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On May 6, 1862 Henry David Thoreau, US writer (Walden Pond), died of tuberculosis at the age of 44. From the article:
"Henry David Thoreau
Henry David Thoreau Biography
Poet, Journalist (1817–1862)
American essayist, poet, and practical philosopher, Henry David Thoreau was a New England Transcendentalist and author of the book Walden.
Synopsis
Henry David Thoreau was born on July 12, 1817, in Concord, Massachusetts. He began writing nature poetry in the 1840s, with poet Ralph Waldo Emerson as a mentor and friend. In 1845 he began his famous two-year stay on Walden Pond, which he wrote about in his master work, Walden. He also became known for his beliefs in Transcendentalism and civil disobedience, and was a dedicated abolitionist.
Early Life
One of America's most famous writers, Henry David Thoreau is remembered for his philosophical and naturalist writings. He was born and raised in Concord, Massachusetts, along with his older siblings John and Helen and younger sister Sophia. His father operated a local pencil factory, and his mother rented out parts of the family's home to boarders.
A bright student, Thoreau eventually went to Harvard College (now Harvard University). There he studied Greek and Latin as well as German. According to some reports, Thoreau had to take a break from his schooling for a time because of illness. He graduated from college in 1837 and struggled with what do to next. At the time, an educated man like Thoreau might pursue a career in law or medicine or in the church. Other college graduates went into education, a path he briefly followed. With his brother John, he set up a school in 1838. The venture collapsed a few years later after John became ill. Thoreau then went to work for his father for a time.
After college, Thoreau befriended writer and fellow Concord resident Ralph Waldo Emerson. Through Emerson, he became exposed to Transcendentalism, a school of thought that emphasized the importance of empirical thinking and of spiritual matters over the physical world. It encouraged scientific inquiry and observation. Thoreau came to know many of the movement's leading figures, including Bronson Alcott and Margaret Fuller.
Emerson acted as a mentor to Thoreau and supported him in many ways. For a time, Thoreau lived with Emerson as a caretaker for his home. Emerson also used his influence to promote Thoreau's literary efforts. Some of Thoreau's first works were published in The Dial, a Transcendentalist magazine. And Emerson gave Thoreau access to the lands that would inspire one of his greatest works.
Walden Pond
In 1845, Thoreau built a small home for himself on Walden Pond, on property owned by Emerson. He spent more than two years there. Seeking a simpler type of life, Thoreau flipped the standard routine of the times. He experimented with working as little as possible rather than engage in the pattern of six days on with one day off. Sometimes Thoreau worked as a land surveyor or in the pencil factory. He felt that this new approach helped him avoid the misery he saw around him. "The mass of men lead lives of quiet desperation," Thoreau once wrote.
His schedule gave him plenty of time to devote to his philosophical and literary interests. Thoreau worked on A Week on the Concord and Merrimack Rivers (1849). The book drew from a boating trip he took with his brother John in 1839. Thoreau eventually started writing about his Walden Pond experiment as well. Many were curious about his revolutionary lifestyle, and this interest provided the creative spark for a collection of essays. Published in 1854, Walden; or, Life in the Woods espoused living a life close to nature. The book was a modest success, but it wasn't until much later that the book reached a larger audience. Over the years, Walden has inspired and informed the work of naturalists, environmentalists and writers.
While living at Walden Pond, Thoreau also had an encounter with the law. He spent a night in jail after refusing to pay a poll tax. This experience led him to write one of his best-known and most influential essays, "Civil Disobedience" (also known as "Resistance to Civil Government"). Thoreau held deeply felt political views, opposing slavery and the Mexican-American War. He made a strong case for acting on one's individual conscience and not blindly following laws and government policy. "The only obligation which I have a right to assume is to do at any time what I think right," he wrote.
Since its publication in 1849, "Civil Disobedience" has inspired many leaders of protest movements around the world. This non-violent approach to political and social resistance has influenced American civil rights movement activist Martin Luther King Jr. and Mohandas Gandhi, who helped India win independence from Great Britain, among many others.
