Henry David Thoreau

Anna, Michaela, Deanna, Alison, and HilaryE-block Craig-Ollins

Birth

• Henry David Thoreau was born on July 12,1817 in Concord, Massachusetts.

• His parents were John Thoreau and Cynthia Dunbar Thoreau.

• John Thoreau was Henry's bother whom Henry was extremely close with.

• People often noticed that Thoreau was always observing nature.  It is said he never stopped seeking the truth. 

Schooling

• Thoreau attended Concord University 1828-1833• After, he attended Harvard University from 1833-1837.• He then opened a grammar school, Concord Academy,

with his brother John.• He taught children new concepts involving many of the

ideas he believed in. 

Daily Life

• When Thoreau was just 25 years old, his brother died of lockjaw from shaving. 

• This devastated Thoreau.  He then worked with his father's business and made pencils. 

• In 1945, after 9 years of making pencils, Thoreau decided to write his first book, and to do so, decided to move to Walden Pond.

Thoreau and Emerson

How they met

• Emerson was 34 and Thoreau was a 20-year old Harvard senior

• On Sunday, April 9, 1837, Mrs. Lucy Brown who was boarding at Thoreau's parents' house, brought Thoreau to visit her brother-in-law, Ralph Waldo Emerson. 

• Thoreau had read Emerson's Nature in April and again in June 1837.

Thoreau and Emerson

• Ralph Waldo Emerson was Thoreau’s best friend

• Being an 14 years older and a more experienced writer and thinker, Emerson acted as mentor to Thoreau

• Contemporaries of Thoreau claimed that he went through a phase when he walked, talked, and even combed his hair as Emerson did.

Emerson's first influence on Thoreau  At their next meeting in late

October 1837, Emerson shared his huge library with young Thoreau and urged him to keep a journal.

Thoreau began his journal on October 22, 1837.

a page of one of Thoreau's journals

Thoreau's first journal entry“What are you doing now?” he asked. “Do you keep a journal?” So I make my first entry to-day. To be alone I find it necessary to escape the present— I avoid myself. How could I be alone in the Roman emperor's chamber of mirrors? I seek a garret. The spiders must not be disturbed, nor the floor swept, nor the lumber arranged.

— Henry David Thoreau, Journal, October 22, 1837

Employed by EmersonIn 1841, Emerson invited Thoreau to live at his home and to make himself useful there only when it would not interfere with his writing. He served as the children's tutor, editorial assistant, and repair man/gardener.During this period, Thoreau wrote philosophical and literary essays for a little magazine Emerson was editing called The Dial.

Walden Pond1845-1846:Thoreau lived in a cabin he built at Walden Pond just outside Concord on land owned by Emerson

Walden Pond

• In order to create complete solitude, Thoreau moved to Walden Pond, which was part of the land owned by Emerson.

• There, he built a log cabin and lived observing nature and absorbing its beauty from 1845 until 1847.

• He occasionally traveled to Concord, but spent most of his time at the pond.

• While living at Walden Pond he wrote the book "Walden" which was mainly about his experience and the ideas he discovered while staying there.

• Thoreau fell in love with nature and took in every bit of it he could. After living at Walden Pond, he traveled throughout New England and Quebec writing about his experience in his journal as he went. 

Later Years

• Thoreau became ill with tuberculosis and suffered from symptoms so severely that he was required to be bedridden.

• During his last few years, he spent time revising and editing his writing pieces.

• He died of tuberculosis in 1862 at age 44• Thoreau left behind him 20 some drafts and writing and his

journal which contained his observations and opinions of how he viewed life.

• He was never famous or admired during his life, yet little did he know, he would be remembered forever. 

Public Reception to Thoreau• Established a reputation at Harvard of being an

individualist because he did not share most of the values of his fellow students

• Concord gossiped about how a Harvard graduate could spend all his time wondering around instead of working most of the day 

•  Known for his individual character, but was respected by his townsmen

• Described as a social reformer, naturalist, philosopher, transcendentalist, and a scientist 

Public Reception to Thoreau's work

• Work's are known for their contradictions, and for being rich and complex 

• Some readers misunderstand Thoreau's tone as being cranky and bitter, but other readers admire his appreciation for nature 

•  When he first completed his writings at Walden, few people were interested in reading his work, so he spent years drafting Walden before publishing it

People who Influenced Thoreau• Inspired by nature

o Lived at Walden Pond for about 2 years

o  Traveled to Maine and Cape Cod • Emerson

o close friend and mentor• Other neighbors Nathaniel Hawthorne,

Bronson Alcott, Margaret Fuller• Fascinated by the Native Americans• Darwin and Humboldt• American Romanticism

o Kant, Coleridge, and Carlyle

Thoreau's impact on others

• Mainly Gandhi and Martin Luther King Jr. • Others included J.F.K, Tolstoy, William

Douglas,William butler Yeats, Ernest Hemingway, John Muir, etc.

Gandhi• Gandhi was influenced by Thoreau and his philosophy greatly• Read Walden and "Civil Disobedience" while working towards

civil rights in India• Wrote summary of Walden, spoke about his influence, adopted

policies• In "For Passive Resisters" in 1907, he stated:

o "Thoreau was a great writer, philosopher, poet, and withal a most practical man, that is, he taught nothing he was not prepared to practice in himself. He was one of the greatest and most moral men America has produced. At the time of the abolition of slavery movement, he wrote his famous essay "On the Duty of Civil Disobedience". He went to gaol for the sake of his principles and suffering humanity. His essay has, therefore, been sanctified by suffering. Moreover, it is written for all time. Its incisive logic is unanswerable."

Martin Luther King Jr.

• American civil rights leader, MLK Jr., was also influenced by Thoreau's essay.

• Thoreau introduced him to non-violent protest•  In his autobiography, he wrote:

o "Here, in this courageous New Englander's refusal to pay his taxes and his choice of jail rather than support a war that would spread slavery's territory into Mexico, I made my first contact with the theory of nonviolent resistance. Fascinated by the idea of refusing to cooperate with an evil system, I was so deeply moved that I reread the work several times.

"On the Duty of Civil Disobedience"• Published in 1849

• Published during the beginning stages of the Civil War  o Fugitive Slave Laws o Bleeding Kansas 

• Argues that individuals should follow what they believe is right and not follow the laws of government when it is acting unjust

• Individuals are not obligated to devote their life to eliminating evils, but instead are obligated to not participate is such evils

• Evils specifically directed at slavery and its practice of aggressive war

 Quotes from "Civil Disobedience"• "Unjust laws exist: shall we be

content to obey them, or shall we endeavor to amend them, and obey them until we have succeeded, or shall we transgress them at once?"

• "If the machine of government... is of such a nature taht it requires you to be the agent of injustice to another, then, I say, break the law" o Thoreau is trying to push the reader

to think for himself and consider the implication of everyday laws by which the general public abide

Quotes from "Civil Disobedience" • "Is it not possible to take a step further towards

recognizing and organizing the rights of man? There will never be a really free and enlightened State until the State comes to recognize the individual as a higher and independent power, from which all its own power and authority are derived, and treats him accordingly." o Final statement in the essayo Expresses how he imagines a place where individual will

have power, rather than be dominated by the "overwhelming brute force of millions", and the state will recognize the individual as a "higher and independent power".

Thoreau's Legacy• Two books: Walden, A Week on

the Concord and Merrimack Rivers

• Many essays and journals; specifically "Civil Disobedience"

• Unfinished manuscripts on Native Americans and religion

• Natural Science, Ethics, Philosophy, Politics

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