David Henry Thoreau was born on July 12, 1817, in Concord, Massachusetts. He was the youngest of three children to John and Synthia Thoreau. He studied at Harvard from 1822-1837, majoring in English. Thoreau was a companion of Ralph Aldo Emerson, who patronized him and introduced him to some of the most important writers and thinkers of his time. Thoreau's early publications were made possible initially only after pressure from Emerson, who suggested that his apprentice should write his observations in his journal. Thoreau's principles of non-violence and his opposition to the Mexican-American War was also inspired by Emerson. His essay "A Walk to Wachussett" was published in the January 1843 issue of The Boston Miscellany. Thoreau spent a few months later in 1843 in New York, tutoring Emerson's sons, and trying to be published.

On the 4-th of July, 1845, Thoreau embarked on his two-year experiment in simple living. He lived in a tiny self-built house on the shore of Walden Pond, on the land owned by Emerson on the outskirts of Concord. There Thoreau had an ideal environment for thinking and writing. However, he once spent a night in jail for refusing to pay six years of delinquent poll taxes. During that time he published an elegy to his late brother, putting himself into debt for years, because he paid all expenses out of pocket. He left Walden Pond on September 6, 1847, and worked off his debt in a few years. His essay "On the Duty of Civil Disobedience" (1849) was recognized by Lev Tolstoy, Mohandas K. Gandhi, Marcel Proust, Ernest Hemingway, Martin Luther King, and many others, as an important influence on their respective careers.

Thoreau's writings evolved from his fascination with nature and natural way of life. His interest in natural history and travel narratives, like Darwin's and Bartram's, inspired many of his own works. His essays "Autumnal tints", "The Succession of Trees", "Wild Apples", and the recently published "Faith in a Seed" make Thoreau one of the early American environmentalist.

Thoreau suffered from tuberculosis, which he contracted in 1835. He also worked at his family's pencil factory for many years and seriously compromised his health by inhaling dust particles. He died on May 6, 1862, and was laid to rest in the Sleepy Hollow Cemetery. His three-million words journal was published in 1906, helping to build his modern reputation.

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Henry David Thoreau

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