Later Years
After leaving Walden Pond, Thoreau spent some time looking after Emerson's house while he was on tour in England. Still fascinated with nature, Thoreau wrote down his observations on plant and wildlife in his native Concord and on his journeys. He visited the woods of Maine and the shoreline of Cape Cod several times.
Thoreau also remained a devoted abolitionist until the end of his life. To support his cause, he wrote several works, including the 1854 essay "Slavery in Massachusetts." Thoreau also took a brave stand for Captain John Brown, a radical abolitionist who led an uprising against slavery in Virginia. He and his supporters raided a federal arsenal in Harpers Ferry to arm themselves in October 1859, but their plan was thwarted. An injured Brown was later convicted of treason and put to death for his crime. Thoreau rose to defend him with the speech "A Plea for Capt. John Brown," calling him "an angel of light" and "the bravest and humanest man in all the country."
In his later years, Thoreau battled an illness that had plagued him for decades. He had tuberculosis, which he had contracted decades earlier. To restore his health, Thoreau went to Minnesota in 1861, but the trip didn't improve his condition. He finally succumbed to the disease on May 6, 1862. Thoreau was heralded as "an original thinker" and "a man of simple tastes, hardy habits, and of preternatural powers of observation" in some of his obituaries.
While other writers from his time have faded into obscurity, Thoreau has endured because so much of what he wrote about is still relevant today. His writings on government were revolutionary, with some calling him an early anarchist. Thoreau's studies of nature were equally radical in their own way, earning him the moniker of "father of environmentalism." And his major work, Walden, has offered up an interesting antidote to living in the modern rat race."
"Henry David Thoreau
Henry David Thoreau Biography
Poet, Journalist (1817–1862)
American essayist, poet, and practical philosopher, Henry David Thoreau was a New England Transcendentalist and author of the book Walden.
Synopsis
Henry David Thoreau was born on July 12, 1817, in Concord, Massachusetts. He began writing nature poetry in the 1840s, with poet Ralph Waldo Emerson as a mentor and friend. In 1845 he began his famous two-year stay on Walden Pond, which he wrote about in his master work, Walden. He also became known for his beliefs in Transcendentalism and civil disobedience, and was a dedicated abolitionist.
Early Life
One of America's most famous writers, Henry David Thoreau is remembered for his philosophical and naturalist writings. He was born and raised in Concord, Massachusetts, along with his older siblings John and Helen and younger sister Sophia. His father operated a local pencil factory, and his mother rented out parts of the family's home to boarders.
A bright student, Thoreau eventually went to Harvard College (now Harvard University). There he studied Greek and Latin as well as German. According to some reports, Thoreau had to take a break from his schooling for a time because of illness. He graduated from college in 1837 and struggled with what do to next. At the time, an educated man like Thoreau might pursue a career in law or medicine or in the church. Other college graduates went into education, a path he briefly followed. With his brother John, he set up a school in 1838. The venture collapsed a few years later after John became ill. Thoreau then went to work for his father for a time.
After college, Thoreau befriended writer and fellow Concord resident Ralph Waldo Emerson. Through Emerson, he became exposed to Transcendentalism, a school of thought that emphasized the importance of empirical thinking and of spiritual matters over the physical world. It encouraged scientific inquiry and observation. Thoreau came to know many of the movement's leading figures, including Bronson Alcott and Margaret Fuller.
Emerson acted as a mentor to Thoreau and supported him in many ways. For a time, Thoreau lived with Emerson as a caretaker for his home. Emerson also used his influence to promote Thoreau's literary efforts. Some of Thoreau's first works were published in The Dial, a Transcendentalist magazine. And Emerson gave Thoreau access to the lands that would inspire one of his greatest works.
Walden Pond
In 1845, Thoreau built a small home for himself on Walden Pond, on property owned by Emerson. He spent more than two years there. Seeking a simpler type of life, Thoreau flipped the standard routine of the times. He experimented with working as little as possible rather than engage in the pattern of six days on with one day off. Sometimes Thoreau worked as a land surveyor or in the pencil factory. He felt that this new approach helped him avoid the misery he saw around him. "The mass of men lead lives of quiet desperation," Thoreau once wrote.
