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Henry David Thoreau (July 12, 1817 – May 6, 1862) was an American naturalist, essayist, poet, and philosopher. [2] A leading transcendentalist, [3] he is best known for his book Walden, a reflection upon simple living in natural surroundings, and his essay "Civil Disobedience" (originally published as "Resistance to Civil Government"), an ...
- Overview
- Early life
- Friendship with Emerson
- Literary career
American essayist, poet, and practical philosopher Henry David Thoreau is renowned for having lived the doctrines of Transcendentalism as recorded in his masterwork, Walden (1854). He was also an advocate of civil liberties, as evidenced in the essay “Civil Disobedience” (1849).
How long did Henry David Thoreau live in the cabin at Walden Pond?
Henry David Thoreau stayed for two years at Walden Pond (1845–47), where he lived in a cabin of his own making and survived off the land. Midway in his Walden sojourn Thoreau spent a night in jail for refusing to pay his poll tax.
When did Henry David Thoreau die?
American essayist, poet, and philosopher Henry David Thoreau died on May 6, 1862, in Concord, Massachusetts.
Henry David Thoreau (born July 12, 1817, Concord, Massachusetts, U.S.—died May 6, 1862, Concord) American essayist, poet, and practical philosopher renowned for having lived the doctrines of Transcendentalism as recorded in his masterwork, Walden (1854), and for having been a vigorous advocate of civil liberties, as evidenced in the essay “Civil Disobedience” (1849).
Thoreau was born in 1817 in Concord, Massachusetts, the third child of a feckless small businessman named John Thoreau and his bustling wife, Cynthia Dunbar Thoreau. Though his family moved the following year, they returned in 1823. Even when he grew ambivalent about the village after reaching adulthood, he never grew ambivalent about its lovely se...
Ralph Waldo Emerson settled in Concord during Thoreau’s sophomore year at Harvard, and by the autumn of 1837 they were becoming friends. Emerson sensed in Thoreau a true disciple—that is, one with so much Emersonian self-reliance that he would still be his own man. Thoreau saw in Emerson a guide, a father, and a friend.
With his magnetism Emerson attracted others to Concord. Out of their heady speculations and affirmatives came New England Transcendentalism. In retrospect, it was one of the most significant literary movements of 19th-century America, with at least two authors of world stature, Thoreau and Emerson, to its credit. Essentially, it combined romanticism with reform. It celebrated the individual rather than the masses, emotion rather than reason, nature rather than man. Transcendentalism conceded that there were two ways of knowing, through the senses and through intuition, but asserted that intuition transcended tuition. Similarly, the movement acknowledged that matter and spirit both existed. It claimed, however, that the reality of spirit transcended the reality of matter. Transcendentalism strove for reform yet insisted that reform begin with the individual, not the group or organization.
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In Emerson’s company Thoreau’s hope of becoming a poet looked not only proper but feasible. Late in 1837, at Emerson’s suggestion, he began keeping a journal that covered thousands of pages before he scrawled the final entry two months before his death. He soon polished some of his old college essays and composed new and better ones as well. He wrote some poems—a good many, in fact—for several years. A canoe trip that he and his brother John took along the Concord and Merrimack rivers in 1839 confirmed in him the opinion that he ought not be a schoolmaster but a poet of nature.
As the 1840s began, Thoreau formally took up the profession of poet. Captained by Emerson, the Transcendentalists started a magazine, The Dial. Its inaugural issue, dated July 1840, carried Thoreau’s poem “Sympathy” and his essay on the Roman poet Aulus Persius Flaccus. The Dial published more of Thoreau’s poems and then, in July 1842, the first of his outdoor essays, “Natural History of Massachusetts.” Though disguised as a book review, it showed that a nature writer of distinction was in the making. Then followed more lyrics, and fine ones, such as “To the Maiden in the East,” and another nature essay, remarkably felicitous, “A Winter Walk.” The Dial ceased publication with the April 1844 issue, having published a richer variety of Thoreau’s writing than any other magazine ever would.
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Jun 30, 2005 · Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862) was an American philosopher, poet, environmental scientist, and political activist whose major work, Walden, draws upon each of these various identities in meditating upon the concrete problems of living in the world as a human being.
Apr 2, 2014 · Learn about the American essayist, poet and philosopher Henry David Thoreau, who wrote Walden, a masterwork of nature and civil disobedience. Find out his early life, his stay on Walden Pond, his political views and his legacy.
Learn about the life and writings of Henry David Thoreau, a prominent American transcendentalist philosopher and poet. Explore his essays, books, and poems on nature, life, and civil disobedience.
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A comprehensive overview of the life and works of Henry David Thoreau, an American author and philosopher who explored the wilds of nature and the role of the individual in society. Learn about his philosophical inclinations, his contributions to American philosophy, and his influence on various fields of study.
His defense of the private, individual conscience against the expediency of the majority found expression in his most famous essay, “ Civil Disobedience ,” which was first published in May 1849 under the title “Resistance to Civil Government.”
