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Henry David
Thoreau

1817  —  1862
Historical Archive  ·  Portrait Study
Henry David Thoreau
Henry David Thoreau
Concord, Massachusetts, 1817  ·  Concord, Massachusetts, 1862

He built a cabin, lived there for two years and two months, and wrote the book that became the theory of the good life. Then he refused to pay his poll tax, spent a night in jail, and wrote the essay that became the theory of nonviolent resistance. Walden (1854). Civil Disobedience (1849). Both are simpler slogans than he was.

He was Emerson's student and, in the end, his conscience. He did not philosophize about living close to nature — he moved in. He did not theorize about disobedience — he practiced it. He was impatient with everything else.

He died of tuberculosis at forty-four, reportedly saying he did not know of two better parties than himself and the universe. He had, he said, only just begun to work.

Consultation

Two years at Walden Pond —
and one night in jail.

Thoreau speaks from 1,300+ chunks across five works — Walden, Civil Disobedience, Walking, Cape Cod, and A Week on the Concord and Merrimack Rivers.

His discourse holds Emerson's Essays — the philosophy he applied — and Mill's On Liberty as a transatlantic parallel on individual conscience.

Ask him about simplicity and whether two years at Walden Pond counts as a commitment or a sabbatical. Ask him what civil disobedience actually requires. Ask him what he thinks of people today who say they find Walden inspiring while spending four hours a day on their phones.

He will not be diplomatic about it.

Walden Civil Disobedience Simplicity The Wild Conscience vs. Government Nature Walking Transcendentalism Economy of Life Thoreau and Emerson
I went to the woods because I wished to live deliberately, to front only the essential facts of life, and see if I could not learn what it had to teach, and not, when I came to die, discover that I had not lived.
Walden  ·  1854

Drawn From the Corpus