His schedule gave him plenty of time to devote to his philosophical and literary interests. Thoreau worked on A Week on the Concord and Merrimack Rivers (1849). The book drew from a boating trip he took with his brother John in 1839. Thoreau eventually started writing about his Walden Pond experiment as well. Many were curious about his revolutionary lifestyle, and this interest provided the creative spark for a collection of essays. Published in 1854, Walden; or, Life in the Woods espoused living a life close to nature. The book was a modest success, but it wasn't until much later that the book reached a larger audience. Over the years, Walden has inspired and informed the work of naturalists, environmentalists and writers.
While living at Walden Pond, Thoreau also had an encounter with the law. He spent a night in jail after refusing to pay a poll tax. This experience led him to write one of his best-known and most influential essays, "Civil Disobedience" (also known as "Resistance to Civil Government"). Thoreau held deeply felt political views, opposing slavery and the Mexican-American War. He made a strong case for acting on one's individual conscience and not blindly following laws and government policy. "The only obligation which I have a right to assume is to do at any time what I think right," he wrote.
Since its publication in 1849, "Civil Disobedience" has inspired many leaders of protest movements around the world. This non-violent approach to political and social resistance has influenced American civil rights movement activist Martin Luther King Jr. and Mohandas Gandhi, who helped India win independence from Great Britain, among many others.
Later Years
After leaving Walden Pond, Thoreau spent some time looking after Emerson's house while he was on tour in England. Still fascinated with nature, Thoreau wrote down his observations on plant and wildlife in his native Concord and on his journeys. He visited the woods of Maine and the shoreline of Cape Cod several times.
Thoreau also remained a devoted abolitionist until the end of his life. To support his cause, he wrote several works, including the 1854 essay "Slavery in Massachusetts." Thoreau also took a brave stand for Captain John Brown, a radical abolitionist who led an uprising against slavery in Virginia. He and his supporters raided a federal arsenal in Harpers Ferry to arm themselves in October 1859, but their plan was thwarted. An injured Brown was later convicted of treason and put to death for his crime. Thoreau rose to defend him with the speech "A Plea for Capt. John Brown," calling him "an angel of light" and "the bravest and humanest man in all the country."
In his later years, Thoreau battled an illness that had plagued him for decades. He had tuberculosis, which he had contracted decades earlier. To restore his health, Thoreau went to Minnesota in 1861, but the trip didn't improve his condition. He finally succumbed to the disease on May 6, 1862. Thoreau was heralded as "an original thinker" and "a man of simple tastes, hardy habits, and of preternatural powers of observation" in some of his obituaries.
While other writers from his time have faded into obscurity, Thoreau has endured because so much of what he wrote about is still relevant today. His writings on government were revolutionary, with some calling him an early anarchist. Thoreau's studies of nature were equally radical in their own way, earning him the moniker of "father of environmentalism." And his major work, Walden, has offered up an interesting antidote to living in the modern rat race."
Henry David Thoreau
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Thoreau and Civil Disobedience
Henry David Thoreau not only wrote Walden; he is also responsible for a small pamphlet titled Civil Disobedience, which recommends that – when a US president...
Thank you, my friend SGT (Join to see) for making us aware that May 6 is the anniversary of the death of the author of On Walden Pond Henry David Thoreau as he died of tuberculosis at age 44. TB was a common killed in that century.
Image: 19th century image of bed for young woman with TB, keeping the back and head up helped breathing when capacity is reduced.
Thoreau and Civil Disobedience
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gugnXTN6-D4
Background from walden.org/thoreau/a-brief-chronology/
" Henry David Thoreau
Henry David Thoreau lived for two years, two months, and two days by Walden Pond in Concord, Massachusetts. His time in Walden Woods became a model of deliberate and ethical living. His words and deeds continue to inspire millions around the world who seek solutions to critical environmental and societal challenges.
