Henry David Thoreau
Author
Publisher
Duke Classics
Language
English
Description
Thoreau wrote Civil Disobedience in 1849. It argues the superiority of the individual conscience over acquiescence to government. Thoreau was inspired to write in response to slavery and the Mexican-American war. He believed that people could not be made agents of injustice if they were governed by their own consciences.
Author
Series
Classics of non-violence volume no. 1
Language
English
Formats
Description
Thoreau advocates for nonviolent protest in his classic manifesto
Motivated by his disgust with the US government, Henry David Thoreau’s seminal philosophical essay enjoins individuals to stand against the ruling forces that seek to erase their free will. It is the duty of a good citizen, he argues, not only to disobey a bad law, but also to protest an unjust government. His message of nonviolence and appeal to value one’s...
Motivated by his disgust with the US government, Henry David Thoreau’s seminal philosophical essay enjoins individuals to stand against the ruling forces that seek to erase their free will. It is the duty of a good citizen, he argues, not only to disobey a bad law, but also to protest an unjust government. His message of nonviolence and appeal to value one’s...
Author
Series
Language
English
Description
Based on a trip with his brother in 1839, "A Week on the Concord and Merrimack Rivers" is an excellent example of Thoreau's talent for naturalistic writing. In exquisite detail Thoreau depicts the nature that surrounds him over the course of his trip. One of only two books to be published during his lifetime, Thoreau began work on "A Week on the Concord and Merrimack Rivers" following his brother's death in 1842, however the work was not fully completed...
4) Cape Cod
Author
Series
Language
English
Formats
Description
Five-year-old Emil, who lives on a Swedish farm, is constantly in trouble.
5) Walden
Author
Series
Language
English
Appears on list
Description
"In honor of the bicentennial of Henry David Thoreau's birth, this edition of Walden features an introduction and annotations by renowned environmentalist Bill McKibben. 'We need to understand that when Thoreau sat in the dooryard of his cabin 'from sunrise till noon, rapt in a revery, in undisturbed solitude and stillness, while the birds sang around or flitted noiseless through the house,' he was offering counsel and example exactly suited for our...
6) Walking
Author
Language
English
Description
""In Wildness is the preservation of the World," wrote Henry David Thoreau in his iconic deathbed essay "Walking." Published posthumously in 1862, "Walking" became a seminal influence in the environmental movement. "Above all," wrote Thoreau, "we cannot afford not to live in the present." He extolled walking as a delightful and necessary idleness, an antidote to the burdens of civilization, a means of immersing ourselves in nature and awakening to...
Author
Series
Language
English
Appears on list
Description
Interwoven with accounts of Thoreau's daily life (he did not live as a recluse but received visitors and almost daily walked into Concord) are meditations on human existence, society, government and other topics, expressed with clear-headed wisdom and remarkable beauty of style.
8) Excursions
Author
Series
The American experience volume AE17
Language
English
Formats
Description
"Excursions presents texts of nine essays, including some of Thoreau's most engaging and popular works, newly edited and based on the most authoritative versions of each. These essays represent Thoreau in many stages of his writing career, ranging from 1842-when he accepted Emerson's commission to review four volumes of botanical and zoological catalogues in an essay that was published in The Dial is "Natural, History of Massachusetts" to 1862, when...
Author
Language
English
Formats
Description
One of the most famous non-fiction American books, Walden by Henry David Thoreau is the history of Thoreau's visit to Ralph Waldo Emerson's woodland retreat near Walden Pond. Thoreau, stirred by the philosophy of the transcendentalists, used the sojourn as an experiment in self reliance and minimalism… "so as to "live deliberately, to front only the essential facts of life, and see if I could not learn what it had to teach, and not,
...10) The Maine woods
Author
Series
Language
English
Description
Posthumously published in 1864, The Maine Woods depicts Henry David Thoreau's experiences in the forests of Maine, and expands on the author's transcendental theories on the relation of humanity to Nature. On Mount Katahdin, he faces a primal, untamed Nature. Katahdin is a place "not even scarred by man, but it was a specimen of what God saw fit to make this world." In Maine he comes in contact with "rocks, trees, wind and solid earth" as though he...
11) Wild apples
Author
Series
Language
English
Formats
Description
"Wild Apples" is a fascinating and wonderfully-written essay concerning the history and variations of wild apple species by American naturalist Henry David Thoreau. One of Thoreau's major essays, "Wild Apples" perfectly conveys his profound love and appreciation of nature and it's many wonders. Highly recommended for lovers of nature writing and fans of Thoreau's seminal work. Contents include: "The History of the Apple-tree", "The Wild Apple", "The...
16) Journal
Author
Series
Language
English
Description
"In hundreds of dated entries, Thoreau reported on the natural and social world as he saw it. His interest ranged over an incredibly wide area: birds and flowers, Greek classics, writing as an art, mammals, early Americana, Oriental literature, grasses; and his Journal includes them all. We can read his views on slavery and on the problem of the individual's relation to the State, views that every day become more pertinent. Furthermore, the Journal...
Author
Publisher
W.W. Norton
Language
English
Description
Thoreau presents information about the "'unnoticed wild berry whose beauty annually lends a new charm to some wild walk, '" along with what "may be considered Thoreau's last will and testament, in which he protests our desecration of the landscape, reflects on the importance of preserving wild space 'for instruction and recreation, ' and envisions a new American scripture."--Jacket
