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Henry David Thoreau was a significant contributor to American literature and political thought. His works include Walden and “Civil Disobedience.” Thoreau lived a subsistence life at Walden Pond, where he protested the Mexican-American War and slavery. He later became interested in natural history and environmental protectionism. Thoreau died at 44, leaving unpublished works that were later recognized by modern writers and scholars.
Henry David Thoreau is revered by many scholars as a significant contributor to American literature and American political thought. Thoreau’s most famous works include his book Walden and his essay “Civil Disobedience.” Henry David Thoreau’s works have been cited by many scholars and world leaders throughout history.
After graduating from Harvard in 1837, Henry David Thoreau returned to his home in Concord where he met the transcendentalist Ralph Waldo Emerson. Emerson took him under his wing and introduced him to the other Transcendental thinkers of the time. History has recorded the most popular of the Transcendentalists as Henry David Thoreau, Ralph Waldo Emerson, Margaret Fuller, Nathanial Hawthorne and Bronson Alcott. Thoreau’s individualistic and naturalistic transcendental beliefs led him to live a subsistence life in a small house he built on Walden Pond, which was owned by Emerson.
During his time at Walden, Henry David Thoreau opted not to pay taxes in protest of the Mexican-American War and slavery. He was put in jail for one night. The experience prompted him to lecture on “The Rights and Duties of the Individual in Relation to Government,” which Thoreau later turned into an essay. This essay was published as “Civil Disobedience,” which Mahatma Gandhi and Martin Luther King Jr. referred to primarily as a means of peaceful protest. In addition, Thoreau published a book about his two years at Walden Pond, called Walden, which has been regarded as an American classic by many literary scholars.
Later in his life, Henry David Thoreau became interested in natural history. He fueled his passion for him by becoming a land surveyor and writing about his observations about him. Furthermore, Thoreau was an early proponent of environmental protectionism and conservationism. He took time to travel to New York, Philadelphia and many locations throughout the Great Lakes area of the United States. He was known to be an American proponent of Darwin’s theory of evolution and was also a well-known vegetarian.
After a three-year struggle with bronchitis as well as a lifelong nuisance of tuberculosis, Henry David Thoreau died at the age of 44. Thoreau, fully aware that the end was near, spent his last days writing and reviewing rumors and letters that he was too weak to continue. Many of his unpublished works and journal entries were finally published in 1906, long after his death in 1862. It was not until these works were published that modern writers, leaders and scholars took notice of the style and substance of Henry David’s writings Thoreau.
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