Henry David Thoreau

Henry David Thoreau, born as David Henry Thoreau, was born on July 12, 1817 in Concord Massachusetts. He was an American poet, author, abolitionist, tax resister, naturalist, development critic, historian, surveyor, philosopher and one of the leading transcendentalists. His father was John Thoreau, who was a pencil maker and Cynthia Dunbar. Though he was not good-looking but his ugliness was considered to be of an honest and agreeable fashion. He studied at Harvard University courses like, classics, rhetoric, philosophy, science and mathematics.

After his graduation he joined as the faculty of the Concord Public School but left after a few weeks and opened Concord Academy, a grammar school, with his brother. But his illness from tetanus caused it to end in 1842. He came in contact with Ralph Waldo Emerson, who urged him to contribute poems and essays to a quarterly periodical. His first published essay was Aulus Persius Flaccus. He followed transcendentalism in his early years which was an idealistic philosophy advocated by Emerson. He also worked in the pencil factory owned by his family and did it for most of his later life. On July 4, 1845 he shifted to as small and self-built house on Emerson’s land around the shores of Walden forest to do a two-year long experiment on simple living

A lecture delivered in January and February 1848 with title The Rights and Duties of the Individual in Relation to Government was revised into an essay called, Resistance to Civil Government, which is also known as Civil Disobedience. His experiment with simple living resulted into a publication called Walden, or Life in the Woods in the year 1954. His fascination with natural history and expedition lead to the natural history writings like, Autumnal Tints, Wild Apples, and The Succession of Trees and excursion books like, A Yankee in Canada, The Maine Woods, and Cape Cod. His other works include, The Service, A Walk to Wachusett, Paradise to be Regained, Sir Walter Raleigh, The Landlord, Herald of Freedom, Reform and the Reformers, Thomas Carlyle and his Works, A Plea For Captain John Brown, Walking, Life Without Principle, etc.

During an excursion to count the rings of tree stumps while it was rain storming, he got bronchitis. After few years he died on May 6, 1862 in Concord Massachusetts. Henry David Thoreau would always be remembered for his works like Walden, which is contemplation upon simple living with natural surroundings, and the essay, Civil Obedience, which is an argument and resistance against an unjust state for an individually who is morally correct.