What do you think?
Rate this book
The Days of Henry Thoreau: A Biography
"The best biography we have had." — Carl Bode, The New York Times Book Review
Henry David Thoreau is generally remembered as the author of Walden and "Civil Disobedience," a recluse of the woods and political protester who once went to jail. To his contemporaries he was a minor disciple of Emerson; he has since joined the ranks of America's most respected and beloved writers. Few, however, really know the complexity of the man they revere — wanderer and scholar, naturalist and humorist, teacher and surveyor, abolitionist and poet, Transcendentalist and anthropologist, inventor and social critic, and, above all, individualist.
In this widely acclaimed biography, outstanding Thoreau scholar Walter Harding presents all of these Thoreaus. Scholars will find here the culmination of a lifetime of research and study, meticulously documented; general readers will find an absorbing story of a remarkable man. Writing always with supreme clarity, Professor Harding has marshaled all the facts so as best to "let them speak for themselves." Thoreau's thoughtfulness and stubbornness, his more than ordinarily human amalgam of the earthy and the sublime, his unquenchable vitality emerge to the reader as they did to his own family, friends, and critics.
You will see Thoreau's work in his family's pencil factory, his accidental setting of a forest fire, his love of children and hatred of hypocrisy, his contributions to the scientific understanding of forest trees, and other more and less familiar aspects of the man and his works. You will find the social as well as the reclusive Thoreau. Reactions to him by such notable contemporaries as Margaret Fuller, Nathaniel Hawthorne, and Walt Whitman — with Thoreau's responses to them — are given in rich detail.
The totality is as complete, accurate, fair, vivid, and fully rounded a portrait as has ever been drawn. On its appearance, Professor Harding's work immediately established itself as "the standard biography" (Edward Wagenknecht). It has never been superseded. For this Dover edition, the author has corrected minor errors, provided an appendix bibliographically documenting hundreds of facts, and contributed an Afterword updating some of his findings and discussing Thoreau scholarship.
Henry David Thoreau is generally remembered as the author of Walden and "Civil Disobedience," a recluse of the woods and political protester who once went to jail. To his contemporaries he was a minor disciple of Emerson; he has since joined the ranks of America's most respected and beloved writers. Few, however, really know the complexity of the man they revere — wanderer and scholar, naturalist and humorist, teacher and surveyor, abolitionist and poet, Transcendentalist and anthropologist, inventor and social critic, and, above all, individualist.
In this widely acclaimed biography, outstanding Thoreau scholar Walter Harding presents all of these Thoreaus. Scholars will find here the culmination of a lifetime of research and study, meticulously documented; general readers will find an absorbing story of a remarkable man. Writing always with supreme clarity, Professor Harding has marshaled all the facts so as best to "let them speak for themselves." Thoreau's thoughtfulness and stubbornness, his more than ordinarily human amalgam of the earthy and the sublime, his unquenchable vitality emerge to the reader as they did to his own family, friends, and critics.
You will see Thoreau's work in his family's pencil factory, his accidental setting of a forest fire, his love of children and hatred of hypocrisy, his contributions to the scientific understanding of forest trees, and other more and less familiar aspects of the man and his works. You will find the social as well as the reclusive Thoreau. Reactions to him by such notable contemporaries as Margaret Fuller, Nathaniel Hawthorne, and Walt Whitman — with Thoreau's responses to them — are given in rich detail.
The totality is as complete, accurate, fair, vivid, and fully rounded a portrait as has ever been drawn. On its appearance, Professor Harding's work immediately established itself as "the standard biography" (Edward Wagenknecht). It has never been superseded. For this Dover edition, the author has corrected minor errors, provided an appendix bibliographically documenting hundreds of facts, and contributed an Afterword updating some of his findings and discussing Thoreau scholarship.
528 pages, Paperback
First published August 1, 1982
Ratings & Reviews
Friends & Following
Create a free account to discover what your friends think of this book!
Community Reviews
Displaying 1 - 20 of 20 reviews
February 24, 2016
Walter Harding's "The Days of Henry Thoreau" is a fantastic biography. Aside from its being useful for my thesis research, I immensely enjoyed reading it. Harding captures the reader's attention by providing in-depth discussion of Thoreau's entire life. I learned so much about Thoreau's life that I had never known. His research is detailed and he manages both to provide interpretations of Thoreau's writings and to relate day-to-day events in Thoreau's life. I especially enjoyed Harding's continual inclusion of perspectives from Thoreau's contemporaries, from his friends, to his students, to citizens of Concord who knew him only slightly. Among my favorites of these were the anecdotes involving Bronson Alcott and his idealistic, well-meaning (but not usually fruitful) schemes. I got a good laugh out of many of those! I also loved Emerson's slightly-snarky remark, "If God had meant [Thoreau] to live in a swamp, He would have made him a frog!" Some serious 19th century Concord shade is being thrown here, guys!
