Walden

Henry David Thoreau (1817 - 1862) was an American poet, author, and transcendentalist who is best known for his book Walden; or, Life in the Woods (1854). Thoreau was also an abolitionist, historian, philosopher, surveyor, naturalist, development critic and tax resister, and he contributed to the field of natural history, which would influence modern day environmentalism. He had hoped Walden would establish him as the leading spokesman for the American transcendentalist movement, but unfortunately he wasn't widely appreciated in his lifetime - his collected books, journals, essays, articles and poetry would eventually find a large audience during the 1900s. His book Walden would become particularly popular during the forced austerity of the Great Depression of the 1930s, and then again during the 1960s when conservationism, transcendentalism and many other isms swept through American culture.

In Walden, Thoreau accounts for his two years spent in a little cabin near Walden Pond, where he lived a self-reliant, solitary, and contemplative existence in accord with nature and his soul. He went on walks, grew a fine neck beard, and wrote one of the cornerstones of transcendentalist literature. His work is a celebration of the unity of nature and an exploration of humanity and the divine - ideals which form the basis of transcendentalism. Transcendentalism is the movement that champions simplicity, solitude, and living in accord with nature. For literary reasons, Thoreau condensed his 26 months spent at Walden into one year, which began and ended in Spring. It took him seven years to complete, a time during which he assiduously honed and reworked his manuscript, which were based on his own journals.