Thoreau's Life
Henry David Thoreau lived in the mid-nineteenth century during turbulent times in America. He said he was born "in the nick of time" in Concord, Massachusetts, during the flowering of America when the transcendental movement was taking root and when the anti-slavery movement was rapidly gaining momentum. His contemporaries and neighbors were Nathaniel Hawthorne, Bronson Alcott, Margaret Fuller, and his mentor, Ralph Waldo Emerson.
Social reformer — Naturalist — Philosopher — Transcendentalist — Scientist. These are just some of the terms by which the work of Henry David Thoreau can be categorized. It is perhaps the many "lives" of Thoreau, both individually and collectively, that beckon such a diversity of people to his writings.
As a social reformer whose words echo the principles on which the United States was founded — that it is a person’s duty to resist injustice where it is found — Thoreau’s writings influenced Gandhi's work in India, Tolstoy’s philosophy in Russia, and King's civil rights stand in the United States. Wherever in the world individuals and groups embrace human rights over political rights, they invoke the name of Henry David Thoreau and the words of his essay. "Civil Disobedience": "Can there not be a government in which the majorities do not virtually decide right and wrong, but conscience? . . . Must the citizen ever for a moment, or in the least degree, resign his conscience to the legislator? Why has every man a conscience, then?"
As a naturalist, Thoreau understood that the path to a greater understanding of our life on earth is through an understanding of the natural world around us and of which we are part: “We can never have enough of nature. We must be refreshed by the sight of inexhaustible vigor, vast and Titanic features, the sea-coast with its wrecks, the wilderness with its living and its decaying trees, the thunder cloud, and the rain which lasts three weeks and produces freshets. We need to witness our own limits transgressed, and some life pasturing freely where we never wander." — "I suppose that what in other men is religion is in me love of nature."
As a philosopher and Transcendentalist, Thoreau found a pantheistic sense of spirit and God: "I do not prefer one religion or philosophy to another. I have no sympathy with the bigotry and ignorance which make transient and partial and puerile distinctions between one man’s faith or form of faith & another’s . . . To the philosopher all sects, all nations, are alike. I like Brahma, Hari, Buddha, the Great Spirit, as well as God."
As a scientist, Thoreau embraced the controversial work of Darwin, and developed theories of forest succession at the same time one of Harvard’s leading naturalists, Louis Agassiz, was still touting the spontaneous generation of plants. Thoreau was able to praise the scientific method — "Science is always brave, for to know, is to know good; doubt and danger quail before her eye.” — while accepting its limitations: “With all your science can you tell how it is — & whence it is, that light comes into the soul?"
There is an old joke among Thoreauvians that most people know Thoreau as the man who spent half his life at Walden Pond and the other half in jail, but the reason that his brief time at Walden and his one night in jail have become such defining moments in his life can be summed up under one term: Writer. Thoreau was one of the most powerful and influential writers America has produced. His prose style was unequaled. And although only a small part of his work was published in his short lifetime, he was a prolific writer whose collected works filled twenty volumes when collected in 1906. The publication of his journal of over two million words in 1906, the first time an American author had his journal published in full, showed the recognition afforded him by his publisher, Houghton Mifflin.
When Thoreau died, Ralph Waldo Emerson wrote in his eulogy: "The country knows not yet, or in the least part, how great a son it has lost. . . . His soul was made for the noblest society; he had in a short life exhausted the capabilities of this world; wherever there is knowledge, wherever there is virtue, wherever there is beauty, he will find a home."
Thoreau’s Life
The American writer, thinker, and naturalist Henry D. Thoreau was born to John and Cynthia (Dunbar) Thoreau in Concord, Massachusetts, on 12 July 1817. In 1828, after a few years in Concord's grammar school, Thoreau began attending the Concord Academy, and from 1833 to 1837 he attended Harvard College.
