Henry David Thoreau (Author of Walden or, Life in the Woods)

more photos (1)

Henry David Thoreau鈥檚 Followers (6,530)

Add New
Videos

1 comment

Add a comment

Henry David Thoreau

Born

in Concord, Massachusetts, The United States

July 12, 1817

Died

May 06, 1862

Website

Genre

Philosophy, Biographies & Memoirs, Nonfiction

Influences

Robert Ingersoll, Charles Darwin, John Burroughs, Ralph Waldo Emerson, ...more

edit data

Henry David Thoreau (born David Henry Thoreau) was an American author, naturalist, transcendentalist, tax resister, development critic, philosopher, and abolitionist who is best known for Walden, a reflection upon simple living in natural surroundings, and his essay, Civil Disobedience, an argument for individual resistance to civil government in moral opposition to an unjust state.

Thoreau's books, articles, essays, journals, and poetry total over 20 volumes. Among his lasting contributions were his writings on natural history and philosophy, where he anticipated the methods and findings of ecology and environmental history, two sources of modern day environmentalism.

In 1817, Henry David Thoreau was born in Massachusetts. He graduated from Henry David Thoreau (born David Henry Thoreau) was an American author, naturalist, transcendentalist, tax resister, development critic, philosopher, and abolitionist who is best known for Walden, a reflection upon simple living in natural surroundings, and his essay, Civil Disobedience, an argument for individual resistance to civil government in moral opposition to an unjust state.

Thoreau's books, articles, essays, journals, and poetry total over 20 volumes. Among his lasting contributions were his writings on natural history and philosophy, where he anticipated the methods and findings of ecology and environmental history, two sources of modern day environmentalism.

In 1817, Henry David Thoreau was born in Massachusetts. He graduated from Harvard University in 1837, taught briefly, then turned to writing and lecturing. Becoming a Transcendentalist and good friend of Emerson, Thoreau lived the life of simplicity he advocated in his writings. His two-year experience in a hut in Walden, on land owned by Emerson, resulted in the classic, Walden: Life in the Woods (1854). During his sojourn there, Thoreau refused to pay a poll tax in protest of slavery and the Mexican war, for which he was jailed overnight. His activist convictions were expressed in the groundbreaking On the Duty of Civil Disobedience (1849). In a diary he noted his disapproval of attempts to convert the Algonquins "from their own superstitions to new ones." In a journal he noted dryly that it is appropriate for a church to be the ugliest building in a village, "because it is the one in which human nature stoops to the lowest and is the most disgraced." (Cited by James A. Haught in 2000 Years of Disbelief.) When Parker Pillsbury sought to talk about religion with Thoreau as he was dying from tuberculosis, Thoreau replied: "One world at a time."

Thoreau's philosophy of nonviolent resistance influenced the political thoughts and actions of such later figures as Leo Tolstoy, Mohandas K. Gandhi, and Martin Luther King, Jr. D. 1862.

More:

...more

Combine Editions
Henry David Thoreau鈥檚 books

Average rating: 3.84 · 317,187 ratings · 15,715 reviews · 2,226 distinct works 鈥� Similar authors

	Walden or, Life in the Woods 3.78 avg rating — 199,820 ratings — published 1854 — 3717 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	Walden & Civil Disobedience by Henry David Thoreau, W.S. Merwin (Introduction) 3.94 avg rating — 38,614 ratings — published 1849 — 967 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	Civil Disobedience 3.94 avg rating — 18,806 ratings — published 1849 — 31 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	Civil Disobedience and Other Essays 4.06 avg rating — 17,548 ratings — published 1866 — 4 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	Walking 3.74 avg rating — 10,536 ratings — published 1861 — 345 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	Walden and Other Writings by Henry David Thoreau, Peter Matthiessen, Ralph Waldo Emerson (Introduction) 3.95 avg rating — 4,835 ratings — published 1854 — 37 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	Henry David Thoreau: A Week, Walden, The Maine Woods, Cape Cod 4.23 avg rating — 2,197 ratings — published 1849 — 8 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	Thoughts from Walden Pond by Henry David Thoreau, Charles Gurche (Photographer), Dona Budd 3.76 avg rating — 2,167 ratings — published 1998	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	The Maine Woods by Henry David Thoreau, Paul Theroux (Introduction), Joseph J. Moldenhauer (Editor) 3.86 avg rating — 1,498 ratings — published 1864 — 57 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	Where I Lived, and What I Lived For 3.79 avg rating — 1,464 ratings — published 1854 — 22 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars

More books by Henry David Thoreau…

Series by Henry David Thoreau

The Journal of Henry D.Thoreau (2 books)
by

Henry David Thoreau,

Bradford Torrey (Editor),

F.H. Allen (Editor)

4.67 avg rating — 51 ratings

聽 Mateo Askaripour聽is a Brooklyn-based writer whose first novel,聽Black Buck鈥攚hich聽Colson Whitehead聽calls a 鈥渕esmerizing novel, executing a high...

Polls

March 2022 Revisit the Shelf Poll

The Name of the Rose by Umberto Eco (pub. 1980 pp. 536, last read June 2016)

55 votes, 24.3%

The War of the Worlds by H.G. Wells pub. 1898, 192 pp., last read March 2012

53 votes, 23.5%

Othello by William Shakespeare 314 pages, published in 1603. Last read in June 2017.

36 votes, 15.9%

Les Miserables by Victor Hugo 1,463 pp, published 1862. Last read Oct. 2014

29 votes, 12.8%

Kidnapped by Robert Louis Stevenson 288 pp., published in 1886. Last read in Dec. 2016.

28 votes, 12.4%

Walden by Henry David Thoreau 352 pp., published 1854. Last read Nov. 2017

25 votes, 11.1%

226 total votes

3 comments

More...

Topics Mentioning This Author

topics	posts	views	last activity
The Next Best Boo...: OFFICIAL SPRING CHALLENGE - 2009	6381	9021	Jun 14, 2009 02:57PM
The Book Challenge: Angie's read all the unread books on her bookshelf challenge.	25	565	Aug 04, 2009 08:32AM
Happy & Brainy Group: * Journalism & Literature	92	179	Oct 24, 2009 06:15AM
The Seasonal Read...: 50.1 Midway - Senses, Emotions, Memories (pjreads)	201	274	Nov 03, 2009 02:06PM
Challenge: 50 Books: Tim's 50 books for 2009	19	517	Dec 30, 2009 05:53PM

More…

欧宝娱乐

Henry David Thoreau鈥檚 Followers (6,530)

Add New
Videos

Henry David Thoreau

Combine Editions
Henry David Thoreau鈥檚 books

Series by Henry David Thoreau

Related News

Polls

Topics Mentioning This Author

欧宝娱乐

Henry David Thoreau鈥檚 Followers (6,530)

Add NewVideos

Henry David Thoreau

Combine EditionsHenry David Thoreau鈥檚 books

Series by Henry David Thoreau

Related News

Polls

Topics Mentioning This Author

Add New
Videos

Combine Editions
Henry David Thoreau鈥檚 books