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His%20life

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Title: His%20life


1
1817---1862
2
His life
  • 1. Born in Concord, Massachusetts, July 12, 1817
  • 2. In Harvard College in 1833, and graduated in
    1837 as one of the honor students
  • 3. Opened a school, where he taught with his
    brother John
  • 4. 1839, made a trip on Concord and Merrimack
    rivers with John
  • 5. Helped Emerson edit The Dial and tutored
    Emersons children
  • 6. In March 1845 ( when 28)began to work on a
    cabin at Walden Pond, and on July 4, moved into
    the Walden cabin
  • 7. 1846, arrested for nonpayment of poll tax
  • 8. Published Walden on August 9, 1856
  • 9. Met Walt Whitman in Brooklyn 1856
  • 10. In 1860, contracted the cold that led to his
    fatal illness, and died in Concord on May 6, 1862
  • 11.In 1906, 20 volumes of Thoreaus writings were
    published, including 14 volumes of his journal

3
Why is Thoreau different from others?
  • If a man does not keep pace with his companions,
    perhaps it is because he hears a different
    drummer. Let him step to the music which he
    hears, however measured or far away.
  • --- Henry David
    Thoreau

4
Henry David Thoreau, The Great
  • 1. Dismissed as an idler, and a drifter and a
    minor writer and a wasted Harvard graduate, and
    almost forgotten in his day, and yet in our day,
    he is one of few writers who deserve the
    appellation great.
  • 2. He put into practice of principles of plain
    living and high thinking.
  • 3. His journal of nearly 7000 pages transcribed
    his daily thoughts, observations, readings and
    encounters with nature and men.

5
Relationship with Emerson
  • 14 years younger than Emerson
  • Friendship bloomed in late 1830s, after Ts
    graduation from Harvard
  • Throughout the 1840s, Emerson encouraged Thoreau
    as a writer, particularly praising his poetry and
    getting him started on the topic of Nature

6
Relationship with Emerson
  • Shared political attitudes about slavery
  • Friendship cooled some in the 1850s, with T
    resenting Es patronage E critical of what he
    saw as Ts lack of ambition
  • RWE delivered the eulogy at Ts funeral No
    truer American existed than Thoreau

7
Walden Lake, where Thoreau found the real meaning
of life.
8
A reproduction of the cabin where Thoreau lived
for two years and two months
9
A modern reader of Thoreau in the historic cabin
10
(No Transcript)
11
The nameless and timeless Henry
12
Beauty originates from simplicity.
13
His major works
  • 1.Walden , known for its modern style, simplicity
    of diction and figures of speech, has 200
    different editions and been translated into every
    major modern language.
  • 2. Walden was revised 8 times, and is read as the
    19th century Adventures of Robinson Crusoe
  • 3. Civil Disobedience is the result of his jailed
    experience in 1846, embodying the pioneering
    spirit of the American frontiersman and a
    development of the philosophy in the Declaration
    of Independence, having a great impact on Mahatma
    Gandhi and Dr. Martin Luther King.

14
By working about six weeks in a year, I could
meet all the expenses of living.
  • Growing his own food and building his own shelter
    gave him freedom to work productively as a writer
    and thinker
  • Profound connection between self reliance,
    meaningful labor, and thought

15
An age of social experimentation
  • Like the 1960s, the 1840s saw a number of
    experiments with communes. Hawthorne lived for a
    time at Brook Farm, the Alcotts at Fruitlands.
  • Ts stay at Walden Pond is a more solitary
    response to this same impulse towards social
    experimentation.

16
I say, break the law. Let your life be a counter
friction to stop the machine.
  • Civil Disobedience
  • Henry David Thoreau
  • While living at Walden Pond, T was arrested and
    briefly jailed for not paying his poll tax.
  • His essay on the experience, Civil
    Disobedience, explores the question of what a
    person should do when he or she feels that his
    government is acting immorally.

17
Crosspollination
  • Like RWE, Thoreau avidly studied the Hindu
    scriptures of India.
  • Mahatma Gandhi studied Thoreaus writings on
    civil disobedience as he led Indias struggle for
    independence.
  • MLK based many of his ideas on nonviolent action
    on the work of Gandhi.
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