LoC Blog: Henry David Thoreau

Writer, philosopher, and naturalist Henry David Thoreau was born on July 12, 1817, in Concord, Massachusetts. Associated with the Concord-based literary movement called New England Transcendentalism, he embraced the Transcendentalist belief in the universality of creation and the primacy of personal insight and experience. 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.

The doctrines of despair, of spiritual or political tyranny or servitude, were never taught by such as shared the serenity of nature.

Henry David Thoreau. Excursions. (Boston: Ticknor and Fields, 1863), 39. The Evolution of the Conservation Movement, 1850-1920. Rare Book & Special Collections Division

[Henry David Thoreau, head-and-shoulders portrait, facing slightly right]. c1879. The Evolution of the Conservation Movement, 1850-1920. Prints & Photographs Division

After graduating from Harvard in 1837, Thoreau held a series of odd jobs. Encouraged by Concord neighbor and friend Ralph Waldo Emerson, he started publishing essays, poems, and reviews in the transcendentalist magazine The Dial. His essay “Natural History of Massachusetts” (1842) revealed his talent for writing about nature. ... [mehr] https://www.loc.gov/item/today-in-history/july-12