A Year in Thoreau's Journal: 1851

by Henry David Thoreau, H. Daniel Peck (Introduction)

Thoreau's journal of 1851 reveals profound ideas and observations in the making, including wonderful writing on the natural history of Concord.

For more than seventy years, Penguin has been the leading publisher of classic literature in the English-speaking world. With more than 1,700 titles, Penguin Classics represents a global bookshelf of the best works throughout history and across genres and disciplines. Readers trust the series to provide authoritative texts enhanced by introductions and notes by distinguished scholars and contemporary authors, as well as up-to-date translations by award-winning translators.

Genres: Nonfiction, Classics, Nature, Philosophy, Memoir, 19th Century, Biography

368 pages, Paperback

First published December 1, 1993

About the author

Henry David Thoreau (born David Henry Thoreau) was an American author, naturalist, transcendentalist, tax resister, development critic, philosopher, and abolitionist who is best known for Walden, a reflection upon simple living in natural surroundings, and his essay, Civil Disobedience, an argument for individual resistance to civil government in moral opposition to an unjust state.

Thoreau's books, articles, essays, journals, and poetry total over 20 volumes. Among his lasting contributions were his writings on natural history and philosophy, where he anticipated the methods and findings of ecology and environmental history, two sources of modern day environmentalism.

In 1817, Henry David Thoreau was born in Massachusetts. He graduated from Harvard University in 1837, taught briefly, then turned to writing and lecturing. Becoming a Transcendentalist and good friend of Emerson, Thoreau lived the life of simplicity he advocated in his writings. His two-year experience in a hut in Walden, on land owned by Emerson, resulted in the classic, Walden: Life in the Woods (1854). During his sojourn there, Thoreau refused to pay a poll tax in protest of slavery and the Mexican war, for which he was jailed overnight. His activist convictions were expressed in the groundbreaking On the Duty of Civil Disobedience (1849). In a diary he noted his disapproval of attempts to convert the Algonquins "from their own superstitions to new ones." In a journal he noted dryly that it is appropriate for a church to be the ugliest building in a village, "because it is the one in which human nature stoops to the lowest and is the most disgraced." (Cited by James A. Haught in 2000 Years of Disbelief.) When Parker Pillsbury sought to talk about religion with Thoreau as he was dying from tuberculosis, Thoreau replied: "One world at a time."

Thoreau's philosophy of nonviolent resistance influenced the political thoughts and actions of such later figures as Leo Tolstoy, Mohandas K. Gandhi, and Martin Luther King, Jr. D. 1862.

More: http://plato.stanford.edu/entries/tho...

http://thoreau.eserver.org/

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Henry_Da...

http://transcendentalism-legacy.tamu....

http://www.biography.com/people/henry...

Reviews

[Nikki Sojkowski · Rating 2 out of 5]

He's a really quirky guy, I definitely prefer is more thought out and eloquent essays over these difficult to decrypt notes

[Ben Hayward · Rating 3 out of 5]

Thoreau's writing is, as I probably should have expected, a bit odd. His journal is typically meandering and whimsical, which I suppose may have a certain appeal.

[Nathan · Rating 4 out of 5]

A good entry to Thoreau’s journal.

[Georgia · Rating 3 out of 5]

the product of a man strolling through the woods eventually coming to the realization that he is better than everyone else

[J · Rating 2 out of 5]

Does Thoreau see himself as one of the untamed men he describes on page 38? He suggests that not all men were created equally "fit subjects for civilization." Thoreau definitely comprehends his place as an outsider, so it seems unlikely that he would find himself a "submissive member of society." Does Thoreau have "wild oats still left to sow"? What are they? Are they related to his work or travels? Did he ever feel finished?