Henry David Thoreau1817-1862

Marching to the Beat of a Different Drummer

On Thoreau“He [Thoreau] is a singular character — a young man with much wild original nature still remaining in him; and so far as he is sophisticated, it is in a way and method of his own. He is as ugly as sin, long-nosed, queer-mouthed, and with uncouth and somewhat rustic, although 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.” ---Nathaniel Hawthorne

"He [Thoreau] had a great contempt for those who made no effort to gauge accurately their own powers and weaknesses, and by no means spared himself, of whom he said that a man gathers materials to erect a palace, and finally concludes to build a shantee with them." --Ralph Waldo Emerson

Henry David Thoreau

Essayist, poet, transcendentalistBorn to a pencil maker in Concord, Mass. July 12, 1817Went to Concord Academy and then to HarvardOnce went to chapel in a green coat “because the rules required black”Refused to pay his poll tax

Family and ChildhoodAbolitionist family

Mother and sisters were founders of Women’s Anti-Slavery Society of Concord.

Born in 1817, one of his earliest childhood memories was of staying awake at night “looking through the stars to see if I could see God behind them.”

Early LifeAge 16, attended Harvard

where he read Emerson’s Nature which had a tremendous impact. Became protégé of Emerson

Taught school with brother who cut himself while shaving and died of lockjaw in Thoreau’s arms.

At 28, went to Walden Pond and built his cabin on land owned by Emerson.

Advocate of “simple life”“Patron saint” of American

environmental movement

Attended Harvard; became a teacher in Concord; Resigned when he was

expected to whip his pupils.One of the most

accomplished and deliberate writers in the country.

As a person, he had only one goal—to live as honestly and wisely as he could.

Thoreau’s birthplace

A Deliberate Life

Thoreau’s JobsWorked for time in family

pencil company.Invented the modern pencil:

technique of baking graphite into cylinders, then inserting into hole drilled into wood

Also worked as a handyman and a farmer

Experimental educator Founded school with brother School closed at brother’s

death

Emerson’s kindness toward and fondness for Thoreau led to the offer of various odd jobs around his Concord estate.

After his brother’s death, Thoreau lived with the Emersons.

Emerson introduced Thoreau to the Concord intellectual group and published Thoreau’s essays in his Transcendentalist magazine, The Dial.

Emerson’s home

Thoreau and Emerson

In 1843, Emerson secured a position for Thoreau as a tutor for his brother William Emerson in New York.

After only one year in Staten Island, Thoreau could no longer try to fit in to the mold of society.

In 1844, he returned to Concord where, on July 4, 1845, he began the 26-month experiment that made him famous.

On the banks of Walden Pond, on property owned by Emerson, Thoreau built a cabin.

The Way to Walden

Went to Walden 1845

1 room cabinLived aloneGrew vegetables in

2 1/2 acre farm, lived mostly as vegetarian

Rowed boat on pondRecorded life,

particularly details of pond, woods, changes of season, his thoughts

At Walden - Thoreau Did a lot of reading and

writing. Spent much time

walking in nature. Left once to give a

lecture and was imprisoned for not paying his poll tax.

Wrote A Week on the Concord and Merrimack Rivers as a memorial to his brother.

Not exactly wilderness, only a couple of miles from his family home…

An Experiment in Simple Living

Lived without many “creature comforts”

Ate very little meat

Paid great attention to his surroundings, environment

Focused his attention on the natural world, rather than affairs of men

Thoreau Recommends

Every community should have a park or a primitive forest where a stick should never be cut for fuel, a common possession forever.

Areas of nature left alone, but as a place for people to relax, recreate, and be “Instructed.”

Walden as LiteratureUses many aphorisms/ a terse saying

embodying a general or “universal” truth or an astute observation or sentiment used to express ideas. If a man does not keep pace with his companions,

perhaps it is because he hears a different drummer. Let him step to the music which he hears, however measured or far away.

The physical act of living day by day at Walden Pond is what gives the book authority, while Thoreau's command of a clear, straightforward but elegant style helped raise it to the level of a literary classic.

American Style Aphorisms makes Thoreau’s revolutionary

ideas seem sensible and even “folksy”. “I should not talk so much about myself were

there anybody else whom I knew as well.” “Time is but the stream I go a-fishin in. I drink at

it, but while I drink I see the sandy bottom and detect how shallow it is. It's thin current slides away, but eternity remains.”

“If you have built castles in the air, your work need not be lost; that is where they should be. Now put the foundations under them.”

An element of American style, to explain complex ideas using simple, down-to-earth language.

Reading Walden Walden can be read as

Social criticism Inspiration to self-reform Observations of nature Hymn to the possibilities of life

Different for each reader

After Walden PondReturned to Concord two years and two

months later. Few people interested in Walden.

Spent the next nine years rewriting, creating seven full drafts.

A vocal opponent of the government waging the Mexican-American War, especially in regards to extend slavery.

Wrote “Resistance to Civil Government”

On Civil Disobedience Went to jail because he refused to pay a poll

tax, as a protest against the Mexican War. A relatively unnoticed text at the time, Civil

Disobedience in 1848 proved to be of enormous significance in its impact.

Cited by Danish resistance movement during Nazi occupation

Inspiration for on Mohandas Gandhi. Always carried copy in his luggage; read it in jail.

1950s, censored by Senator Joe McCarthy (removed from US Information Service Libraries)

Influenced Martin Luther King, Jr.

Civil DisobedienceThe cornerstone of Thoreau’s vision is that

we are all entrapped by the prison of our culture.

We are all slaves in society, in that we follow routines: “the mass of men lead lives of quiet desperation.”

Much like Emerson, Thoreau developed an antisocial philosophy: we are essentially wasting our time and ourselves when we are involved in society.

On Civil Disobedience

1.Thoreau prefers a laissez-faire government, but he does not call for abolishing government. Rather he wants a better government. “That government is best which governs least” “I ask for, not at once no government, but at once

a better government.”

2.Most people serve the state mechanically and do not freely exercise moral judgment about their service.

On Civil Disobedience, II3.Order, Civil Government, and the rule of the

majority (i.e. democracy) sometimes prevents people from doing the right thing.

4.People may be more right than their neighbors and constitute a majority because they have God on their side, and they should act immediately to wash their hands of wrong.

5.One honest man can change the state by standing up to it.

On Civil Disobedience, III6.A man can change an unjust system by refusing

to be unjust, and by being entirely willing to make a sacrifice.

7.Blood spilt is lamentable, but wounding one’s conscience is worse.

A Different DrummerWhen Thoreau left Walden, he passed the peak

of his career, and his life lost much of its illumination.

Slowly his Transcendentalism drained away: He became a surveyor in order to support

himself. He collected botanical and reptilian

specimens He spent more of his time in the family

business; after his father's death he took it over entirely

As Thoreau became less of a Transcendentalist he became more of an activist.