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'''Henry David Thoreau''' (born David Henry Thoreau; July 12, 1817 – May 6, 1862)[1] was an American [[author]], poet, naturalist, tax resister, development critic, surveyor, historian, [[philosopher]], and leading [[transcendentalist]]. He is best known for his book [http://en.wikisource.org/wiki/Walden '''''Walden'''''], a [[reflection]] upon simple living in natural surroundings, and his essay, ''Civil Disobedience'', an argument for [[individual]] resistance to civil government in moral opposition to an unjust state.

'''Henry David Thoreau''' (born David Henry Thoreau; July 12, 1817 – May 6, 1862)[1] was an American [[author]], poet, naturalist, tax resister, development critic, surveyor, historian, [[philosopher]], and leading [[transcendentalist]]. He is best known for his book [https://en.wikisource.org/wiki/Walden '''''Walden'''''], a [[reflection]] upon simple living in natural surroundings, and his essay, ''Civil Disobedience'', an argument for [[individual]] resistance to civil government in moral opposition to an unjust state.

Thoreau's [[books]], articles, essays, journals, and poetry total over 20 volumes. Among his lasting contributions were his writings on [[natural history]] and [[philosophy]], where he anticipated the methods and findings of ecology and environmental history, two sources of modern day environmentalism. His literary style interweaves close natural observation, [[personal]] [[experience]], pointed [[rhetoric]], [[symbolic]] [[meaning]]s, and historical lore; while displaying a poetic sensibility, philosophical austerity, and "Yankee" love of practical detail.[2] He was also deeply interested in the [[idea]] of survival in the face of hostile elements, historical change, and natural decay; at the same time imploring one to abandon waste and [[illusion]] in order to discover life's true essential needs.[2]

Thoreau's [[books]], articles, essays, journals, and poetry total over 20 volumes. Among his lasting contributions were his writings on [[natural history]] and [[philosophy]], where he anticipated the methods and findings of ecology and environmental history, two sources of modern day environmentalism. His literary style interweaves close natural observation, [[personal]] [[experience]], pointed [[rhetoric]], [[symbolic]] [[meaning]]s, and historical lore; while displaying a poetic sensibility, philosophical austerity, and "Yankee" love of practical detail.[2] He was also deeply interested in the [[idea]] of survival in the face of hostile elements, historical change, and natural decay; at the same time imploring one to abandon waste and [[illusion]] in order to discover life's true essential needs.[2]

He was a lifelong abolitionist, delivering lectures that attacked the Fugitive Slave Law while praising the writings of Wendell Phillips and defending abolitionist John Brown. Thoreau’s philosophy of [[civil disobedience]] influenced the [[political]] thoughts and actions of such later figures as [[Leo Tolstoy]], [[Mahatma Gandhi]], and [[Martin Luther King, Jr.]]

He was a lifelong abolitionist, delivering lectures that attacked the Fugitive Slave Law while praising the writings of Wendell Phillips and defending abolitionist John Brown. Thoreau’s philosophy of [[civil disobedience]] influenced the [[political]] thoughts and actions of such later figures as [[Leo Tolstoy]], [[Mahatma Gandhi]], and [[Martin Luther King, Jr.]]

Thoreau is sometimes cited as an individualist [[anarchist]].[3] Though Civil Disobedience calls for improving rather than abolishing government – "I ask for, not at once no government, but at once a better government"[4] – the direction of this improvement aims at anarchism: “‘That government is best which governs not at all;’ and when men are prepared for it, that will be the kind of government which they will have.”[4][http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Walden]

Thoreau is sometimes cited as an individualist [[anarchist]].[3] Though Civil Disobedience calls for improving rather than abolishing government – "I ask for, not at once no government, but at once a better government"[4] – the direction of this improvement aims at anarchism: “‘That government is best which governs not at all;’ and when men are prepared for it, that will be the kind of government which they will have.”[4][https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Walden]

==References==

==References==

# Biography of Henry David Thoreau, American Poems (2000-2007 Gunnar Bengtsson).

# Biography of Henry David Thoreau, American Poems (2000-2007 Gunnar Bengtsson).