Most Popular Books by David Thoreau

Walden details Henry David Thoreau''s experiences over the course of two years, two months, and two days in a cabin owned by Ralph Waldo Emerson. The text is a reflection upon simple living in natural surroundings. The work is part social experiment, voyage of spiritual discovery, satire, and-to some degree-a manual for self-reliance.

Walden, or, Life in the Woods, is an American book written by noted transcendentalist Henry David Thoreau. The work is part personal declaration of independence, social experiment, voyage of spiritual discovery, satire, and manual for self-reliance. Published in 1854, it details Thoreau''s experiences over the course of two years in a cabin he built near Walden Pond, amid woodland owned by his friend and mentor Ralph Waldo Emerson, near Concord, Massachusetts.also known as Life in the Woods, is one of the best-known non-fiction books written by an American. Published in 1854, it details Thoreau''s life for two years and two months in second-growth forest around the shores of Walden Pond, not far from his friends and family in Concord, Massachusetts. Walden was written so that the stay appears to be a year, with expressed seasonal divisions. Thoreau called it an experiment in simple living. Walden is neither a novel nor a true autobiography, but a social critique of the Western World, with each chapter heralding some aspect of humanity that needed to be either renounced or praised.Thoreau lived in his Walden camp but two years, 1845-1847, and, as his narrative clearly shows, by no means exiled himself from home and companions. His hermitage was within easy walking distance of Concord; and, though his seclusion meant privacy at times, he was by no means debarred from society. The life in the woods was a characteristic expression of his stout independence of condition since the act was in a way unique, it transferred something of its unique property to the book which recorded it, and the book is more closely identified with Thoreau''s fame, has done more to give him distinction, than any other of his writings. The book Walden was what William Ellery Channing calls "the log-book of his woodland cruise at Walden." Thoreau himself tells us that the bulk of the book was written in his hermitage. One bit of verse, "Light-winged smoke, Icarian bird," he had printed in The Dial; but nothing else appears to have been garnered from previous publications, and the book has thus a unity of design which helps to preserve its individual force. Walden was not published, however, until 1854, when it was brought out by Ticknor & Fields.

"On the Duty of Civil Disobedience," written by legendary author and philosopher Henry David Thoreau, is widely considered to be one of the top essays of all time. This great classic, which argues that people should not permit governments to over-rule will surely attract a whole new generation of readers. For many, "On the Duty of Civil Disobedience" is required reading for various courses and curriculums. And for others who simply enjoy reading timeless pieces of classic literature, this text by Henry David Thoreau is highly recommended. Originally published in 1849 as "Resistance to Civil Government," "On the Duty of Civil Disobedience" was written to advocate public resistance to the laws and acts of government that Henry David Thoreau considered to be unjust. The practical application of "Civil Disobedience" was largely ignored until the twentieth century when, at different times, Modanda Ghandi, Martin Luther King, Jr. and anti-Vietnam War activists applied Thoreau''s principles.

Classic of American literature not only vividly narrates a boat trip Thoreau took with his brother in 1839 but also contains thought-provoking observations on literature, philosophy, Native American and Puritan histories of New England, friends, and a diversity of other topics. Of it, Ralph Waldo Emerson said, "[It] is a book of wonderful merit, which is to go far and last long.".

This Henry David Thoreau volume is a compilation of two great Thoreau works, "On the Duty of Civil Disobedience" and "A Plea for Captain John Brown." The former title argues that individuals should not permit governments to overrule their consciences, while the latter was based on a speech pleading for the life of abolitionist John Brown. Resistance to Civil Government (Civil Disobedience) is an essay by American transcendentalist Henry David Thoreau that was first published in 1849. In it, Thoreau argues that individuals should not permit governments to overrule or atrophy their consciences, and that they have a duty to avoid allowing such acquiescence to enable the government to make them the agents of injustice. Thoreau was motivated in part by his disgust with slavery and the Mexican-American War (1846-1848). A Plea for Captain John Brown is an essay by Henry David Thoreau. It is based on a speech Thoreau first delivered to an audience at Concord, Massachusetts on October 30, 1859, two weeks after John Brown''s raid on Harpers Ferry, and repeated several times before Brown''s execution on December 2, 1859. It was later published as a part of Echoes of Harper''s Ferry in 1860.

Resistance to Civil Government (Civil Disobedience) is an essay by American transcendentalist Henry David Thoreau that was first published in 1849. In it, Thoreau argues that individuals should not permit governments to overrule or atrophy their consciences, and that they have a duty to avoid allowing such acquiescence to enable the government to make them the agents of injustice. Thoreau was motivated in part by his disgust with slavery and the Mexican-American War (1846-1848).

