Henry David Thoreau

The Contemplative Life Thoreau still touches American readers because he speaks to our need to go to the woods, if not permanently, then at least occasionally. He speaks to our contemplative side.

A Sense of Humor Thoreau wrote to a friend that he had a library of 900 volumes, “over seven hundred of which I wrote myself.”

A Night in Jail Thoreau to Emerson: “The question is not what I am doing in here, but what are you doing out there?”

Walden Pond “It becomes necessary for humans to return to simpler ways to listen once again to the voice within themselves.”

An American Classic “Walden is a work of philosophy, one of the greatest that America has produced, and by far the most widely read.”

Replica of Thoreau’s Cabin “Thoreau’s masterpiece is a Transcendental blueprint for returning to simpler ways, a guidebook to attaining the good life …”

A Reminder The power of Walden is that it reminds us of what we already know.

Summary Thoreau is one of those who deny society’s definition of a successful life, one of those who refuse to lead “lives of quiet desperation.”