After graduating from Harvard Thoreau secured a teaching position at the Concord Center School (public), but he resigned after just two weeks because he refused to use corporal punishment on his charges. From 1838 until 1841 he and his older brother John, Jr., taught a private school in Concord, and in 1838 the two brothers went on a two week boating excursion that Thoreau later memorialized in his first book, A Week on the Concord and Merrimack Rivers, published in 1849. In 1840 Thoreau published poems and essays in the transcendentalist periodical, The Dial, and from 1841 to 1843 he lived with the famous author and lecturer Ralph Waldo Emerson and Emerson's family (Waldo's wife, Lidian, and two children) in Concord. In 1842 John, Jr., died a painful death of lockjaw in Thoreau's arms, and the following year Thoreau moved to Staten Island, New York, to tutor William Emerson's children and to attempt to break into the New York literary market. Having returned to Concord, in 1844 Thoreau and Edward Hoar, a companion, accidentally set fire to some woods in Concord when trying to prepare a fish chowder near Fair Haven Pond on a windy day.
From 1845 to 1847 Thoreau lived in a small house that he built himself on the shore of Walden Pond, a mile and a half south of Concord Center. In 1846, while still at the pond, he climbed to the summit of Mt. Katahdin while on a visit to the Maine woods and spent one night in jail for refusing to pay his poll tax. He later worked these experiences into lectures that were later still published as the "Ktaadn" chapter of The Maine Woods and the famous, influential essay "Civil Disobedience."
Thoreau's survey of Walden Pond, 1846
Thoreau's survey of Walden Pond, 1846
After leaving the house at the pond Thoreau stayed with the Emerson family again while Ralph Waldo Emerson lectured in England. Thoreau returned to his parent's home in 1848 and continued living with them as a boarder for the remainder of his life. At about this time he began the routine of morning and evening study and writing, and afternoon walks that were the foundation upon which he may be said to have built his creative life.
Thoreau made the first of four trips to Cape Cod in 1849, and he later delivered lectures about his experiences that were posthumously published as Cape Cod. The following year he traveled to Quebec and wrote up that experience in a lecture titled "An Excursion to Canada," partially published in 1853 as A Yankee in Canada. His famous book Walden; or, Life in the Woods (later shortened at his request to Walden) was published in 1854, and in that same year he delivered his lecture-essay "Slavery in Massachusetts" at an Independence Day meeting of the American Anti-Slavery Society.
In 1856 Thoreau traveled to Perth Amboy, New Jersey, to survey a large estate and deliver three lectures. While there he visited Walt Whitman in nearby Brooklyn. In 1857 and 1858 he visited Cape Cod, the woods of Maine, and the White Mountains of New Hampshire; and in the latter year he published what was to become the second chapter of The Maine Woods, his essay "Chesuncook." In 1859 his father died, and as a result he had to begin assuming more responsibility of the family's plumbago business. In October of that year the abolitionist Capt. John Brown raided the federal arsenal at Harper's Ferry, and Thoreau spoke mightily in defense of Brown's character — the first person in America to do so. His essay "A Plea for Capt. John Brown" was published and widely circulated in his friend, the famous editor Horace Greeley's newspaper, The New-York Tribune. The following year Thoreau lectured to his townsmen on "The Succession of Forest Trees," and his lecture was shortly afterward published and republished, receiving wider circulation than any of Thoreau's other writings during his lifetime and cementing his reputation as a naturalist.
While counting tree rings on 3 December 1860 Thoreau contracted a cold that quickly worsened into bronchitis. His lungshad long been tubercular, and Thoreau was housebound for many weeks. During the summer of 1861 he traveled to Minnesota in a vain effort to recover his health. Arriving back home he began putting his affairs in order and began preparing for publication many of his late lectures. He died of tuberculosis at his mother's home on Main Street in Concord on 6 May 1862, aged 44 years. He is buried in his family's plot near the graves of his friends Nathaniel Hawthorne, Bronson Alcott, Ralph Waldo Emerson, and Ellery Channing on Author's Ridge in Concord's Sleepy Hollow Cemetery.
