The Wisdom of Thoreau

In excerpts collected here from his most important works, Henry David Thoreau documents his experiences in nature and the wisdom he finds in his explorations of sound, reading, solitude, and other aspects of leading a simple life at Walden. A fearless individualist, Thoreau explored not only poetic naturalism but also a number of ideas that were groundbreaking for his day, including civil disobedience and environmentalism. This introduction to one of America’s great thinkers shows that as an essayist and poet-philosopher Thoreau remains a relevant voice in the never-ending quest of man to understand his place in the natural terrain.  

Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862) was born in Concord, Massachusetts. He was a pioneer in civil disobedience, one of the most powerful forms of nonviolent protest against social injustice in the modern age. He was a lifelong abolitionist, and his philosophy of civil disobedience influenced the political thoughts and actions of such figures as Leo Tolstoy, Mahatma Gandhi, and Martin Luther King, Jr. He is best known for his book Walden, a treatise on self-reliance and spiritual discovery based on the two years he spent living alone in a cabin in the woods.