“all his readers were male, unmarried, and well-connected”
- #wikipedia
- #quote
- #trusted-source
- #www.theguardian.com
- #corroborated
Figure timeline
Henry David Thoreau
Henry David Thoreau was an American naturalist, essayist, poet, and philosopher. A leading transcendentalist, he is best known for his book Walden, a reflection upon simple living in natural surroundings, and his essay "Civil Disobedience", an argument in favor of citizen disobedience against an unjust state.
Text from Wikipedia, available under CC BY-SA 4.0.
culture · American philosopher (1817–1862) · poet · philosopher · essayist · autobiographer · diarist · translator · writer · abolitionist · naturalist · ecologist · also Henry David Thoreau, Thoreau, Henry D. Thoreau, Henry Thoreau
Born 12 July 1817 · Died 6 May 1862 · Q131149
62 published statements · 0 followers
See & hear
Photos & media
14 photos
Media from Wikimedia Commons, hotlinked at the source under its own licence — see each file for author and terms.
Live now
In the news
Pulling headlines from trusted outlets — this usually takes a few seconds
Checking the wires…
Feed scan
These are live links, not archived citations — they only join the timeline once a collect run verifies and archives them.
Live pulse
Recent highlights
Most recent outstanding titles, awards, and quotes
- Quote
- Quote
2026· 15 entries
“I have traveled much in Concord.”
Text from Wikipedia, available under CC BY-SA 4.0.
- #wikipedia
- #quote
“s sense of ingenuity and enterprise; the Canadian habitants had been reduced, in his view, to a perpetual childlike state. Ignoring the recent rebellions, he argued that there would be no revolution in the St. Lawrence River valley. Although Thoreau believed that resistance to unjustly exercised authority could be both violent (exemplified in his support for John Brown) and nonviolent (his own example of tax resistance as described in”
Text from Wikipedia, available under CC BY-SA 4.0.
- #wikipedia
- #quote
“I would fain keep sober always. ... I believe that water is the only drink for a wise man; wine is not so noble a liquor. ... Of all ebriosity, who does not prefer to be intoxicated by the air he breathes?”
Text from Wikipedia, available under CC BY-SA 4.0.
- #wikipedia
- #quote
Columna Digital: Thoreau y Walden: Conexión con jóvenes chinos.
- #news
- #headline
Literary Hub: Why Thoreau and Walden Resonate With Chinese Youth
- #news
- #headline
Cuerpomente: Henry David Thoreau, filósofo, sobre perseguir los sueños: "Si uno avanza con confianza en la dirección de sus sueños y se esfuerza por vivir la vida que ha imaginado, encontrará un éxito inesperado en las horas comunes"
- #news
- #headline
Cuerpomente: La frase del día hoy, viernes 14 de agosto: “Amo la naturaleza porque es un refugio frente al hombre. El hombre me hace desear otro mundo, la naturaleza me hace estar en paz con este”, Henry David Thoreau
- #news
- #headline
OkDiario: La brillante reflexión de Henry David Thoreau sobre el dinero: «Un hombre es rico en relación al número de ...
- #news
- #headline
Cuerpomente: Henry David Thoreau, sobre la vida sencilla: “En la medida en que simplifiques tu vida, las leyes del universo te parecerán menos complejas; y la soledad no será soledad, ni la pobreza pobreza, ni la debilidad debilidad”
- #news
- #headline
Space Daily: Thought of the day from Henry David Thoreau: "I never found the companion that was so companionable as solitude"
- #news
- #headline
Infobae: Henry David Thoreau, filósofo: “El precio de cualquier cosa es la cantidad de vida que intercambias por ella”
- #news
- #headline
The New York Times: Henry David Thoreau
- #news
- #headline
Yahoo: A new PBS documentary reveals why Henry David Thoreau's radicalism resonates today
- #news
- #headline
The Guardian: ‘His perspective is so relevant’: the A-listers bringing Henry David Thoreau back to screen
- #news
- #headline
2025· 1 entry
BroadwayWorld: Meryl Streep, Jeff Goldblum, & More to Lend Voices to Henry David Thoreau Film at PBS
- #news
- #headline
2023· 1 entry
Wall Street Journal: ‘Henry David Thoreau’ Review: The Jester at Walden Pond
- #news
- #headline
2022· 1 entry
WGBH: While walking the paths of Henry David Thoreau, one artist finds solace
- #news
- #headline
2020· 1 entry
The Guardian: Poem of the week: Sic Vita by Henry David Thoreau
- #news
- #headline
2019· 3 entries
Yahoo: Henry David Thoreau Quotes to Inspire Your Next Nature Vacation
- #news
- #headline
TheLadders.com: Henry David Thoreau and why nothing is as it seems
- #news
- #headline
Strategy+Business: Yes, Henry David Thoreau Was an Industrial Innovator
- #news
- #headline
2018· 1 entry
The Guardian: Pee and pesticides: Thoreau's Walden Pond in trouble, warn scientists
- #news
- #headline
2017· 4 entries
The Guardian: Henry David Thoreau by Laura Dassow Walls review – radical, unsettling, relevant
- #news
- #headline
The Guardian: In Thoreau's footsteps: my journey to Walden for the bicentennial of the original de-clutterer
- #news
- #headline
The Guardian: What Thoreau's Walden Pond looks like today – in pictures
- #news
- #headline
The Guardian: The 100 best nonfiction books: No 64 – Walden by Henry David Thoreau (1854)
- #news
- #headline
2016· 1 entry
The Guardian: Walden for the 21st century – Kickstarter plan to update Thoreau
- #news
- #headline
1960· 1 entry
Awarded Hall of Fame for Great Americans (1960).