1817
Born, David Henry Thoreau, 12 July in Concord, Massachusetts, to John and Cynthia (Dunbar) Thoreau
1828-33
Attended Concord Academy
1833-37
Attended Harvard College
1837
Taught briefly at Concord Center School (public)
1838-41
Conducted a private school, Concord Academy, with his elder brother John
1839
Went on boating excursion on Concord and Merrimack rivers with his older brother John, which formed the basis of Thoreau's first book, A Week on the Concord and Merrimack Rivers
1840
Poems and essays published in The Dial
1841-43
Lived with Ralph Waldo Emerson and his family in Concord
1842
Brother John cut himself while stropping a razor and died of lockjaw; “Natural History of Massachusetts” published
1843
“A Walk to Wachusett” and “A Winter Walk” published; tutored William Emerson’s children on Staten Island, New York
1844
With Edward Hoar, accidentally set fire to a part of Walden Woods
1845-47
Lived at Walden Pond
1846
Traveled to Maine woods; spent one night in jail for refusing to pay poll tax, which formed the basis for his essay, "Civil Disobedience"
1847-48
Lived in Emerson household while Ralph Waldo Emerson lectured in England
1848
Began lecturing professionally; “Ktaadn and the Maine Woods” published
1849
A Week on the Concord and Merrimack Rivers and “Resistance to Civil Government” published; traveled to Cape Cod; older sister Helen died, apparently of tuberculosis
1850
Traveled to Cape Cod and Quebec
1853
Traveled to Maine woods; portions of “A Yankee in Canada” published
1854
Walden; or, Life in the Woods and “Slavery in Massachusetts” published
1856
Surveyed Eagleswood Community near Perth Amboy, New Jersey
1857
Traveled to Cape Cod and Maine Woods; “Chesuncook” published
1858
Traveled to White Mountains in New Hampshire
1859
Father John died; “A Plea for Capt. John Brown” published
1860
“The Succession of Forest Trees” published
1861
Traveled to Minnesota with Horace Mann, Jr., in effort to regain health
1862
Died 6 May in Concord, Massachusetts, of tuberculosis"
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Image: 19th century image of bed for young woman with TB, keeping the back and head up helped breathing when capacity is reduced.
Thoreau and Civil Disobedience
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gugnXTN6-D4
Background from walden.org/thoreau/a-brief-chronology/
" Henry David Thoreau
Henry David Thoreau lived for two years, two months, and two days by Walden Pond in Concord, Massachusetts. His time in Walden Woods became a model of deliberate and ethical living. His words and deeds continue to inspire millions around the world who seek solutions to critical environmental and societal challenges.
Thoreau's Life
Henry David Thoreau lived in the mid-nineteenth century during turbulent times in America. He said he was born "in the nick of time" in Concord, Massachusetts, during the flowering of America when the transcendental movement was taking root and when the anti-slavery movement was rapidly gaining momentum. His contemporaries and neighbors were Nathaniel Hawthorne, Bronson Alcott, Margaret Fuller, and his mentor, Ralph Waldo Emerson.
Social reformer — Naturalist — Philosopher — Transcendentalist — Scientist. These are just some of the terms by which the work of Henry David Thoreau can be categorized. It is perhaps the many "lives" of Thoreau, both individually and collectively, that beckon such a diversity of people to his writings.
As a social reformer whose words echo the principles on which the United States was founded — that it is a person’s duty to resist injustice where it is found — Thoreau’s writings influenced Gandhi's work in India, Tolstoy’s philosophy in Russia, and King's civil rights stand in the United States. Wherever in the world individuals and groups embrace human rights over political rights, they invoke the name of Henry David Thoreau and the words of his essay. "Civil Disobedience": "Can there not be a government in which the majorities do not virtually decide right and wrong, but conscience? . . . Must the citizen ever for a moment, or in the least degree, resign his conscience to the legislator? Why has every man a conscience, then?"
As a naturalist, Thoreau understood that the path to a greater understanding of our life on earth is through an understanding of the natural world around us and of which we are part: “We can never have enough of nature. We must be refreshed by the sight of inexhaustible vigor, vast and Titanic features, the sea-coast with its wrecks, the wilderness with its living and its decaying trees, the thunder cloud, and the rain which lasts three weeks and produces freshets. We need to witness our own limits transgressed, and some life pasturing freely where we never wander." — "I suppose that what in other men is religion is in me love of nature."
