Two of the most enduring American virtues are a proud tradition of civil disobedience, and an abiding love for the natural world – and both were embodied by Henry David Thoreau, a true American icon. Thoreau was born in 1817 in Concord, Massachusetts, the son of a pencil maker and his wife, the third of four children. Thoreau’s family was reasonably well off, with John Thoreau & Co. being a respected pencil company in New England, and Thoreau was able to attend Harvard University. It was his time at Harvard that would shape his life, and turn him into one of the most important figures in American naturalism and civil disobedience.

In his final year at Harvard, Thoreau read an essay by noted American author, Ralph Waldo Emerson. The essay was called Nature, and it was a call to completely re-define how Americans looked at nature. Emerson hoped that people could see nature not just as a scientific pursuit, or an obstacle to be tamed – but as a personal experience, something that could bring about spiritual satisfaction through its appreciation. The essay had a great effect on Thoreau and after graduating from Harvard, Thoreau and Emerson met, becoming fast friends. Though Emerson encouraged him to publish and write, Thoreau returned home to work for his family’s pencil factory in 1844.

Working in Concord, Thoreau became frustrated and unhappy. While walking with a friend, he noticed Walden Woods just outside of town. It was here that Thoreau would write his most important work. He would live as simply as possible, hoping to achieve the happiness described by Emerson in Nature. He planned carefully, building his own cabin on the edge of Walden Pond at a modest cost of $28, and moving in on July 4th, 1845. For the next two years, two days, and two months, Thoreau practiced a life of self-sufficiency, writing, self-reflection and honest appreciation of nature. The memoir of his time here, Walden; or, Life in the Woods, is universally acknowledged as one of the greatest American novels of the 1800s, seen as one of the first true naturalist novels. Walden refines Emerson’s theories from Nature, and argues that through closeness to nature, self-reliance, and solitary contemplation, man can overcome man’s desperate existence.

During his time at Walden, Thoreau removed himself from what he saw as an increasingly corrupt and flawed society. In particular, Thoreau objected to slavery, and the Mexican-American War, which brought slavery to previously free Mexican territories. Thoreau was briefly jailed over this opposition, and in 1849, he published the essay known as On Civil Disobedience. Thoreau argued against the existence of government, and advises people to stop co-operating and supporting governments that are inherently unjust, a form of passive resistance. Figures such as John F. Kennedy, Martin Luther King, Jr., and Mohandas Gandhi cited Thoreau as a major influence on their lives and beliefs, and Gandhi went so far as to claim that Thoreau’s theory of passive resistance sparked the beginning of the end of American slavery.

Thoreau returned to his family’s pencil factory, but he continued to publish throughout his lifetime. His work during this period showed keen observations of nature and are highly regarded today as early amateur naturalism. Thoreau never married – Nathaniel Hawthorne described him as “ugly as sin”, and Louisa May Alcott claimed that his facial hair would “preserve the man’s virtue in perpetuity”. Thoreau contracted bronchitis in 1859, and died in 1862. Today, Thoreau and his work are known worldwide as leading examples of early American literature. Walden’s frank, clear prose and honest treatment of nature is seen as synonymous with 19th-century New England, and On Civil Disobedience is renowned worldwide for its lasting influence on politics and philosophy. For his lasting contributions to naturalism, American literature, and civil disobedience, Henry David Thoreau is an American icon.