The Essential Henry D. Thoreau Collection

Thoreau worked at his family's pencil factory in , , and He had a natural gift for mechanics. According to Henry Petroski, Thoreau discovered how to make a good pencil out of inferior graphite by using clay as the binder; this invention improved upon graphite found in New Hampshire in by Charles Dunbar.

Later, Thoreau converted the factory to producing plumbago, used to ink typesetting machines. Frequent contact with minute particles of graphite may have weakened his lungs. He traveled to Quebec once, Cape Cod twice, and Maine three times; these landscapes inspired his "excursion" essays, A Yankee In Canada , Cape Cod, and The Maine Woods, in which travel intineraries frame his thoughts about geography, history, and philosophy. Hailed as an early American environmentalist, Thoreau wrote essays on autumnal foliage, the succession of forest trees, and the dispersal of seeds, collected in Excursions.

Scientists regard these works as anticipating ecology, the study of interactions between species, places, and seasons.

He was an early advocate of recreational hiking and canoeing, of conserving natural resources on private land, and of preserving wilderness as public land. Thoreau was also one of the first American supporters of Darwin's theory of evolution. Although he was not a strict vegetarian, he ate relatively little meat and advocated vegetarianism as a means of self-improvement. Last years and death Thoreau first contracted tuberculosis in and suffered from it sporadically over his life.

In , following a late night excursion to count the rings of tree stumps during a rain storm, he became extremely ill. His health declined over three years with brief periods of remission, until he eventually became bedridden.

Recognizing the terminal nature of his disease, Thoreau spent his last years editing, rewriting, and organizing his unpublished works, particuarly The Dispersion of Seeds, and petitioning publishers to produce his essays and books. He also maintained corespondances and his journals until he became too weak, after which he would dictate to his sister.

His friends' letters and journals are filled with both alarm at his diminished appearance and impending death, as well as fascination with Thoreau's tranquility with his situation.

When a friend asked him in his last weeks whether he had made his peace with God, Thoreau responded quite simply: Emerson wrote the elegy spoken at his funeral. His friends, Ellery Channing and Harrison Blake, edited some poems, essays, and Journal entries for posthumous publication in the s.

Thoreau's two-million-word Journal, often mined but largely unpublished at his death, appeared in and helped to build his modern reputation. It is currently being reproduced in a multi-volume set.

Frank Sanborne wrote his first biography, Thoreau the Poet-Naturalist. Today he is regarded as one of the foremost American writers, both for the modern clarity of his prose style and the prescience of his views on nature and politics. His memory is honored by the international Thoreau Society, the oldest and largest society devoted to an American author.

Plato's Theory of Knowledge.

Civil Disobedience and Other Essays. Walking - The Original Classic Edition. Walden and Civil Disobedience Collins Classics. Walden and Other Writings. Works Of Henry David Thoreau: The Journal of Henry David Thoreau, Thoreau's Book of Quotations.

The Wild, Wild West. Works of Henry David Thoreau. Canoeing in the wilderness. Harvard Classics Volume An Excursion to Canada.

Newest listings by Henry David Thoreau

Selections from the Journals. The Transmigration of the Seven Brahmans.

• Autres titres intéressants.
• Loveguppies The Story Begins!.
• The Iowa.
• The Sacrifice of the Sage Hen;
• Voir Dieu (French Edition).
• Got It Made;
• Walden - Wikipedia.

Living in Harmony with the Nature: On the Duty of Civil Disobedience. A Year in Thoreau's Journal. John Levasseur rated it liked it May 03, James Garlits rated it it was amazing Mar 03, Lisa marked it as to-read Dec 20, Melanie marked it as to-read Feb 24, Marwa Arafa marked it as to-read Jun 30, Amir mogy marked it as to-read Jul 01, Weesa marked it as to-read Mar 05, Anne Marie marked it as to-read Aug 03, Josh marked it as to-read Aug 05, Shirley DeCou marked it as to-read Feb 06, Mark Nicholson is currently reading it Jul 05, Askia Mohammed marked it as to-read Aug 09, Nicole Thurston marked it as to-read Dec 16, Kimber marked it as to-read Jan 10, Suarez is currently reading it Feb 20, Tammy is currently reading it Mar 19, Allen K Roeseler marked it as to-read May 03, Danielle marked it as to-read Jul 18, Mulhare marked it as to-read Sep 15, Adam Copeland marked it as to-read Oct 11, Quartknee marked it as to-read Dec 19, Kiyana Williams marked it as to-read Apr 12, Mike marked it as to-read Aug 19, Josh is currently reading it Dec 24, Doug Stewart marked it as to-read Dec 29,