Henry David Thoreau
1 book analyzed
Biography
Henry David Thoreau (1817-1862) was born and died in Concord, Massachusetts — a man whose entire life was conducted within a few miles of his birthplace, yet whose imagination ranged globally. He attended Harvard (class of 1837) despite his family's modest means, returned to Concord, and spent the rest of his life doing odd jobs (surveying, pencil-making in the family business, handyman work) while writing, walking, and thinking. He was close friends with Ralph Waldo Emerson, who gave him the Walden Pond land and opened his library and intellectual circle to him. Thoreau moved to the Walden cabin on July 4, 1845 — the date deliberately chosen to signify personal independence — and left September 6, 1847. During his time at the pond he was jailed one night (1846) for refusing to pay the poll tax, an act he wrote about in 'Resistance to Civil Government' (1849). Walden was published in 1854 — seven years after he left the pond — and sold moderately well in his lifetime. He died of tuberculosis at 44, regarded locally as an eccentric and nationally as a minor follower of Emerson. His global influence came posthumously.