As a philosopher and Transcendentalist, Thoreau found a pantheistic sense of spirit and God: "I do not prefer one religion or philosophy to another. I have no sympathy with the bigotry and ignorance which make transient and partial and puerile distinctions between one man’s faith or form of faith & another’s . . . To the philosopher all sects, all nations, are alike. I like Brahma, Hari, Buddha, the Great Spirit, as well as God."
As a scientist, Thoreau embraced the controversial work of Darwin, and developed theories of forest succession at the same time one of Harvard’s leading naturalists, Louis Agassiz, was still touting the spontaneous generation of plants. Thoreau was able to praise the scientific method — "Science is always brave, for to know, is to know good; doubt and danger quail before her eye.” — while accepting its limitations: “With all your science can you tell how it is — & whence it is, that light comes into the soul?"
There is an old joke among Thoreauvians that most people know Thoreau as the man who spent half his life at Walden Pond and the other half in jail, but the reason that his brief time at Walden and his one night in jail have become such defining moments in his life can be summed up under one term: Writer. Thoreau was one of the most powerful and influential writers America has produced. His prose style was unequaled. And although only a small part of his work was published in his short lifetime, he was a prolific writer whose collected works filled twenty volumes when collected in 1906. The publication of his journal of over two million words in 1906, the first time an American author had his journal published in full, showed the recognition afforded him by his publisher, Houghton Mifflin.
When Thoreau died, Ralph Waldo Emerson wrote in his eulogy: "The country knows not yet, or in the least part, how great a son it has lost. . . . His soul was made for the noblest society; he had in a short life exhausted the capabilities of this world; wherever there is knowledge, wherever there is virtue, wherever there is beauty, he will find a home."
Thoreau’s Life
The American writer, thinker, and naturalist Henry D. Thoreau was born to John and Cynthia (Dunbar) Thoreau in Concord, Massachusetts, on 12 July 1817. In 1828, after a few years in Concord's grammar school, Thoreau began attending the Concord Academy, and from 1833 to 1837 he attended Harvard College.
After graduating from Harvard Thoreau secured a teaching position at the Concord Center School (public), but he resigned after just two weeks because he refused to use corporal punishment on his charges. From 1838 until 1841 he and his older brother John, Jr., taught a private school in Concord, and in 1838 the two brothers went on a two week boating excursion that Thoreau later memorialized in his first book, A Week on the Concord and Merrimack Rivers, published in 1849. In 1840 Thoreau published poems and essays in the transcendentalist periodical, The Dial, and from 1841 to 1843 he lived with the famous author and lecturer Ralph Waldo Emerson and Emerson's family (Waldo's wife, Lidian, and two children) in Concord. In 1842 John, Jr., died a painful death of lockjaw in Thoreau's arms, and the following year Thoreau moved to Staten Island, New York, to tutor William Emerson's children and to attempt to break into the New York literary market. Having returned to Concord, in 1844 Thoreau and Edward Hoar, a companion, accidentally set fire to some woods in Concord when trying to prepare a fish chowder near Fair Haven Pond on a windy day.
From 1845 to 1847 Thoreau lived in a small house that he built himself on the shore of Walden Pond, a mile and a half south of Concord Center. In 1846, while still at the pond, he climbed to the summit of Mt. Katahdin while on a visit to the Maine woods and spent one night in jail for refusing to pay his poll tax. He later worked these experiences into lectures that were later still published as the "Ktaadn" chapter of The Maine Woods and the famous, influential essay "Civil Disobedience."
Thoreau's survey of Walden Pond, 1846
Thoreau's survey of Walden Pond, 1846
After leaving the house at the pond Thoreau stayed with the Emerson family again while Ralph Waldo Emerson lectured in England. Thoreau returned to his parent's home in 1848 and continued living with them as a boarder for the remainder of his life. At about this time he began the routine of morning and evening study and writing, and afternoon walks that were the foundation upon which he may be said to have built his creative life.
