HENRY DAVID THOREAU

EARLY LIFE

• Born May, 6 , 1862 in Concord, Massachusetts
• John Thoreau (a pencil maker) and Cynthia Dunbar.
• He studied at Harvard College between 1833 and 1837.
• Became a teacher and quit after 2 weeks
• Worked in his dads pencil making business

HIS CONNECTION TO EMERSON

• he met Ralph Waldo Emerson through a mutual friend at Harvard
• Emerson interest in Thoreau and thought him and tutored his kids
• Introduced him to a circle of local writers and thinkers, including Ellery Channing, Margaret Fuller,
• Thoreau moved into the Emerson house.

CIVIL DISOBEDIENCE / TRAGEDIES

• On July 24 or July 25, 1846, Thoreau ran into the local tax collector, Sam Staples, who asked him to pay six years of delinquent poll taxes. Thoreau refused
• In January and February 1848, he delivered lectures on "The Rights and Duties of the Individual in relation to Government
• He had a good relationship with his brother but he died shaving
• He proposed to a women named Ellen but her parents say no
• Spent a night in jail

LATER YEARS

• In 1851 Thoreau became fascinated with natural history and expedition narratives.
• Became a land surveyer
• Thoreau got tuberculosis in 1835 at the age of 44
• Thoreau's last words were "Now comes good sailing", followed by two lone words, "moose" and "Indian".
• Became and activist

QUOTES

• "I never found a companion that was so companionable as solitude".
• "The price of anything is the amount of life you exchange for it".
• "The language of friendship is not words but meanings. "

WALDON POND

• Lives there for 2 years
• Observed nature and wrote for 2 years
• He was not completely alone
• His works are later published
• Spent hours in nature