Henry David Thoreau

Henry David Thoreau

Born: July 12, 1817 Concord, Massachusetts, U.S.

Died: May 6, 1862 (aged 44) Concord, Massachusetts, U.S.

School: Transcendental idealism

Main interests: Ethics, Poetry, Religion, Politics, Biology, Philosophy, History

Alma mater: Harvard College

Notable ideas: Abolitionism, tax resistance, development criticism, civil disobedience, direct action, environmentalism, anarchism, simple living

LIFE

//Born in Concord, Massachusetts, into the "modest New England family“ of John Thoreau (a pencil maker)

//He studied at Harvard College between 1833 and 1837. He lived in Hollis Hall and took courses in rhetoric, classics, philosophy, mathematics, and science.

1. Early life and education, 1817–1836

2.Return to Concord, 1836–1842

Teaching

Emerson came into his life.

Guide, introducerGuide, introducerGuide, introducer

Guide, introducer

Spiritual mentor

3. Civil Disobedience and the Walden years, 1845–1849

Embarking a two-year experiment in simple living on July 4, 1845 by Walden Pond

On July 24 or July 25, 1846, Thoreau refused to pay six years of  poll taxes because of his opposition to the Mexican-American War and slavery, and he spent a night in jail because of this refusal.

4. Later years, 1851–1862

Fond of natural history and travel/expedition narratives

A land surveyor and continued to write increasingly detailed natural history observations about the 26 square miles town in his journal, a two-million word document he kept for 24 years.

5. Ending

Died on May 6, 1862 at age 44

Died of tuberculosis and bronchitis: a late night excursion confronted with rain storm

Works

Reform and the Reformers

Walden

Civil Disobedience

An Excursion to Canada 

Life Without Principle

A practice of Transcendentalism

Life in the woods

I went to the woods because I wished to live deliberately, to front only the essential facts of life, and see if I could not learn what it had to teach, and not, when I came to die, discover that I had not lived.

Henry David Thoreau, Walden, "Where I Lived, and What I Lived For"

Famous words:

我到丛林中去，因为我想活得从容，只去面对生活中最本质的事物，看我究竟能否从中领略生活的奥妙，免得待我将死之时，才发现我只是在虚度此生。

Theme

Walden emphasizes the importance of self-reliance, solitude, contemplation, and closeness to nature in transcending the crass( 愚钝的） existence that is supposedly the lot of most humans. This book criticizes western culture's consumerist and materialist attitudes and its distance from nature and destruction of nature.

Thank You