Thoreau made the first of four trips to Cape Cod in 1849, and he later delivered lectures about his experiences that were posthumously published as Cape Cod. The following year he traveled to Quebec and wrote up that experience in a lecture titled "An Excursion to Canada," partially published in 1853 as A Yankee in Canada. His famous book Walden; or, Life in the Woods (later shortened at his request to Walden) was published in 1854, and in that same year he delivered his lecture-essay "Slavery in Massachusetts" at an Independence Day meeting of the American Anti-Slavery Society.
In 1856 Thoreau traveled to Perth Amboy, New Jersey, to survey a large estate and deliver three lectures. While there he visited Walt Whitman in nearby Brooklyn. In 1857 and 1858 he visited Cape Cod, the woods of Maine, and the White Mountains of New Hampshire; and in the latter year he published what was to become the second chapter of The Maine Woods, his essay "Chesuncook." In 1859 his father died, and as a result he had to begin assuming more responsibility of the family's plumbago business. In October of that year the abolitionist Capt. John Brown raided the federal arsenal at Harper's Ferry, and Thoreau spoke mightily in defense of Brown's character — the first person in America to do so. His essay "A Plea for Capt. John Brown" was published and widely circulated in his friend, the famous editor Horace Greeley's newspaper, The New-York Tribune. The following year Thoreau lectured to his townsmen on "The Succession of Forest Trees," and his lecture was shortly afterward published and republished, receiving wider circulation than any of Thoreau's other writings during his lifetime and cementing his reputation as a naturalist.
While counting tree rings on 3 December 1860 Thoreau contracted a cold that quickly worsened into bronchitis. His lungshad long been tubercular, and Thoreau was housebound for many weeks. During the summer of 1861 he traveled to Minnesota in a vain effort to recover his health. Arriving back home he began putting his affairs in order and began preparing for publication many of his late lectures. He died of tuberculosis at his mother's home on Main Street in Concord on 6 May 1862, aged 44 years. He is buried in his family's plot near the graves of his friends Nathaniel Hawthorne, Bronson Alcott, Ralph Waldo Emerson, and Ellery Channing on Author's Ridge in Concord's Sleepy Hollow Cemetery.
1817
Born, David Henry Thoreau, 12 July in Concord, Massachusetts, to John and Cynthia (Dunbar) Thoreau
1828-33
Attended Concord Academy
1833-37
Attended Harvard College
1837
Taught briefly at Concord Center School (public)
1838-41
Conducted a private school, Concord Academy, with his elder brother John
1839
Went on boating excursion on Concord and Merrimack rivers with his older brother John, which formed the basis of Thoreau's first book, A Week on the Concord and Merrimack Rivers
1840
Poems and essays published in The Dial
1841-43
Lived with Ralph Waldo Emerson and his family in Concord
1842
Brother John cut himself while stropping a razor and died of lockjaw; “Natural History of Massachusetts” published
1843
“A Walk to Wachusett” and “A Winter Walk” published; tutored William Emerson’s children on Staten Island, New York
1844
With Edward Hoar, accidentally set fire to a part of Walden Woods
1845-47
Lived at Walden Pond
1846
Traveled to Maine woods; spent one night in jail for refusing to pay poll tax, which formed the basis for his essay, "Civil Disobedience"
1847-48
Lived in Emerson household while Ralph Waldo Emerson lectured in England
1848
Began lecturing professionally; “Ktaadn and the Maine Woods” published
1849
A Week on the Concord and Merrimack Rivers and “Resistance to Civil Government” published; traveled to Cape Cod; older sister Helen died, apparently of tuberculosis
1850
Traveled to Cape Cod and Quebec
1853
Traveled to Maine woods; portions of “A Yankee in Canada” published
1854
Walden; or, Life in the Woods and “Slavery in Massachusetts” published
1856
Surveyed Eagleswood Community near Perth Amboy, New Jersey
1857
Traveled to Cape Cod and Maine Woods; “Chesuncook” published
1858
Traveled to White Mountains in New Hampshire
1859
Father John died; “A Plea for Capt. John Brown” published
1860
“The Succession of Forest Trees” published
1861
Traveled to Minnesota with Horace Mann, Jr., in effort to regain health
1862
Died 6 May in Concord, Massachusetts, of tuberculosis"
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