resistance to civil government by henry david thoreau

Over the next two years, surrounded by nature, he wrote his first two books and tried to live by Transcendentalist doctrines. Thoreau moved into the house on July 4th, 1845. Later, with Emerson’s help, Thoreau built a small house on land that Emerson owned on the shores of Walden Pond.

At the same time, he learned all about the philosophy of Transcendentalism, a mode of living that stressed the importance of putting spiritual concerns over material ones. Thoreau began writing seriously under Emerson’s guidance and began to publish some poems and essays. Though Thoreau had become an informal mentee of Emerson’s upon his graduation from Harvard, it wasn’t until he began living with Emerson over the next two years that he fully immersed himself in Emerson’s teachings. Shortly after the closure of the school, Ralph Waldo Emerson, one of the foremost thinkers and philosophers of Thoreau’s time (who also happened to be his neighbor, mentor, and friend) invited Thoreau to live with him as a handy man. By this point, Thoreau had already begun to show interest in different pursuits, primarily nature and writing. Thoreau returned to the education field when he decided to start a school in Concord with his brother in 1839, before closing it permanently two years later, when his brother fell ill. He briefly took a job as a teacher before starting work at his father’s pencil factory. Though he suffered from medical and financial hardships during his undergraduate years, he ultimately graduated with distinction in 1937. He finished his primary and secondary education in Concord before completing his undergraduate education at Harvard. Henry David Thoreau was born on Jin Concord Massachusetts, to John Thoreau, a pencil maker, and Cynthia Dunbar.

Resistance to civil government by henry david thoreau