In July 1845, Henry David Thoreau built a small cabin in the woods near Walden Pond, Massachusetts. During the two years he spent there, he began writing Walden, his most important work, a chronicle of his communion with nature that became one of the most influential books in American literature. Originally published in 1854, Walden is a vivid account of the time Henry D. Thoreau lived alone in an isolated cabin at Walden Pond, and it covers the two years he spent in solitude. It is Thoreau’s great document on social criticism and dissent.
Much of the material in Walden comes from Thoreau’s journals, and among his most famous pieces are “Reading” and “The Pond in Winter.” Other notable sections include Thoreau’s visits to a Canadian woodcutter and an Irish family, a trip to Concord, and the description of his bean field.
The purpose of Walden is to argue, explain, and demonstrate Thoreau’s philosophy of life, a practical and poetic philosophy, both personal and universal. Thoreau developed his own conception of economics, a view that differs greatly from that of Karl Marx (communism) or Adam Smith (capitalism), a conception capable of freeing the individual from a life of work and worry. Moreover, he developed a purpose for life—something that both communists and capitalists overlooked—a purpose more important than economics. Instead of viewing the accumulation of wealth as the goal of human existence, Thoreau believed that the purpose of life was the exploration of the mind and of the magnificent world around us.
A book full of simple observations and fundamental truths that illustrate deeper philosophical intentions. At times introspective and profound, at others tedious and slow. It combines intelligent thought with an almost childlike enthusiasm and fascination for the beauty of the natural world.