Note: For links relating to specific works of Thoreau, please see the pages for those works.

Return to Thoreau Reader

Today in History - Library of Congress - "Writer, philosopher, and naturalist Henry David Thoreau was born on July 12, 1817, in Concord, Massachusetts ... Thoreau's advocacy of simple, principled living remains compelling, while his writings on the relationship between people and the environment helped define the nature essay."

Life and Times of Henry D. Thoreau - Elizabeth Hall Witherell, with Elizabeth Dubrulle - "Thoreau considered the ownership of material possessions beyond the basic necessities of life to be an obstacle, rather than an advantage. He saw that most people measured their worth in terms of what they owned, and stood this common assumption on its head."

Who he was, and why he matters - from Calliope - "Of the inspired intellectuals he lived among and worked with ... Thoreau was second to none in dedicating his life, skills, and classical learning to the Emersonian call for the creation of an original American literature and philosophy, in an era when "writer" was not yet a specialized profession."

Thoreau's "Wild Apples" - David Barber, in The Atlantic - "Why has it taken so long to catch up with Thoreau the proto-ecologist, the spiritual forefather of the crusade for a sustainable synthesis of the scientific method and moral philosophy?"

Thoreau's Pencils - John H. Lienhard - "Was the great transcendentalist, who rose above himself on the shores of Walden Pond, a successful inventor? Was this the same man who formulated the idea of civil disobedience? .... who so effectively armed Gandhi and Martin Luther King?"

Mr. Thoreau - from the Journal of Nathanial Hawthorne - "He is a keen and delicate observer of nature -- a genuine observer -- which, I suspect, is almost as rare a character as even an original poet; and Nature, in return for his love, seems to adopt him as her especial child, and shows him secrets which few others are allowed to witness."

Thoreau as Botanist - by Ray Angelo - "During the early 1850s Thoreau's passion for recording flowering dates and leafing of woody plants dawns. He described the great lengths he went to at times to ascertain the exact date a particular flower opened -- 'running to different sides of the town and into neighboring towns, often between twenty and thirty miles in a day.'"

Thoreau and His Contemporaries: Literature for the Aquatic Sciences - "Thoreau made a number of important observations on forested landscapes, bogs, rivers, and lakes and processes associated with them that merit our appreciation and acknowledgment."

Poems by Henry David Thoreau - from Ann Woodlief's American Transcendentalism Web project - "Packed in my mind lie all the clothes / Which outward nature wears, / And in its fashion's hourly change / It all things else repairs"

History of Vegetarianism: Henry David Thoreau - "when he had to, he enthusiastically ate a fried rat. He could also drink like anyone else, if he had to. But it is the control over one's palate that is gratifying: 'He who distinguished the true savor of his food can never be a glutton...'"

East Meets West - Swami B. G. Narasingha and Satyaraja dasa - "In his Journal, he wrote: 'One may discover the root of an Indian religion in his own private history, when, in the silent intervals of the day and night, he does sometimes inflict on himself like austerities with stern satisfaction.' No wonder Gandhi loved and revered him and accepted Thoreau as his teacher."

Emerson and Thoreau as American Prophets of Eco-wisdom - by Ann Woodlief - "His economic self-sufficiency may not transfer easily to an urbanized people enslaved to petroleum, but he had the right idea -- to think, before you consume, of the consequences to your mental and spiritual health which depends so much on an intimate and moral, even 'humane', connection with nature."

New England Transcendentalism - Concord Magazine - "The lasting influence of the Transcendentalists rests in the endurance of the major writings produced by the movement .... and in the powerful inspiration that their reform efforts provided to later social movements, notably the impetus given to the Mahatma Gandhi and to the American civil rights movement of the 1960s by Thoreau's principle of non-violent resistance to oppressive civil government."

Shaping the Image: Fame After Death - University of Toledo Libraries - "Soon after Thoreau’s death in 1862, friends, admirers, and critics sought to shape and define the Concordian’s image through books and other publications. By the end of the nineteenth-century, Thoreau and his works were much more popular and widely-known than when he was alive."

Heath Instructor's Guide for Thoreau - Wendell P. Glick - "Even the most recalcitrant young reader should be willing to acknowledge that the question of most concern to Thoreau is a fundamental one: 'How, since life is short and one's years are numbered, can one live most abundantly?'"

Concord - Thomas Hampson, Carla Maria Verdino-Süllwold - "Crucible of American political and intellectual history, the town of Concord, Massachusetts was not only the cradle of American independence, but also the spiritual and actual home of the American Transcendentalists."

The Thoreau Home Page is the internet home for three organizations: the Thoreau Society, the Thoreau Institute and the Walden Woods Project. It has the largest collection of Thoreau's writings online, and a search function for finding those obscure Thoreau quotes.

Frequently Asked Questions - "Was Thoreau involved in the Underground Railroad? ... Did Thoreau really start a forest fire? ... Did Thoreau ever witness a game of baseball? ...Was Thoreau gay?"

The Walden Mailing List - "This is not to be a scholarly list, discussing only details of Thoreau's writing, but a thinking list, where the enduring ideas he presented can be discussed, and examined."

Concordances of Great Books - searchable text for Walden, Civil Disobedience, and more.

Return to Thoreau Reader

Comments & questions to: Richard Lenat