Henry David Thoreau - a man for all seasons

I have long been impressed with this man and the things that he espoused and encouraged as the tenets for a successful life. Permit me to share a few things about him. For the purposes of clarity I will be using text and images from a variety of sources but will quote the references for all items that are available.


I was impressed to learn that as it states in the bio below, he left his home and the comforts of his life to go to a small property called Walden Pond owned by his friend Ralph Waldo Emmerson, which still exists today in a relatively untouched form. He resided there for two years and two months and made a small farm lot of about 2 1/2 acres growing beans and turnips to sustain himself. He built a small cabin, obtained from an old railway siding, a replica of which is there today, and commenced getting in touch with who he was, the people around him and he loved it. I love that he did that. His experiment was initiated by wanting to understand the things that mankind needs to live by. He kept meticulous financial records, showing that his profit of that time was a mere $8.00. He had neither a clock or a calendar in his little cabin. He spent his time reading and writing and discovering the wonder of nature. He was not a hermit, he walked to the town of concord on most days. He often invited towns folk to his little cabin for enlightening conversation. He mixed with the indians and loved to ponder the wonders of eternity.

Once his experiment on Walden Pond was complete, he left there without regret. He realised that part of his life had ended and he was keen to enter the next phase of his life.

BIO

Henry David Thoreau was a complex man of many talents who worked hard to shape his craft and his life, seeing little difference between them. Born in 1817, one of his first memories was of staying awake at night "looking through the stars to see if I could see God behind them." One might say he never stopped looking into nature for ultimate Truth.

Henry grew up very close to his older brother John, who taught school to help pay for Henry's tuition at Harvard. While there, Henry read a small book by his Concord neighbor, Ralph Waldo Emerson, Nature, and in a sense he never finished exploring its ideas -- although always definitely on his own terms, just as he explored everything! He and his brother taught school for a while but in 1842, John cut himself while shaving and died of lockjaw in his brother's arms, an untimely death which traumatized the 25 year old Henry. He worked for several years as a surveyor and making pencils with his father, but at the age of 28 in 1845, wanting to write his first book, he went to Walden pond and built his cabin on land owned by Emerson

While at Walden, Thoreau did an incredible amount of reading and writing, yet he also spent much time "sauntering" in nature. He gave a lecture and was imprisoned briefly for not paying his poll tax, but mostly he wrote a book as a memorial to a river trip he had taken with his brother, A Week on the Concord and Merrimack Rivers.

After two years (and two months), Thoreau returned to Concord -- a bare two miles away which he had visited frequently during his stay at the pond, having completed his experiment in living and his book. Unfortunately, few people were interested in purchasing his book, so he spent the next nine years, surveying and making pencils at times but primarily writing and rewriting (creating seven full drafts) Walden before trying to publish it. He supported himself by surveying and making a few lectures, often on his experience at Walden pond.

Many readers mistake Henry's tone in Walden and other works, thinking he was a cranky hermit. That was far from the case, as one of his young neighbors and Edward Emerson attest. He found greater joy in his daily life than most people ever would.

He traveled often, to the Maine woods and to Cape Cod several times, and was particularly interested in the frontier and Indians. He opposed the government for waging the Mexican war (to extend slavery) eloquently in Resistance to Civil Government, based on his brief experience in jail; he lectured against slavery in an abolitionist lecture, Slavery in Massachusetts. He even supported John Brown's efforts to end slavery after meeting him in Concord, as in A Plea for Captain John Brown.

Thoreau died of tuberculosis in 1862, at the age of 44. His last words were said to be "Moose" and "Indian." Not only did he leave his two books and numerous essays, but he also left a huge Journal , published later in 20 volumes, which may have been his major work-in-progress. Many memorials were penned by his friends, including Emerson's eulogy and Louisa May Alcott's poem, "Thoreau's Flute."

Over the years, Thoreau's reputation has been strong, although he is often cast into roles -- the hermit in the wilderness, the prophet of passive resistance (so dear to Mahatma Gandhi and Martin Luther King) -- that he would have surely seen as somewhat alien. His work is so rich, and so full of the complex contradictions that he explored, that his readers keep reshaping his image to fit their own needs. Perhaps he would have appreciated that, for he seems to have wanted most to use words to force his readers to rethink their own lives creatively, different though they may be, even as he spent his life rethinking his, always asking questions, always looking to nature for greater intensity and meaning for his life.

Ann Woodlief

Just a few of his many, many quotes.

Aim above morality. Be not simply good, be good for something.

A man is rich in proportion to the number of things he can afford to let alone.

An early-morning walk is a blessing for the whole day.

As you simplify your life, the laws of the universe will be simpler; solitude will not be solitude, poverty will not be poverty, nor weakness weakness.

Could a greater miracle take place than for us to look through each other's eyes for an instant?

Do not worry if you have built your castles in the air. They are where they should be. Now put the foundations under them.

Go confidently in the direction of your dreams. Live the life you have imagined.

How could youths better learn to live than by at once trying the experiment of living?





A US tribute stamp 1967 honouring Thoreau

Aware he was dying, Thoreau's last words were "Now comes good sailing", followed by two lone words, "moose" and "Indian".[29] He died on May 6, 1862 at age 44. He died of tuberculosis and had also contracted Bronchitis. He leaves a legacy of wisdom, strength and hope that has gone far beyond the geographical plots of ground that he trod. He is truly a man for all seasons.


The family graves in Sleepy Hollow Cemetary.



Bio by Ann Woodlief
content for paragraph 2-3 by Tom Perry
quotes by H. D Thoreau
Maxham daguerreotype of Henry David Thoreau made in 1856.
The first picture was a portrait done in 1854
the last paragraph info
and stamp, gravestone, pencil plaque pictures from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Henry_David_Thoreau