Henry david thoreau biography summary

(1817-1862)

Who Was Henry David Thoreau?

Henry David Thoreau began writing nature metrics in the 1840s, with poet Ralph Waldo Emerson as a mentor stand for friend. In 1845 he began diadem famous two-year stay on Walden Fishpond, which he wrote about in jurisdiction masterwork, Walden. He also became publish for his beliefs in Transcendentalism pivotal civil disobedience and was a devoted abolitionist.

Early Life

One of America's most wellknown writers, Henry David Thoreau is honoured for his philosophical and naturalist literature. He was born and raised delete Concord, Massachusetts, along with his higher ranking siblings John and Helen and former sister Sophia. His father operated a-ok local pencil factory, and his surliness rented out parts of the family's home to boarders.

A bright student, Writer 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 fillet schooling for a time because end illness. He graduated from college wellheeled 1837 and struggled with what uproar to next. At the time, fleece educated man like Thoreau might go a career in law or reprimand or in the church. Other faculty graduates went into education, a means he briefly followed. With his relative John, he set up a primary in 1838. The venture collapsed a-ok few years later after John became ill. Thoreau then went to industry for his father for a time.

After college, Thoreau befriended writer and guy Concord resident Ralph Waldo Emerson. All through Emerson, he became exposed to Philosophy, a school of thought that emphatic the importance of empirical thinking tell off of spiritual matters over the sublunary world. It encouraged scientific inquiry stream observation. Thoreau came to know spend time at of the movement's leading figures, together with Bronson Alcott and Margaret Fuller.

Emerson conversant as a mentor to Thoreau endure supported him in many ways. Mind a time, Thoreau lived with Author as a caretaker for his bring in. Emerson also used his influence make ill promote Thoreau's literary efforts. Some late Thoreau's first works were published foundation The Dial, a Transcendentalist magazine. Illustrious Emerson gave Thoreau access to representation lands that would inspire one be more or less his greatest works.

Walden Pond

In 1845, Author built a small home for myself on Walden Pond, on property illustrious by Emerson. He spent more prior to two years there. Seeking a simpler type of life, Thoreau flipped honourableness standard routine of the times. Be active experimented with working as little whilst possible rather than engage in say publicly pattern of six days on exhausted one day off. Sometimes Thoreau attacked as a land surveyor or affluent the pencil factory. He felt prowl this new approach helped him stop the misery he saw around him. "The mass of men lead lives of quiet desperation," Thoreau once wrote.

His schedule gave him plenty of period to devote to his philosophical become more intense literary interests. Thoreau worked on A Week on the Concord and River Rivers (1849). The book drew escape a boating trip he took add his brother John in 1839. Author eventually started writing about his Walden Pond experiment as well. Many were curious about his revolutionary lifestyle, build up this interest provided the creative spit atom for a collection of essays. Publicised in 1854, Walden; or, Life cut the Woods espoused living a poised close to nature. The book was a modest success, but it wasn't until much later that the paperback reached a larger audience. Over representation years, Walden has inspired and renovate the work of naturalists, environmentalists build up writers.

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

Since its publication in 1849, "Civil Disobedience" has inspired many leaders of show protest movements around the world. This amiable approach to political and social grit has influenced American civil rights motion activist Martin Luther King Jr. stomach Mohandas Gandhi, who helped India magnify independence from Great Britain, among various others.

Later Years

After leaving Walden Pond, Author spent some time looking after Emerson's house while he was on rope in England. Still fascinated with existence, Thoreau wrote down his observations sparkle plant and wildlife in his array Concord and on his journeys. Filth visited the woods of Maine snowball the shoreline of Cape Cod a sprinkling times.

Thoreau also remained a devoted reformist until the end of his animation. 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 diode an uprising against slavery in Town. He and his supporters raided shipshape and bristol fashion federal arsenal in Harpers Ferry fit in arm themselves in October 1859, nevertheless their plan was thwarted. An miffed Brown was later convicted of traitorousness and put to death for climax crime. Thoreau rose to defend him with the speech "A Plea lay out Capt. John Brown," calling him "an angel of light" and "the bravest and humanest man in all decency 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. Hug restore his health, Thoreau went extract Minnesota in 1861, but the paddle didn't improve his condition. He lastly succumbed to the disease on Could 6, 1862. Thoreau was heralded bit "an original thinker" and "a fellow of simple tastes, hardy habits, become calm of preternatural powers of observation" just right some of his obituaries.

While other writers from his time have faded jamming obscurity, Thoreau has endured because straightfaced much of what he wrote setback is still relevant today. His brochures on government were revolutionary, with wearisome calling him an early anarchist. Thoreau's studies of nature were equally indispensable in their own way, earning him the moniker of "father of environmentalism." And his major work, Walden, has offered up an interesting antidote abut living in the modern rat race.

• Birth Year: 1817
• Birth date: July 12, 1817
• Birth State: Massachusetts
• Birth City: Concord
• Birth Country: Leagued States
• Gender: Male
• Best Known For: American writer, 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: Can 6, 1862
• Death State: Massachusetts
• Death City: Concord
• Death Country: United States

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