Historical Figures Codexery

Henry David Thoreau

American naturalist, essayist, poet, and philosopher

He is best known for his book Walden and the essay "Civil Disobedience".[1] His writings on natural history anticipated modern ecology and environmental history.[2] Born on July 12, 1817, Henry David Thoreau was a philosopher, poet, essayist, and naturalist from America.[1]

Quick Facts

Region
Western philosophy
Era
19th-century philosophy
Birth name
David Henry Thoreau
Born
12 July 1817
Birthplace
Concord, Massachusetts, U.S.
Died
6 May 1862
School of thought
Transcendentalism
Alma mater
Harvard College

Facts from the source article.

Life and work

Thoreau was born David Henry Thoreau in Concord, Massachusetts, to a pencil maker and Cynthia Dunbar.[3] After graduating, he taught school and later opened the Concord Academy with his brother John.[4] Thoreau worked in his family's pencil factory for most of his adult life, improving the pencil-making process.[5] He was a lifelong abolitionist who defended John Brown and attacked the fugitive slave law.[6][7]

From 1833 through 1837, Thoreau was a student at Harvard College, where his residence was Hollis Hall.[8] His refusal to pay poll taxes, stemming from his objections to slavery and the Mexican-American War, led to him being jailed for one night.[6] The essay "Resistance to Civil Government," which later became known as "Civil Disobedience," was created by Thoreau from that experience.[9] At the age of 44, Thoreau passed away from tuberculosis on May 6, 1862.[10][11]

What the cited sources add

A family friend called the Thoreau house a "haven" of "undisturbed orderliness" with a sunny sitting room filled with Sophia's plants.[12] Henry and Sophia Thoreau grew so close toward the end of his life that a friend called them "like twins".[12] Sophia not only cared for Henry during his final illness but helped him edit his manuscripts.[12] Helen Thoreau brought Henry to the attention of Ralph Waldo Emerson by showing Henry's journal to Emerson's sister-in-law.[12]

The Flint family denied Thoreau permission to build his cabin on their land because he had previously set an accidental fire near Fairhaven Bay.[13] He credited squirrels for performing a "great service... in the economy of the universe" by carrying nuts that later germinate.[14] How forests regenerate following a fire or human-caused destruction was explained by Thoreau in his lecture "The Succession of Forest Trees," through the mechanism of seed dispersal by animals or wind.[15][14]

References

  1. Wikipedia, "Henry David Thoreau" (CC BY-SA 4.0), which cites: "Henry David Thoreau Biography & Works", Encyclopædia Britannica; Howe, Daniel Walker, What Hath God Wrought: The Transformation of America, 1815–1848. , p. 623. (original not read by us) en.wikipedia.org
  2. Wikipedia, "Henry David Thoreau" (CC BY-SA 4.0), which cites: Thoreau, Henry David. A Week on the Concord and Merrimack Rivers / Walden / The Maine Woods / Cape Cod. Library of America. .; Thoreau, Henry David. A Week on the Concord and Merrimack Rivers / Walden / The Maine Woods / Cape Cod. Library of America. . (original not read by us) en.wikipedia.org
  3. Wikipedia, "Henry David Thoreau" (CC BY-SA 4.0), which cites: Nelson, Randy F. (1981). The Almanac of American Letters. Los Altos, California: William Kaufmann. p. 51. .; "Henry David Thoreau and 'Civil Disobedience'", LewRockwell.com, July 30, 2005 (original not read by us) en.wikipedia.org
  4. Wikipedia, "Henry David Thoreau" (CC BY-SA 4.0), which cites: The History of Concord, Massachusetts, Vol. I, Colonial Concord, Volume 1, Alfred Sereno Hudson (1904), p. 311; Sattelmeyer, Robert (1988). Thoreau's Reading: A Study in Intellectual History with Bibliographical Catalogue. Chapter 2 . Princeton: Princeton University Press; Sattelmeyer, Robert (1988). Thoreau's Reading: A Study in Intellectual History with Bibliographical Catalogue. Chapter 2 . Princeton: Princeton University Press (original not read by us) en.wikipedia.org
  5. Wikipedia, "Henry David Thoreau" (CC BY-SA 4.0), which cites: Petroski, "The Pencil: A History of Design and Circumstance", Knopf, 1992, p. 104–125 (original not read by us) en.wikipedia.org
  6. Wikipedia, "Henry David Thoreau" (CC BY-SA 4.0), which cites: Rosenwald, Lawrence. "The Theory, Practice and Influence of Thoreau's Civil Disobedience". William Cain, ed. (2006). A Historical Guide to Henry David Thoreau. (original not read by us) en.wikipedia.org
  7. Wikipedia, "Henry David Thoreau" (CC BY-SA 4.0), which cites: Reynolds, David S. (2005). John Brown, Abolitionist. Knopf. p. 4. (original not read by us) en.wikipedia.org
  8. Wikipedia, "Henry David Thoreau" (CC BY-SA 4.0), which cites: Roman, "The Homes of Henry David Thoreau", Electrum Magazine, June 24, 2021; "The Writings of Henry D. Thoreau", thoreau.library.ucsb.edu; "Organizations Thoreau Joined", Thoreau Society (original not read by us) en.wikipedia.org
  9. Wikipedia, "Henry David Thoreau" (CC BY-SA 4.0), which cites: "Morrissociety.org" (original not read by us) en.wikipedia.org
  10. Wikipedia, "Henry David Thoreau" (CC BY-SA 4.0), which cites: Blanding, "Beans, Baked and Half-Baked (13)", The Concord Saunterer, 1980, p. 16–22; Myerson, "Barzillai Frost's Funeral Sermon on the Death of John Thoreau Jr.", Huntington Library Quarterly, 1994, p. 367–376; "Thoreau's Life The Thoreau Society", www.thoreausociety.org; "Helen and Sophia Thoreau, Henry David's Amazing Sisters", New England Historical Society, September 19, 2020; Herrick, "Sophia Thoreau – "Cara Sophia"", The Concord Saunterer, 1978, p. 5–12 (we also read that source) en.wikipedia.org
  11. Wikipedia, "Henry David Thoreau" (CC BY-SA 4.0), which cites: "The Writer's Almanac", American Public Media (original not read by us) en.wikipedia.org
  12. "Helen and Sophia Thoreau, Henry David's Amazing Sisters", New England Historical Society, September 19, 2020. facts only, no text reused. newenglandhistoricalsociety.com
  13. "Flint's Pond", Lincoln Land Conservation Trust and Rural Land Foundation. facts only, no text reused. lincolnconservation.org
  14. Wikipedia, "Henry David Thoreau" (CC BY-SA 4.0), which cites: Worster, "Nature's Economy", Cambridge University, 1977, p. 69–71 (we also read that source) en.wikipedia.org
  15. Wikipedia, "Henry David Thoreau" (CC BY-SA 4.0), which cites: Thorson, "Walden's Shore: Henry David Thoreau and Nineteenth-Century Science", Harvard University Press, 2013; Primack, "Tracking Climate Change with the Help of Henry David Thoreau", June 13, 2013 (original not read by us) en.wikipedia.org

Each numbered sentence above was checked against the source it cites before publication. Sentences citing Wikipedia adapt text from the English Wikipedia article Henry David Thoreau (contributors), used under CC BY-SA 4.0; this entry is available under the same licence. Other sources were used for facts only; no text or images are copied from them.

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