Resistance to Civil Government (Civil Disobedience) is an essay by American transcendentalist Henry David Thoreau that was first published in 1849. In it, Thoreau argues that individuals should not permit governments to overrule or atrophy their consciences, and that they have a duty to avoid allowing such acquiescence to enable the government to make them the agents of injustice. Thoreau was motivated in part by his disgust with slavery and the Mexican-American War (1846-1848).In 1848, Thoreau gave lectures at the Concord Lyceum entitled "The Rights and Duties of the Individual in relation to Government."This formed the basis for his essay, which was first published under the title Resistance to Civil Government in 1849 in an anthology called Æsthetic Papers. The latter title distinguished Thoreau''s program from that of the "non-resistants" (anarcho-pacifists) who were expressing similar views. Resistance also served as part of Thoreau''s metaphor comparing the government to a machine: when the machine was producing injustice, it was the duty of conscientious citizens to be "a counter friction" (i.e., a resistance) "to stop the machine."In 1866, four years after Thoreau''s death, the essay was reprinted in a collection of Thoreau''s work (A Yankee in Canada, with Anti-Slavery and Reform Papers) under the title Civil Disobedience. Today, the essay also appears under the title On the Duty of Civil Disobedience, perhaps to contrast it with William Paley''s Of the Duty of Civil Obedience to which Thoreau was in part responding. For instance, the 1960 New American Library Signet Classics edition of Walden included a version with this title. On Civil Disobedience is another common title.

In Walking, Henry David Thoreau talks about the importance of nature to mankind, and how people cannot survive without nature, physically, mentally, and spiritually, yet we seem to be spending more and more time entrenched by society. For Thoreau walking is a self-reflective spiritual act that occurs only when you are away from society, that allows you to learn about who you are, and find other aspects of yourself that have been chipped away by society. This new edition of Thoreau''s classic work includes annotations and a biographical essay.

A sturdy individualist and a lover of nature, Henry David Thoreau was typical of his time and place--an epitome of the Yankee spirit. In March, 1845, he set out to live life in a new way. Borrowing an ax, he built himself a wooden hut on the edge of Walden Pond, near Concord, Massachussetts, where he lived until September, 1847. Walden is a record of that experiment in simple living.

On July 4, 1845, Henry David Thoreau moved into the cabin he had built on the shore of Walden Pond, thus beginning the most famous experiment in simple living in American history. Walden is Thoreau''s classic autobiographical account of this experiment in solitary living, his refusal to play by the rules of hard work and the accumulation of wealth and above all the freedom it gave him to adapt his living to the natural world around him. First published in 1854, this book has influenced generations of readers and continues to inspire and inform anyone with an open mind and a love of nature.

American author, naturalist, and abolitionist, Henry David Thoreau was a principal figure of the 19th century movement of Transcendentalism. Central to the philosophy is a belief that people, who are inherently good, are corrupted by the organized institutions of society and that consequently the best community is one that is built upon on independence and self-reliance. In Thoreau''s best known work, "Walden" we find a classic account of his attempt to live by the principles espoused in this philosophy. Henry David Thoreau spent two years living at Walden Pond near Concord, Massachusetts, on a woodland property owned by fellow transcendentalist Ralph Waldo Emerson. The story is detailed in its accounts of Thoreau''s day-to-day activities, observations, and undertakings to survive out in the wilderness. Thoreau''s journal is an exquisite account of a man seeking a more simple life by living in harmony with nature. A journey of self-discovery, "Walden" is Thoreau''s declaration of independence, a manual of self-reliance, for which the author will be forever immortalized. This edition is printed on premium acid-free paper and includes introductions by Bradford Torrey and Raymond Macdonald Alden.

An American masterwork in praise of nature, self-reliance, and the simple life"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."In 1845, the transcendentalist Henry David Thoreau moved from his home in the town of Concord, Massachusetts, to a small cabin he built by hand on the shores of Walden Pond. He spent the next two years alone in the woods, learning to live self-sufficiently and to take his creative and moral inspiration from nature. Part memoir, part philosophical treatise, part environmental manifesto, Walden is Thoreau''s inspirational account of those extraordinary years and one of the most influential books ever written.

Do you want to know about how the voyage of spiritual discovery? If so, this is a must read, this book is one of the most popular novels from the 19th century. Walden, as one reviewer said, deep and good; timeless classic!Walden is an Autobiography by Henry David Thoreau. The book Walden details Thoreau''s experiences over the course of two years, two months, and two days in a cabin he built near Walden Pond.