Henry David Thoreau, Walden

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Henry David Thoreau 
(1817 - 1862) 

  • Henry David Thoreau was an American author, poet, philosopher, abolitionist, naturalist, tax resister,development critic, surveyor and historian and a leading Transcendentalist.
  •  Thoreau is best known for his book Walden, a reflection upon simple living in natural surroundings and his essay Resistance to Civil Government. (Also known as Civil Disobedience).
  •  Thoreau's philosophy of Civil Disobedience later influenced the political thoughts and actions of such notable figures as Leo Tolstoy, Mahatma Gandhi, and Martin Luther King Jr.
  •  Thoreau had taken up a version of P. B. Shelley's principle in the political poem The Mask of Anarchy(1819). 
  • In 1854, he would publish as Walden or Life in the Woods recounting the 2 years, 2 months and 2 days that he had spent at Walden Pond.
  •  He was influenced by Indian Spiritual thought.
  •  Robert Frost wrote of Thoreau, “In one book...he surpasses everything we have had in America”.
  • Mahatma Gandhi was influenced by Thoreau essay 'Resistance to Civil Govt”. 
Important Works of Thoreau 
  1.  The Service (1840)
  2. A Walk to Wachuselt (1842)
  3.  Paradise (to be) Regained (1843 essay)
  4. Sir Walter Raleigh (1844)
  5.  Herald of Reformers (1844)
  6. Reform and Reformers (1846-48)
  7.  Resistance to Civil Government or
  8. Civil Disobedience or The Duty of Civil Disobedience (1849).
  9.  Walden (1854) or Life in the Woods.
- Memoir
  1. A Plea for Captain John Brown (1854)
  2.  Excursion (1863): Anthology of essay entitled " Biographical Sketches ".
  3. Life Without Principle. 
 
Walden
  •  Walden or Life in the Woods by transcendentalist Thoreau is a reflection upon simple living in natural surroundings. 
  •  The book compresses the time into a single calendar year and uses passage of four seasons to symbolize human development.
  •  It is a part memoir and part spiritual quest , It opens with the announcement that Thoreau spent two years at Walden Pond living a simple life without a support of any kind. This land was purchased by Thoreau's mentor R. W. Emerson.
  •  'Economy' is the first chapter of this work.
  •  John Updike compared Walden with Bible.
  • Skinner wrote Walden – 2.
  •  When Henry David Thoreau was being criticized for his publications then George Eliot came with her review in support of Thoreau.
Important Quote- "The mass of men lead lives of quiet desperation".

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