Author Bio: Henry David Thoreau

Henry David Thoreau ( 1817 – 1862) was an American transcendentalist who lived in Massachusetts, where he spent the majority of his adult life working in his father’s pencil factory. Known primarily for his works Walden and Civil Disobedience, Thoreau was a promoter of the simple life and a just government. He is often portrayed as an anarchist, although his push was less for the overthrowing of the government and more for an improved government. Thoreau’s political protests and abolitionist ways often got him into trouble, going so far as to once land him in jail overnight for refusing to pay poll taxes. He overtly opposed slavery and participated in the Underground Railroad as well as protesting the Mexican-American War. His piece Civil Disobedience is said to have influenced Mohandas Gandhi and Martin Luther King, Jr.

Thoreau famously spent two years in a small hut/cabin in the woods near Walden Pond, an experience he would then turn into the reflection on nature, life, and religion called Walden, or Life in the Woods. Throughout his life he would write about nature, philosophy, travel, and politics, all the while keeping a journal over the course of 24 years that would total over two million words.

Near Thoreau’s cabin site at Walden Pond

Henry David Thoreau passed away at the age of 44 after contracting tuberculosis, set off by a bout of bronchitis caused by being out late at night counting the rings of stumps in the rain (seems quite fitting, actually). His grave can now be found at the Sleepy Hollow Cemetery in Concord. You can learn more about Thoreau at walden.org.

Interesting Fact

His good friend Nathaniel Hawthorne would describe Thoreau as “… ugly as sin, long-nosed, queer-mouthed, and with uncouth and rustic, though courteous manners, corresponding very well with such an exterior. But his ugliness is of an honest and agreeable fashion, and becomes him much better than beauty.” Hipsters today should take note of his messy, tousled hair and neckbeard, which he wore for many years and insisted women found attractive. Louisa May Alcott, however, noted that his facial hair would “most assuredly deflect amorous advances and preserve the man’s virtue in perpetuity.”