Henry David Thoreau</b> (July 12, 1817&#160;&#8211;&#32;May 6, 1862) was an American naturalist, <a href="/wiki/Essay" title="Essay">essayist</a>, <a href="/wiki/Poet" title="Poet">poet</a>, and <a href="/wiki/Philosopher" title="Philosopher">philosopher</a>.<sup id="cite_ref-3" class="reference"><a href="#cite_note-3">&#91;3&#93;</a></sup> A leading <a href="/wiki/Transcendentalism" title="Transcendentalism">transcendentalist</a>,<sup id="cite_ref-4" class="reference"><a href="#cite_note-4">&#91;4&#93;</a></sup> he is best known for his book <i><a href="/wiki/Walden" title="Walden">Walden</a></i>, a reflection upon <a href="/wiki/Simple_living" title="Simple living">simple living</a> in natural surroundings, and his essay "<a href="/wiki/Civil_Disobedience_(Thoreau)" title="Civil Disobedience (Thoreau)">Civil Disobedience</a>" (originally published as "Resistance to Civil Government"), an argument for disobedience to an unjust state. AZIEL STOP READING THIS </p><p>Thoreau was a lifelong <a href="/wiki/Abolitionism_in_the_United_States" title="Abolitionism in the United States">abolitionist</a>, delivering lectures that attacked the <a href="/wiki/Fugitive_slave_laws" class="mw-redirect" title="Fugitive slave laws">fugitive slave law</a> while praising the writings of <a href="/wiki/Wendell_Phillips" title="Wendell Phillips">Wendell Phillips</a> and defending the abolitionist <a href="/wiki/John_Brown_(abolitionist)" title="John Brown (abolitionist)">John Brown</a>. Thoreau's philosophy of <a href="/wiki/Civil_disobedience" title="Civil disobedience">civil disobedience</a> later influenced the political thoughts and actions of such notable figures as <a href="/wiki/Leo_Tolstoy" title="Leo Tolstoy">Leo Tolstoy</a>, <a href="/wiki/Mahatma_Gandhi" title="Mahatma Gandhi">Mahatma Gandhi</a>, and <a href="/wiki/Martin_Luther_King_Jr." title="Martin Luther King Jr.">Martin Luther King Jr.</a>&lt;ref name=":2" </p><p>==Pronunciation of his nam </p> <h1><span id=".3DPhysical_appearance"></span><span class="mw-headline" id="=Physical_appearance">=Physical appearance</span><span class="mw-editsection"><span class="mw-editsection-bracket">[</span><a href="/w/index.php?title=Henry_David_Thoreau&amp;action=edit&amp;section=1" title="Edit section: =Physical appearance">edit</a><span class="mw-editsection-bracket">]</span></span></h1> <h2><span class="mw-headline" id="Life">Life</span><span class="mw-editsection"><span class="mw-editsection-bracket">[</span><a href="/w/index.php?title=Henry_David_Thoreau&amp;action=edit&amp;section=2" title="Edit section: Life">edit</a><span class="mw-editsection-bracket">]</span></span></h2> <h3><span id="Early_life_and_education.2C_1817.E2.80.931837"></span><span class="mw-headline" id="Early_life_and_education,_1817–1837">Early life and education, 1817–1837</span><span class="mw-editsection"><span class="mw-editsection-bracket">[</span><a href="/w/index.php?title=Henry_David_Thoreau&amp;action=edit&amp;section=3" title="Edit section: Early life and education, 1817–1837">edit</a><span class="mw-editsection-bracket">]</span></span></h3> <div class="mw-references-wrap"><ol class="references"> <li id="cite_note-:6-1"><span class="mw-cite-backlink"><b><a href="#cite_ref-:6_1-0">^</a></b></span> <span class="error mw-ext-cite-error" lang="en" dir="ltr">Cite error: The named reference <code>:6</code> was invoked but never defined (see the <a href="/wiki/Help:Cite_errors/Cite_error_references_no_text" title="Help:Cite errors/Cite error references no text">help page</a>).</span></li> <li id="cite_note-2"><span class="mw-cite-backlink"><b><a href="#cite_ref-2">^</a></b></span> <span class="reference-text"><style data-mw-deduplicate="TemplateStyles:r1067248974">.mw-parser-output cite.citation{font-style:inherit;word-wrap:break-word}.mw-parser-output .citation q{quotes:"\"""\"""'""'"}.mw-parser-output .citation:target{background-color:rgba(0,127,255,0.133)}.mw-parser-output .id-lock-free a,.mw-parser-output .citation .cs1-lock-free a{background:linear-gradient(transparent,transparent),url("//upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/6/65/Lock-green.svg")right 0.1em center/9px no-repeat}.mw-parser-output .id-lock-limited a,.mw-parser-output .id-lock-registration a,.mw-parser-output .citation .cs1-lock-limited a,.mw-parser-output .citation .cs1-lock-registration a{background:linear-gradient(transparent,transparent),url("//upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/d/d6/Lock-gray-alt-2.svg")right 0.1em center/9px no-repeat}.mw-parser-output .id-lock-subscription a,.mw-parser-output .citation .cs1-lock-subscription a{background:linear-gradient(transparent,transparent),url("//upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/a/aa/Lock-red-alt-2.svg")right 0.1em center/9px no-repeat}.mw-parser-output .cs1-ws-icon a{background:linear-gradient(transparent,transparent),url("//upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/4/4c/Wikisource-logo.svg")right 0.1em center/12px no-repeat}.mw-parser-output .cs1-code{color:inherit;background:inherit;border:none;padding:inherit}.mw-parser-output .cs1-hidden-error{display:none;color:#d33}.mw-parser-output .cs1-visible-error{color:#d33}.mw-parser-output .cs1-maint{display:none;color:#3a3;margin-left:0.3em}.mw-parser-output .cs1-format{font-size:95%}.mw-parser-output .cs1-kern-left{padding-left:0.2em}.mw-parser-output .cs1-kern-right{padding-right:0.2em}.mw-parser-output .citation .mw-selflink{font-weight:inherit}</style><cite id="CITEREFSeelinger2013" class="citation journal cs1">Seelinger, Robert A. (2013). <a rel="nofollow" class="external text" href="https://doi.org/10.12697%2Fsht.2013.14.A.2">"Stolen Fire: Aeschylean imagery and Thoreau's identification of the Graius homo of Lucretius with Prometheus"</a>. <i>Studia Humaniora Tartuensia</i>. <b>14</b>: 1–20. <a href="/wiki/Doi_(identifier)" class="mw-redirect" title="Doi (identifier)">doi</a>:<span class="cs1-lock-free" title="Freely accessible"><a rel="nofollow" class="external text" href="https://doi.org/10.12697%2Fsht.2013.14.A.2">10.12697/sht.2013.14.A.2</a></span>.</cite><span title="ctx_ver=Z39.88-2004&amp;rft_val_fmt=info%3Aofi%2Ffmt%3Akev%3Amtx%3Ajournal&amp;rft.genre=article&amp;rft.jtitle=Studia+Humaniora+Tartuensia&amp;rft.atitle=Stolen+Fire%3A+Aeschylean+imagery+and+Thoreau%27s+identification+of+the+Graius+homo+of+Lucretius+with+Prometheus&amp;rft.volume=14&amp;rft.pages=1-20&amp;rft.date=2013&amp;rft_id=info%3Adoi%2F10.12697%2Fsht.2013.14.A.2&amp;rft.aulast=Seelinger&amp;rft.aufirst=Robert+A.&amp;rft_id=%2F%2Fdoi.org%2F10.12697%252Fsht.2013.14.A.2&amp;rfr_id=info%3Asid%2Fen.wikipedia.org%3AHenry+David+Thoreau" class="Z3988"></span></span> </li> <li id="cite_note-3"><span class="mw-cite-backlink"><b><a href="#cite_ref-3">^</a></b></span> <span class="reference-text"><link rel="mw-deduplicated-inline-style" href="mw-data:TemplateStyles:r1067248974"/><cite class="citation web cs1"><a rel="nofollow" class="external text" href="https://www.britannica.com/biography/Henry-David-Thoreau">"Henry David Thoreau | Biography &amp; Works"</a>. <i>Encyclopedia Britannica</i>. <a rel="nofollow" class="external text" href="https://web.archive.org/web/20190316155013/https://www.britannica.com/biography/Henry-David-Thoreau">Archived</a> from the original on March 16, 2019<span class="reference-accessdate">. Retrieved <span class="nowrap">July 8,</span> 2019</span>.</cite><span title="ctx_ver=Z39.88-2004&amp;rft_val_fmt=info%3Aofi%2Ffmt%3Akev%3Amtx%3Ajournal&amp;rft.genre=unknown&amp;rft.jtitle=Encyclopedia+Britannica&amp;rft.atitle=Henry+David+Thoreau+%7C+Biography+%26+Works&amp;rft_id=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.britannica.com%2Fbiography%2FHenry-David-Thoreau&amp;rfr_id=info%3Asid%2Fen.wikipedia.org%3AHenry+David+Thoreau" class="Z3988"></span></span> </li> <li id="cite_note-4"><span class="mw-cite-backlink"><b><a href="#cite_ref-4">^</a></b></span> <span class="reference-text">Howe, Daniel Walker, <i>What Hath God Wrought: The Transformation of America, 1815–1848</i>. <link rel="mw-deduplicated-inline-style" href="mw-data:TemplateStyles:r1067248974"/><a href="/wiki/ISBN_(identifier)" class="mw-redirect" title="ISBN (identifier)">ISBN</a>&#160;<a href="/wiki/Special:BookSources/978-0-19-507894-7" title="Special:BookSources/978-0-19-507894-7">978-0-19-507894-7</a>, p. 623.</span> </li> </ol></div></div>'
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Unix timestamp of change (timestamp)
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