Thoreau’s best-known book is Walden; or, Life in the Woods (1854), which explains his philosophy and reflects his independent character. The book records Thoreau’s experiences in a hand-built cabin, where he spent two years in partial seclusion, at Walden Pond near Concord, Massachusetts. He kept detailed records of his daily activities and observations of nature.

 Born in Concord, Massachusetts, Thoreau attended Harvard University. In the late 1830s and early 1840s he taught school and tutored in Concord and on Staten Island, New York.

 From 1841 to 1843 Thoreau lived in the home of American essayist and philosopher Ralph Waldo. Emerson was one of the leaders of a movement called transcendentalism  

Transcendentalists believed that God exists in nature and in human beings and that each individual has to rely on his or her own conscience for spiritual truths. Therefore, they encouraged a free attitude toward authority and tradition. While living at Emerson’s house, Thoreau met other people who believed in this idea.

 Thoreau left Walden Pond and resided again with Emerson from 1847 to 1848. He then spent the years from 1849 with his parents and sister in Concord. He supported himself by doing odd jobs, such as gardening, carpentry, and land surveying. The major portion of his time was devoted to the study of nature, to meditating on philosophical problems, to reading Greek, Latin, French, and English literature and to long conversations with his neighbors.

 The Thoreau story in Jeremiah Stokely, Naturalist has to do with an incident that happened in 1846. He chose to go to jail for refusing to pay his poll tax rather than support the Mexican War (1846-1848).  He wrote about this belief in his most famous essay, “Civil Disobedience” in 1849.  In this essay Thoreau discusses passive resistance, a method of protest that later was adopted by Indian leader Mohandas Gandhi as a tactic against the British.  Much later, Martin Luther King, Jr. and other civil rights activists used his techniques in fighting for racial equality in the United States.