Walden

150th Anniversary Edition

No cover

Walden (2016, Princeton University Press)

376 pages

English language

Published April 3, 2016 by Princeton University Press.

ISBN:
9780691169347

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Walden (; first published in 1854 as Walden; or, Life in the Woods) is a book by American transcendentalist writer Henry David Thoreau. The text is a reflection upon simple living in natural surroundings. The work is part personal declaration of independence, social experiment, voyage of spiritual discovery, satire, and—to some degree—a manual for self-reliance.Walden details Thoreau's experiences over the course of two years, two months, and two days in a cabin he built near Walden Pond amidst woodland owned by his friend and mentor Ralph Waldo Emerson, near Concord, Massachusetts. Thoreau makes precise scientific observations of nature as well as metaphorical and poetic uses of natural phenomena. He identifies many plants and animals by both their popular and scientific names, records in detail the color and clarity of different bodies of water, precisely dates and describes the freezing and thawing of the pond, and recounts his experiments to measure …

137 editions

Subjects

  • Thoreau, henry david, 1817-1862
  • Massachusetts, description and travel
  • Wilderness areas
  • Natural history, united states
  • Authors, american
  • Authors, biography
  • Solitude
  • Massachusetts, social life and customs