Walden and Civil Disobedience : Or, Life in the Woods

by Thoreau, Henry David; Merwin, W.S.

• ISBN13: 9780451527073
• ISBN10: 0451527070
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 1999-07-01
• Publisher: Signet Classics

Summary

Thoreau, a sturdy individualist and nature lover, lived a spare existence in a wooden hut on the edge of Walden Pond near Concord, Massachusetts, from 1845 to 1847. "Walden" is a record of his experiment in a simple life and his contemplation of the wonders of nature and the ways of man. This book includes the famous essay, "On the Duty of Civil Disobedience, " a selection of his poetry and a new introduction by W.S. Merwin.

Author Biography

Henry David Thoreau was born in Concord, Massachusetts in 1817. He graduated from Harvard in 1837, the same year he began his lifelong Journal. Inspired by Ralph Waldo Emerson, Thoreau became a key member of the Transcendentalist movement that included Margaret Fuller and Bronson Alcott. The Transcendentalists' faith in nature was tested by Thoreau between 1845 and 1847 when he lived for twenty-six months in a homemade hut at Walden Pond. While living at Walden, Thoreau worked on the two books published during his lifetime: Walden (1854) and A Week on the Concord and Merrimack Rivers (1849). Several of his other works, including The Maine Woods, Cape Cod, and Excursions, were published posthumously. Thoreau died in Concord, at the age of forty-four, in 1862.
W.S. Merwin has published many highly regarded books of poems, for which he has received a number of distinguished awards—the Pulitzer Prize, Bollingen Award, Fellowship of the Academy of American Poets and the Governor's Award for Literature of the state of Hawaii among them. He has translated widely from many languages, and his versions of classics such as The Poem of the Cid and The Song of Roland are standards.

Table of Contents

Introduction	p. vii
Chronology of Henry David Thoreau's Life and Work	p. xvii
Historical Context of Walden and On the Duty of Civil Disobedience	p. xix
Walden or, Life in the Woods
Economy	p. 3
Where I Lived, and What I Lived For	p. 86
Reading	p. 106
Sounds	p. 119
Solitude	p. 138
Visitors	p. 150
The Bean-Field	p. 166
The Village	p. 180
The Ponds	p. 187
Baker Farm	p. 216
Higher Laws	p. 226
Brute Neighbors	p. 240
House-Warming	p. 256
Former Inhabitants; and Winter Visitors	p. 275
Winter Animals	p. 291
The Pond in Winter	p. 303
Spring	p. 320
Conclusion	p. 342
On the Duty of Civil Disobedience
Poems	p. 359
Sic Vita	p. 391
Winter Memories	p. 393
To the Maiden in the East	p. 394
Smoke	p. 396
Mist	p. 397
Inspiration	p. 398
Notes	p. 402
Interpretive Notes	p. 431
Critical Excerpts	p. 440
Questions for Discussion	p. 452
Suggestions for the Interested Reader	p. 454
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