Some Thoreau Background

Henry David Thoreau
1817-1862

"The greater part of what my neighbors call good I believe in my soul to be bad, and if I repent of anything, it is very likely to be my good behavior. What demon possessed me that I behaved so well?" (http://thoreau.eserver.org/)
How Blakeian of him :)


*It is said that one of his first memories was of staying awake at night "looking through the stars to see if I could see God behind them." One might say he never stopped looking into nature for ultimate Truth.
*Thoreau died of tuberculosis in 1862, at the age of 44. His last words were said to be "Moose" and "Indian." :)
*Henry grew up very close to his older brother John, who taught school to help pay for Henry's tuition at Harvard. While there, Henry read a small book by his Concord neighbor, Ralph Waldo Emerson, Nature, and in a sense he never finished exploring its ideas -- although always definitely on his own terms, just as he explored everything!
(www.vcu.edu/engweb/transcendentalism/authors/thoreau/)
*Was a Philosopher,antislavery activist, engineer, botanist, inventor......
*Was considered a "nature writer" which is traditionally defined as nonfiction prose -obviously about the natural environment. It often draws heavily on scientific information and facts about the natural world. It is frequently a first person narritive incorporating personal observations and philosophical reflections upon nature. (wikipedia)
*Was most famous for "Walden", an account of his simple living amongst nature.
*His "nature writing" progressed from the poetic symbolism of Walden to the scientific method in his later journals: (1) observation and information-gathering; (2) stating a hypothesis; (3) verifying the hypothesis with testing.(http://thoreau.eserver.org/whowhy.html)
How Goetheian of him :)