I really respect Harding for his nuanced portrayal of Henry Thoreau, one of the greatest American authors, and yet so often misunderstood. Harding shows that while Thoreau could sometimes be a bit prickly (and many seem to think he always was), he was more often kind, thoughtful to his friends, and eager to teach young children about nature and compassion toward animals. As an aspiring teacher myself, I enjoyed the many descriptions of Thoreau's interactions with his students, his (then revolutionary) inclusion of nature field trips in teaching, and his remarkable ability to relate to children without talking down to them. This is a side of Thoreau that most people are not aware of. Harding also does a great job of dispelling the annoying myth that Thoreau was either a total hermit, or that because he visited his family in Concord during his Walden stay, his experiment was somehow not genuine. He explains how, for Thoreau, his time at Walden Pond was not about cutting himself off from society, but rather about achieving solitude to write and think, discovering himself more deeply. In doing so, he was better able to relate to people while retaining his own individual philosophy, and his socialization with the people of Concord certainly does not make him a hypocrite. Like any introvert (myself included!), he enjoyed meaningful talk with others, but occasionally needed peace and solitude to reflect and refit himself for society.
Harding also details Thoreau's political and moral beliefs, and the ways in which many of them were remarkably progressive for his time. He gives an excellent explanation of Thoreau's belief in non-violent (though he was not always a pacifist) civil disobedience as a way to protest government injustices. Thoreau most famously stood by this belief in spending the night in jail when he refused to pay the poll tax. This tax supported the Mexican War, which Thoreau saw as a bid by the slave states to increase the range of slavery in his country. Harding also discusses Thoreau's regular involvement in the Underground Railroad, housing runaway slaves at his Walden cabin and his family's house in Concord, buying them train tickets on their way to freedom in Canada. I think that many people see Thoreau as just "a guy who didn't want to pay his taxes" and thus fail to realize how brave he was in staying true to his beliefs, even though he would have faced serious consequences had his aiding runaway slaves been discovered (though, it is certainly worth saying that Thoreau did not face nearly as much peril as the runaway slaves themselves, given that the Fugitive Slave Law was in effect at the time).
Harding also describes Thoreau's lifelong fascination with Native Americans and their culture, which features prominently in Thoreau's "The Maine Woods". While some of his beliefs on Native Americans (the idea that they were somehow inherently closer to nature than their white counterparts) are simplistic and would be considered antiquated today, Thoreau was incredibly open-minded in a time when Native Americans were still widely viewed as "savages". In "The Maine Woods," Thoreau is fascinated by the native cultures and genuinely endeavors to learn the Penobscot language from his guide, Joe Polis. Harding correctly points out that Thoreau was one of the few white men in his time who viewed the Native American culture as equally rich and complex as any European or American beliefs.
Overall, if you are at all interested in learning about Henry Thoreau, I strongly recommend Harding's biography as a great place to start. Here, you can learn about Thoreau as an author and gain insight into the meaning of his works. You will also leave this long biography with the feeling that you have gotten to know Henry a little bit better as a person, not just a distant historical figure. Harding's biography is superb and instilled in me even deeper love and respect for my favorite American author.
I really respect Harding for his nuanced portrayal of Henry Thoreau, one of the greatest American authors, and yet so often misunderstood. Harding shows that while Thoreau could sometimes be a bit prickly (and many seem to think he always was), he was more often kind, thoughtful to his friends, and eager to teach young children about nature and compassion toward animals. As an aspiring teacher myself, I enjoyed the many descriptions of Thoreau's interactions with his students, his (then revolutionary) inclusion of nature field trips in teaching, and his remarkable ability to relate to children without talking down to them. This is a side of Thoreau that most people are not aware of. Harding also does a great job of dispelling the annoying myth that Thoreau was either a total hermit, or that because he visited his family in Concord during his Walden stay, his experiment was somehow not genuine. He explains how, for Thoreau, his time at Walden Pond was not about cutting himself off from society, but rather about achieving solitude to write and think, discovering himself more deeply. In doing so, he was better able to relate to people while retaining his own individual philosophy, and his socialization with the people of Concord certainly does not make him a hypocrite. Like any introvert (myself included!), he enjoyed meaningful talk with others, but occasionally needed peace and solitude to reflect and refit himself for society.
Harding also details Thoreau's political and moral beliefs, and the ways in which many of them were remarkably progressive for his time. He gives an excellent explanation of Thoreau's belief in non-violent (though he was not always a pacifist) civil disobedience as a way to protest government injustices. Thoreau most famously stood by this belief in spending the night in jail when he refused to pay the poll tax. This tax supported the Mexican War, which Thoreau saw as a bid by the slave states to increase the range of slavery in his country. Harding also discusses Thoreau's regular involvement in the Underground Railroad, housing runaway slaves at his Walden cabin and his family's house in Concord, buying them train tickets on their way to freedom in Canada. I think that many people see Thoreau as just "a guy who didn't want to pay his taxes" and thus fail to realize how brave he was in staying true to his beliefs, even though he would have faced serious consequences had his aiding runaway slaves been discovered (though, it is certainly worth saying that Thoreau did not face nearly as much peril as the runaway slaves themselves, given that the Fugitive Slave Law was in effect at the time).
