Henry Thoreau in 1856
A Project in Cooperation with the Thoreau Society
The Thoreau Reader
The annotated works of Henry David Thoreau
"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?" 
A Brief Introduction to the works of Henry Thoreau...
Books:
Walden - Thoreau's 1845 experiment in living well, with old and new photos, Henry's own survey of Walden, the Walden Express and Ask Jimmy for students, a brief history of Walden, and a new report on "progress" at the pond. 
The Maine Woods - Three excursions to the backwoods of Maine in the 1840's and 50's, an attempt to climb Maine's tallest mountain, and on the last trip, one very smart Indian
Cape Cod - Four trips to the Cape from 1849 to 1857 are narrated as a single visit; with a walk along the outer banks. You will get sand in your shoes. This is Thoreau's funniest book. 
Essays:
Civil Disobedience - Thoreau's influential 1849 essay on following your own conscience. 
Life without Principle - In 1854, Thoreau railed against a culture whose primary focus is financial. 
Slavery in Massachusetts - Also in 1854, Thoreau attacked the support of slavery in his home state. 
A Plea for Captain John Brown - Brown tried to ignite a slave rebellion; Thoreau responded in 1859.
Walking - In 1862, Thoreau described "wildness" as a treasure to be preserved, rather than a resource to be plundered.
More about Henry Thoreau:
 • Who He Was & Why He Matters - An introduction by Randall Conrad
 • Why did Thoreau live in the woods? - A quick answer
 • Thoreau’s First Year at Walden in Fact & Fiction - by Richard Smith
 • Photographs of Walden Pond and the cabin site: Walden Pond - Past & Present
 • Out of the Woods: How I Found My Muse at Walden Pond - from Lizbeth Finn-Arnold
 • Ralph Waldo Emerson, Robert Louis Stevenson, John Burroughs: Three Thoreaus
 • Thoreau Transforms His Journal into “Slavery in Massachusetts” - by Sandra Petrulionis
 • The development of Thoreau's View of Science - by Nina Baym
 • Genius Ignored - a detailed biography of Henry Thoreau by Lucius Furius
 • Emerson-Thoreau Correspondence: The Dial Period - Emerson in Europe - F. B. Sanborn
 • Theory, Practice, & Influence of Thoreau's Civil Disobedience - by Lawrence Rosenwald
 • George Willis Cooke, in 1896, discovered The Two Thoreaus
 • Henry Thoreau & "Civil Disobedience" by Wendy McElroy 
 • What did Henry look like? Images of Thoreau from words and pictures
 • The Hawthornes on Thoreau - descriptions from both Nathaniel and Julian Hawthorne
 • From Randall Conrad: "A Sylvan Appearance": Woodplay in The Maine Words
 • Castles of Sand: Thoreau on the Seashore - a Cape Cod introduction by Leila Hatch
 • Selected Thoreau entries from Bronson Alcott's Journals, from 1848 to 1862
 • Thoreau's Lecturing Career & Thoreau's Reception as a Lecturer - by Bradley P. Dean
 • From Victor Carl Friesen: Thoreau's Nature as Incessant Miracle
 • Ellery Channing Remembers Thoreau: excerpts from Thoreau, the Poet-Naturalist
 • Rod Giblett sees Henry Thoreau as A "Patron Saint" of Swamps
 • Where Thoreau Practiced Self-Resistance & Ate Squirrels - W. Barksdale Maynard
 • 1928 Pulitzer Prize: Thoreau: Transcendental Economist - Vernon L. Parrington
 • Poetry on Henry - poems written about or inspired by Henry Thoreau
 • Winnie-the-Pooh a Transcendentalist? Jason Arbaugh-Twitty's Pooh of Walden Pond
 • Henry David Thoreau & the Hard Boiled Dick - by Lonnie Willis
 • Ron Harton sees Henry Thoreau as a Model for Nature Writing
 • HDT/TV - Henry on a mid 19th century talk show, from Lucius Furius
 • Randall Conrad: Machine in the Wetland: Re-imagining Thoreau's Plumbago-Grinder
 • American Transcendentalism by Ian Frederick Finseth, with links to related sites
 • From Sandra Petrulionis - Mad Dogs & Escaped Pigs: Thoreau as Storyteller in the Journal
 • Transcendental Ethos: Thoreau’s Philosophy & Antebellum Reform - Michael J. Frederick
 • Bronson Alcott's 1862 tribute to his dying friend: The Forester
 • Essay Before a Sonata: Thoreau - by composer Charles Ives
 • Thoreau's Way from Emerson to Thoreau: The Gesture of Self-Naming - Albena Bakratcheva
 • One Less Accountant - Can a book change someone's life? - from Rockford E. Toews
 • Thirty-one years after the event, Robert Collyer remembers when Thoreau visited Chicago
 • Pantheist Prophet: Henry David Thoreau - by Harold W. Wood, Jr.
 • Wayne Dilts follows in the footsteps of  E.B. White: Walden Pond: A First Visitation
 • A Thoreau Chronology - compiled by Bradley P. Dean
 • Henry reports on a disaster - Thoreau and the Wreck of the St. John
 • Walden, The Place - from prehistoric times to the present - by Ronald Wesley Hoag
 • From Alfred I. Tauber - Henry Thoreau As a Mirror of Ourselves
 • Selected Thoreau quotes, mostly from Walden, with links to the source of each quote
 • A free kit that can be downloaded and printed - Building a card model of Henry's cabin
 • Chinese Philosophy In America: How It Influenced Thoreau - by Linda Brown Holt
 • In New Jersey, Thoreau lectures, and completes his largest surveying job - by Wayne T. Dilts
 • Ten Volumes of Thoreau - Don't like Thoreau? Joshua W. Caldwell agreed with you in 1891

Teaching Thoreau: Resources on this and other sites - New: Thoreau DVD
Journal Writing: Three educators show how Thoreau used a journal as part of his writing process, and how his techniques can work for us today - with a middle school lesson plan & suggestions for nature writers.
Learn about the Thoreau Society, its activities, and how you can become a member
There's more:  links to Thoreau on other sites - with links for specific works
For the more obscure words - Webster's 1913 Unabridged Dictionary
If Thoreau was here today... would he blog?
THUR-oh or Thor-OH? - and how do we know? 
The portrait above is an 1856 daguerreotype, when Henry was 39, from a 1906 Houghton, Mifflin edition of Thoreau's works.
Suggestions for reading large documents on line - A note on scanning errors

The Thoreau Reader is part of the EServer, at Iowa State University - Citing this site
Comments or questions to: Richard Lenat - rlenat@yahoo.com
Copyright ©1999-2008  Richard Lenat, All rights reserved 
Permission to link to this site is granted.
Updated: 4/30/2008

"Much is published, but little printed." - Walden