Henry Thoreau graduated from Harvard in Eighteen -Thirtyseven at the age of twenty. After his graduation he moved back to Concord to teach and tutor young students. While in Concord he finished writing a journal he had started during his early writing years in college. This journal writen about experiences, and nature was fourteen volumes long when published. His journal sparked the begining of his writting career which was sparked by Ralph Waldo Emerson a close friend. Over the next few years he wrote poems, essays, and reviews in many local magazines, including Emerson's magazine the Dial. With all of his writings he had finally established himself in Concord.
In 1845 he built a small cabin on Emerson's land at Walden pond where he lived and observed nature for two years. Thoreau's written accounts of < HERF="../thoreawa.html">Walden were to bring him success, and laid the foundation for the reputation that he has today. While at Walden Thoreau refused to pay his poll tax in protest to American slavery and was taken to jail . This lead to his writing Resistance to Civil Government better known as Civil Disobedience. Thoreau for many years kept up his protest against slavery, giving speeches, lecturing, and helping slaves escape from the south to Canada. He also supported John Brown's attack on Harpers Ferry, that was an armed attack on slavery.
Thoreau unable to support himself through his writings, worked as a laborer, including a brief time working in his families pencil factory. During this period in the 1850's he traveled extensivly, and wrote about each excursion with essays on Cape Cod (1865), Quebec (1866), and the Maine wilderness (1864).
For a majority of Thoreau's adult life he examined the area and the people in Concord. Devoting most of his time to the writing of his journals, and his observations. These records are some of the most thorough in american history. His writings on nature such as Succesion of Forest Trees were great great contributions to natural history.
Thoreau died in 1861 after being long ill with tuberculosis. When he died he was in the middle of a massive study of native fruits. Thoreau is buried in sleepy hollow cemetery in concord.
Works Cited:Derleth, August. Concord Rebel. Philadelphia ans New York: Chilton Company, 1962.
Edel, Leon. Henry D. Thoreau University of Minnesota Press, Minneapolis,1970.Harding, Walter. The Days of Henry Thoreau New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 1965.
Peter Hutcheson