Harding also describes Thoreau's lifelong fascination with Native Americans and their culture, which features prominently in Thoreau's "The Maine Woods". While some of his beliefs on Native Americans (the idea that they were somehow inherently closer to nature than their white counterparts) are simplistic and would be considered antiquated today, Thoreau was incredibly open-minded in a time when Native Americans were still widely viewed as "savages". In "The Maine Woods," Thoreau is fascinated by the native cultures and genuinely endeavors to learn the Penobscot language from his guide, Joe Polis. Harding correctly points out that Thoreau was one of the few white men in his time who viewed the Native American culture as equally rich and complex as any European or American beliefs.
Overall, if you are at all interested in learning about Henry Thoreau, I strongly recommend Harding's biography as a great place to start. Here, you can learn about Thoreau as an author and gain insight into the meaning of his works. You will also leave this long biography with the feeling that you have gotten to know Henry a little bit better as a person, not just a distant historical figure. Harding's biography is superb and instilled in me even deeper love and respect for my favorite American author.
August 13, 2018
Wonderful book of Thoreau. If you are looking for a straightforward biography of the man that is well written this is a fine book. However, some of the newer biographies I have found much more accessible and in some ways ethereal that get to his mind better and that are just beautiful to read. "Henry David Thoreau: A Life" I find to be the best written and most poetic of all his biographies.
December 9, 2023
The classic general biography of Thoreau. Harding's book has been bypassed by more recent Thoreau biographies, but it remains a good introduction. Harding's deep familiarity with Thoreau's letters and journals adds depth and context. At times, he unfortunately slips into a day-by-day account, but the final chapter, recounting Thoreau's physical demise, is quite moving.
December 6, 2024
Thoreau was such an unlikely person to have become so influential. His Walden can be read more than once, with more to discover each time. Professor Harding’s biography is remarkable in giving life to one of my favorite authors. I was lucky to have been in one of Dr. Harding’s graduate classes at SUNY Geneseo years ago and can recall several stories he told about his research.
July 24, 2017
This is a great read. At one time this was the definitive biography of Henry David Thoreau, but with the passage of time while still a touchstone, plus an indispensable resource, is best supplemented with other more current resources.
December 2, 2017
An enjoyable read about a very interesting man who didn't get to see his impact in his lifetime. My only criticism is that it was purely chronological and some digression from this pattern would have made it more interesting.
July 23, 2020
Strongly recommend reading this in parallel with On Walden Pond.
August 5, 2020
See review for Life and Times of Henry David Thoreau
September 30, 2021
E' impressionante pensare quanto lavoro e attenzione siano andati a questo libro. Decisamente una biografia piena di informazioni e analisi interessanti sul personaggio che era Thoreau.
December 8, 2023
Charming and challenging. The place to begin your study of HDT.
February 2, 2023
still the best biography of thoreau.
April 10, 2008
Among the first of the modern biographies. It covers the bases, but does not convey an integrated interpretation of the life. Still very useful, but should you require, as I do, a perspective on the life, a sense of the shape of the life, then you will need to supplement a reading of this biography with readings of the work of other biographers, e.g. Richardson, and literary critics, e.g. Buell, Gura.
May 17, 2017
A richly detailed biography of Thoreau, concentrating on the events of his life rather than the intellectual development of his thought and writing. Missing integrative interpretation, this work also escapes the pitfalls of theoretical speculations that can mar and date life studies. Sources rely heavily on the recollections of Thoreau's contemporaries, as well as Thoreau's own personal and published writings. A pleasant and informative read.
May 26, 2009
Henry David Thoreau does not do enough to let readers know him. This biography - I think some would call it a classic - this biography brings Thoreau into fuller and clearer focus. Among other things, Walter R. Harding has a sense of humor, as reflected in his account of Thoreau's garden - seven miles of beans. This is cause for a smile.
June 1, 2013
Great bio of a great man, compelling portrait. It was especially enriching to learn of the deep serenity and robust cheerfulness Thoreau displayed throughout his protracted and debilitating fatal illness...talk about walking the walk. And it was nice to read how he delighted in children and they in him; both so easily enthralled by the natural world.
March 25, 2013
Interesting biography on Henry Thoreau. I would have preferred it if it were an autobiography. However, I enjoyed the life lessons that Henry shared with his admirers through his raw and extremely practical life.
March 7, 2016
An incredibly comprehensive, accessible, and enjoyable read. Having long been an admirer of Thoreau the author, I am now an admirer of Thoreau the man--and what a man he was! By the time I reached his death at the end of the book, I felt I had lost a dear friend.
April 2, 2008
This is a very highly regarded biography of Thoreau. Thorough and highly recommended.
July 30, 2015
Read in Bordeaux while preparing my thesis
July 2, 2016
The go to book about Henry's life.
Displaying 1 - 20 of 20 reviews