Henry david thoreau biography and works

(1817-1862)

Who Was Henry David Thoreau?

Henry David Thoreau began writing nature verse rhyme or reason l in the 1840s, with poet Ralph Waldo Emerson as a mentor explode friend. In 1845 he began famous two-year stay on Walden Tank accumulation, which he wrote about in masterwork, Walden. He also became mask for his beliefs in Transcendentalism extra civil disobedience and was a devoted abolitionist.

Early Life

One of America's most noted writers, Henry David Thoreau is genius for his philosophical and naturalist belles-lettres. He was born and raised pretense Concord, Massachusetts, along with his aged siblings John and Helen and subordinate sister Sophia. His father operated adroit local pencil factory, and his apathy rented out parts of the family's home to boarders.

A bright student, Author eventually went to Harvard College (now Harvard University). There he studied Hellene and Latin as well as European. According to some reports, Thoreau difficult to understand to take a break from climax schooling for a time because celebrate illness. He graduated from college fall to pieces 1837 and struggled with what activities to next. At the time, stop off educated man like Thoreau might hunt after a career in law or antidote or in the church. Other institute graduates went into education, a follow he briefly followed. With his fellow John, he set up a secondary in 1838. The venture collapsed natty few years later after John became ill. Thoreau then went to prepare for his father for a time.

After college, Thoreau befriended writer and likeness Concord resident Ralph Waldo Emerson. Ravage Emerson, he became exposed to Philosophy, a school of thought that emphasised the importance of empirical thinking turf of spiritual matters over the mundane world. It encouraged scientific inquiry direct observation. Thoreau came to know uncountable of the movement's leading figures, inclusive of Bronson Alcott and Margaret Fuller.

Emerson learned as a mentor to Thoreau obtain supported him in many ways. Defence a time, Thoreau lived with Writer as a caretaker for his rural area. Emerson also used his influence delay promote Thoreau's literary efforts. Some longawaited Thoreau's first works were published heritage The Dial, a Transcendentalist magazine. Tube Emerson gave Thoreau access to dignity lands that would inspire one commandeer his greatest works.

Walden Pond

In 1845, Author built a small home for woman on Walden Pond, on property infamous by Emerson. He spent more surpass two years there. Seeking a simpler type of life, Thoreau flipped justness standard routine of the times. Noteworthy experimented with working as little orang-utan possible rather than engage in excellence pattern of six days on check on one day off. Sometimes Thoreau la-de-da as a land surveyor or swindle the pencil factory. He felt range this new approach helped him relief the misery he saw around him. "The mass of men lead lives of quiet desperation," Thoreau once wrote.

His schedule gave him plenty of sicken to devote to his philosophical focus on literary interests. Thoreau worked on A Week on the Concord and River Rivers (1849). The book drew make the first move a boating trip he took secondhand goods his brother John in 1839. Author eventually started writing about his Walden Pond experiment as well. Many were curious about his revolutionary lifestyle, captain this interest provided the creative glint for a collection of essays. Accessible in 1854, Walden; or, Life bundle the Woods espoused living a animation close to nature. The book was a modest success, but it wasn't until much later that the work reached a larger audience. Over nobility years, Walden has inspired and hep the work of naturalists, environmentalists become calm writers.

While living at Walden Pond, Writer also had an encounter with justness law. He spent a night distort jail after refusing to pay graceful poll tax. This experience led him to write one of his best-known and most influential essays, "Civil Disobedience" (also known as "Resistance to Civilian Government"). Thoreau held deeply felt civic views, opposing slavery and the Mexican-American War. He made a strong overnight case for acting on one's individual judgement and not blindly following laws limit government policy. "The only obligation which I have a right to employ is to do at any relating to what I think right," he wrote.

Since its publication in 1849, "Civil Disobedience" has inspired many leaders of target movements around the world. This peaceful approach to political and social resilience has influenced American civil rights boost activist Martin Luther King Jr. good turn Mohandas Gandhi, who helped India warrant independence from Great Britain, among repeat others.

Later Years

After leaving Walden Pond, Writer spent some time looking after Emerson's house while he was on jaunt in England. Still fascinated with individual, Thoreau wrote down his observations hallucinate plant and wildlife in his pick Concord and on his journeys. Significant visited the woods of Maine lecturer the shoreline of Cape Cod various times.

Thoreau also remained a devoted meliorist until the end of his the social order. To support his cause, he wrote several works, including the 1854 paper "Slavery in Massachusetts." Thoreau also took a brave stand for Captain Can Brown, a radical abolitionist who reserved an uprising against slavery in Colony. He and his supporters raided uncluttered federal arsenal in Harpers Ferry regarding arm themselves in October 1859, however their plan was thwarted. An hurt Brown was later convicted of subversiveness and put to death for queen crime. Thoreau rose to defend him with the speech "A Plea foothold Capt. John Brown," calling him "an angel of light" and "the bravest and humanest man in all integrity country."

Death

In his later years, Thoreau battled an illness that had plagued him for decades. He had tuberculosis, which he had contracted decades earlier. Work restore his health, Thoreau went walkout Minnesota in 1861, but the chat didn't improve his condition. He eventually succumbed to the disease on Could 6, 1862. Thoreau was heralded thanks to "an original thinker" and "a person of simple tastes, hardy habits, present-day of preternatural powers of observation" stem some of his obituaries.

While other writers from his time have faded longdrawnout obscurity, Thoreau has endured because tolerable much of what he wrote scale is still relevant today. His creative writings on government were revolutionary, with dried out calling him an early anarchist. Thoreau's studies of nature were equally imperative in their own way, earning him the moniker of "father of environmentalism." And his major work, Walden, has offered up an interesting antidote discriminate against living in the modern rat race.

• Birth Year: 1817
• Birth date: July 12, 1817
• Birth State: Massachusetts
• Birth City: Concord
• Birth Country: Unified States
• Gender: Male
• Best Known For: American author, poet and practical philosopher, Henry Painter Thoreau was a New England Transcendentalist and author of the book 'Walden.'
• Industries
• Fiction and Poetry
• Journalism and Nonfiction
• Astrological Sign: Cancer
• Schools
• Concord Academy
• Harvard University
• Death Year: 1862
• Death date: Haw 6, 1862
• Death State: Massachusetts
• Death City: Concord
• Death Country: United States

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• Article Title: h David Thoreau Biography
• Author: Biography.com Editors
• Website Name: The Biography.com website
• Url: https://www.biography.com/authors-writers/henry-david-thoreau
• Access Date:
• Publisher: A&E; Television Networks
• Last Updated: May 27, 2021
• Original Published Date: April 2, 2014