Henry David Thoreau and His
Transcendental Experiment
Henry David Thoreau
1817 - 1862
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If Ralph Waldo Emerson
was the philosopher of
Transcendentalism,
Thoreau was its most
devoted practitioner.
While Emerson wrote
and lectured about
Transcendentalism,
Thoreau tried to live as a
transcendentalist.
Early Education
• Unlike Emerson,
grew up in a middle
class family with a
significant amount of
wealth.
• Also attended
Harvard and
graduated in 1837.
Early Career
• Worked as school
teacher.
• Contracted
Tuberculosis, a
disease he fought all
his life.
• Had a short stint
working in his
father’s pencil
factory.
The Lecturer and Rebel
•
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As an independent
thinker, Thoreau became
the head of the Concord
Lyceum organizing
lectures where he met
Ralph Waldo Emerson.
Thoreau eventually
worked as a handyman
and caretaker of
Emerson’s estate while
Emerson spent long stints
studying abroad in
Europe.
The Walden Experiment
• From 1841 – 1843
Thoreau decided to
conduct an
experiment of selfsufficiency by
building his own
house on the shores
of Walden Pond and
living off the food he
grew on his farm.
Walden
• Thoreau later documented his
experiment in his famous
memoir Walden.
Famous quotes from Walden:
• “I went to the woods to live
intentionally, to suck the
marrow out of life.”
(This was quoted in Dead Poet’s
Society to initiate each
meeting).
"A lake is the landscape's most
beautiful and expressive
feature. It is Earth's eye;
looking into which the beholder
measures the depth of his own
nature."
Fact from Fiction
• While reading excerpts of
Walden it may seem Thoreau
wrote his novel as a diary while
being isolated in the woods,
miles from civilization.
• However…
• Thoreau often went to Concord
to buy supplies.
• He wrote thirteen drafts of
Walden before publishing it.
• He often had friends visit him
in the evenings.
• He house was built on
Emerson’s property.
Civil Disobedience
• Another work that was a result
of Thoreau’s Walden
Experiment was his essay Civil
Disobedience.
• Thoreau wrote the essay while
spending the night in jail after
refusing to pay a tax that would
help fund slavery in the South.
• Civil Disobedience has been a
highly influential work that has
inspired peaceful activists such
as Ghandi and Martin Luther
King Jr.
• Famous Quote: “If... the
machine of government... is of
such a nature that it requires
you to be the agent of injustice
to another, then, I say, break the
law.”
Thoreau and Emerson Myth
• It is said while Thoreau
was in jail Emerson came
to visit him and the
following conversation
took place:
• Emerson: “Henry David
what are you do in there,
you should be living your
life, not rotting in jail.”
• Thoreau: “Ralph Waldo,
why are standing out there
doing nothing.”
Thoreau’s Late Life and Death
• Though Thoreau never made a
substantial living as a writer, his
collection of writing consist of
over twenty volumes.
• Thoreau’s only trip abroad was
to Canada in 1861 where he had
another lapse of Tuberculosis.
• On May 6th, 1862 Thoreau died
losing his fight to the disease.
• Emerson later published a
collection of Thoreau’s poems
in 1865.
Please Stand for Think on Your Feet