Showing results by author "Henry David Thoreau" in Literature & Fiction

Thoreau's classic account of the solitary life, describing his attempts to simplify his life and sort out his priorities by living alone in a cabin beside Walden Pond for nearly two years, is one of the most influential books ever written. The bible of the environmental movement, Walden vividly portrays Thoreau's reverence for nature, and his understanding of the idea that nature is made up of crucially interrelated parts.

Henry David Thoreau was a 19th-century American writer and lifelong advocate for the abolition of slavery. His written works are many and varied but he is perhaps best known for works such as Walden, a book which promotes the idea of simple living in natural surroundings and for Civil Disobedience, which argues that the general population should not simply sit idle while those elected to government ride roughshod over their wishes.

> Walking is not as well known as Thoreau's other works Walden, The Maine Woods, and Civil Disobedience. But it is a good place to start exploring his writing because it was his last book, in 1862, published by the Atlantic Monthly shortly after his death. It is less well known because it is general, as opposed to singular, in focus. It is his summing up of his thoughts on life: One should saunter through life and take notice; one need not go far.

Thoreau gives an account of three canoe and hiking journeys - by himself and with others - through the mostly uninhabited forests of Maine in the 1850s. Identifying birds, trees and plants by their botanical as well as their common names, he also records the Indian names of lakes, rivers and plants. He investigates the connections between waterways and trails, and provides detail on camping, fishing and hunting in the woods, using whatever is at hand. Extolling the beauty of the wilds that he encounters, Thorough’s narrative is also imbued with elements of his philosophy.

In 1845 Henry David Thoreau, one of the principal New England Transcendentalists, left the small town of Concord for the country. Beside the lake of Walden he built himself a log cabin and returned to nature, to observe and reflect – while surviving on eight dollars a year. From this experience emerged Walden, one of the great classics of American literature.

Henry David Thoreau was a 19th century American writer and lifelong advocate for the abolition of slavery. His written works are many and varied but he is perhaps best known for works such as Walden, a book which promotes the idea of simple living in natural surroundings and for Civil Disobedience, which argues that the general population should not simply sit idle while those elected to government ride roughshod over their wishes.

Henry David Thoreau's classic essay inspired Martin Luther King, Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi, and many other activists.

Walden, by Henry David Thoreau, is a personal narrative about Thoreau's solitary living experience near Walden Pond in Massachusetts. Starting with the building of his cabin by the pond in 1845, Thoreau recounts his experience away from society and city life. Thoreau spends his time growing beans for money while appreciating the beautiful wilderness around him. Although he lives a solitary life for nearly two years, Thoreau explains that he does not feel as isolated as one might think.

It is hard to top the pleasure of a woodland walk in Spring unless of course you have a lyric poet as your guide. Now that is possible with Poets of Nature. Let Walt Whitman, John Keats, Emily Dickinson, Henry David Thoreau, Emily Bronte, and Ralph Waldo Emerson take you into that realm of Nature "where we seldom wander".

In 1839, two years after graduating from Harvard, Henry David Thoreau and his older brother, John, took a boat-and-hiking trip from Concord, Massachusetts, to the White Mountains of New Hampshire. After John's sudden death in 1842, Thoreau began to prepare a memorial account of their excursion during his stay at Walden Pond. Modern listeners have come to see Thoreau's story of the river journey as an appropriate predecessor to Walden, depicting the early years of his spiritual and artistic growth.

First published in 1849, this essay argues that individuals have rights and duties in relation to their government. Motivated by his disgust over both slavery and the Mexican-American War, Thoreau argued that individuals must not permit nor enable their government to act against their own consciences. This version of "On the Duty of Civil Disobedience" was recorded as part of Dreamscape's Walden and On the Duty of Civil Disobedience.

Compiled from magazine articles published in the 1850s after his death, Cape Cod details several short trips Thoreau made to "the bare and bended arm of Massachusetts" between 1849 and 1855. "He went to the Cape out of curiosity," explains Paul Theroux, "but in the course of his travel a great thing happened: Thoreau, the woodsman and landlubber, discovered the sea."

 Walden is a work by noted transcendentalist Henry David Thoreau. The text is a reflection upon simple living in natural surroundings. The work is part personal declaration of independence, social experiment, voyage of spiritual discovery, satire, and to some degree a manual for self-reliance. First published in 1854, Walden details Thoreau's experiences over the course of two years, two months, and two days in a cabin he built near Walden Pond amid woodland owned by his friend and mentor Ralph Waldo Emerson, near Concord, Massachusetts.  

A work by the great Henry David Thoreau, originally published in 1849 as "Resistance to Civil Government". It is an essay in which Thoreau argues that individuals should not permit governments to overrule or atrophy their consciences, and that they have a duty to avoid allowing such acquiescence to enable the government to make them the agents of injustice. Thoreau was motivated in part by his disgust with slavery and the Mexican-American War (1846-1848).

In the early 1850s, Henry David Thoreau took many meditative walks along the coast. In Cape Cod he reflects on these beach-combing trips and the powerful forces of the sea.

In the early spring of 1845, Henry David Thoreau built and lived in a cabin near the shore of Walden Pond in rural Massachusetts. For the next two years, he enacted his own Transcendentalist experiment, living a simple life based on self-reliance, individualism, and harmony with nature. The journal he kept at that time evolved into his masterwork, Walden, an eloquent expression of a uniquely American philosophy.

Thoreau built his cabin near Walden Pond in 1845 on land owned by Ralph Waldo Emerson. Walden which is considered one of his best works, describes Thoreau's two-year experience as a resident of Walden Pond. Focusing on the concept of self-knowledge, he encourages readers to get to know themselves and the world around them.

Walden is the classic account of two years spent by Henry David Thoreau living at Walden Pond near Concord, Massachusetts. The story is detailed in its accounts of Thoreau's day-to-day activities, observations, and undertakings to survive out in the wilderness for two years. Thoreau's journal is an exquisite account of a man seeking a more simple life by living in harmony with nature.

"In wilderness is the preservation of the world. Life consists with wilderness. The most alive is the wildest. Not yet subdued to man, its presence refreshes him." Philosopher and writer Henry David Thoreau preferred to contemplate the nature of man and his environment while walking.

In 1845 Henry David Thoreau, one of the principal New England Transcendentalists, left the town for the country. Beside the lake of Walden, he built himself a log cabin and returned to nature, to observe and reflect, while surviving on $8 a year. From this experience emerged one of the great classics of American literature, a deeply personal reaction against the commercialism and materialism that he saw as the main impulses of mid-19th century America.