Text from Wikipedia, available under CC BY-SA 4.0.
- #wikidata
- #award
- #achievement
1918· 1 entry
Edward Waldo Emerson wrote: "We always called my friend Thórow, the h sounded, and accent on the first syllable
Text from Wikipedia, available under CC BY-SA 4.0.
- #wikipedia
- #event
1906· 1 entry
While working as a civil rights activist in Johannesburg, South Africa
Text from Wikipedia, available under CC BY-SA 4.0.
- #wikipedia
- #event
1890· 1 entry
Which popularized Thoreau's ideas in Britain: George Bernard Shaw, Edward Carpenter, and Robert Blatchford were among those who became Thoreau enthusiasts as a result of Salt's advocacy
Text from Wikipedia, available under CC BY-SA 4.0.
- #wikipedia
- #event
1881· 1 entry
“Early Spring in Massachusetts”
- #wikiquote
- #quote
1862· 6 entries
Died 1862-05-06.
Text from Wikipedia, available under CC BY-SA 4.0.
- #wikidata
- #death
“Cada pôr-do-sol que vejo me inspira o desejo de partir para um oeste tão distante e belo quanto aquele onde o sol sumiu.”
- #wikiquote
- #saying
- #undated
- #lang:pt
“Muitas vezes perco a esperança de conseguir neste mundo algo de simples e honesto com ajuda dos homens. (...) Não esqueçamos, no entanto, que grãos de trigo egípcio chegaram até nós por intermédio de uma múmia.”
- #wikiquote
- #saying
- #undated
- #lang:pt
“Ludzie stali się narzędziami w rękach swoich narzędzi.”
- #wikiquote
- #saying
- #undated
- #lang:pl
“Wild Apples: The History of the Apple Tree”
- #wikiquote
- #quote
“Somos vulgares, incultos e analfabetos; e, em relação a isso, confesso que não faço maiores distinções entre o analfabetismo de meus concidadãos que não aprenderam a ler e o que aprendeu a ler somente aquilo que se destinam às crianças e aos intelectos medíocres.”
- #wikiquote
- #saying
- #undated
- #lang:pt
1860· 2 entries
That "He is rightly named Thorough") and Thoreau's aunt each wrote that "Thoreau" is pronounced like the word thorough, pronounced as THURR-oh in General American, but more precisely as THAWR-oh in 19th century New Eng
Text from Wikipedia, available under CC BY-SA 4.0.
- #wikipedia
- #event
Following a late-night excursion to count the rings of tree stumps during a rainstorm, he became ill with bronchitis
Text from Wikipedia, available under CC BY-SA 4.0.
- #wikipedia
- #event
1859· 3 entries
“Remarks After the Hanging of John Brown”
- #wikiquote
- #quote
Thoreau purchased and read Darwin's On the Origin of Species
Text from Wikipedia, available under CC BY-SA 4.0.
- #wikipedia
- #event
“A Plea for Captain John Brown”
- #wikiquote
- #quote
1854· 2 entries
Recounting the two years, two months, and two days he had spent at Walden Pond
Text from Wikipedia, available under CC BY-SA 4.0.
- #wikipedia
- #event
And west across the Great Lakes region in 1861, when he visited Niagara Falls, Detroit, Chicago, Milwaukee, St
Text from Wikipedia, available under CC BY-SA 4.0.
- #wikipedia
- #event
1851· 1 entry
Thoreau became increasingly fascinated with natural history and narratives of travel and expedition
Text from Wikipedia, available under CC BY-SA 4.0.
- #wikipedia
- #event
1850· 1 entry
Moved into a house at 255 Main Street, where he lived until his death
Text from Wikipedia, available under CC BY-SA 4.0.
- #wikipedia
- #event
1846· 2 entries
For the first of three trips to northern Maine
Text from Wikipedia, available under CC BY-SA 4.0.
- #wikipedia
- #event
“Thomas Carlyle and His Works”
Text from Wikipedia, available under CC BY-SA 4.0.
- #wikipedia
- #quote
1845· 3 entries
Thoreau embarked on a two-year experiment in simple living, moving to a small house he had built on land owned by Emerson in a second growth forest around the shores of Walden Pond, having had a request to build a hut on
Text from Wikipedia, available under CC BY-SA 4.0.
- #wikipedia
- #event
“Wendell Phillips Before the Concord Lyceum”
- #wikiquote
- #quote
Ellery Channing told Thoreau, "Go out upon that, build yourself a hut, & there begin the grand process of devouring yourself alive
Text from Wikipedia, available under CC BY-SA 4.0.
- #wikipedia
- #event
1843· 1 entry
Moved to the home of William Emerson on Staten Island, and tutored the family's sons while seeking contacts among literary men and journalists in the city who might help publish his writings, including his future lite
Text from Wikipedia, available under CC BY-SA 4.0.
- #wikipedia
- #event
1841· 2 entries
Thoreau moved in with the Emersons
Text from Wikipedia, available under CC BY-SA 4.0.
- #wikipedia
- #event
Debated the subject "Is it ever proper to offer forcible resistance
Text from Wikipedia, available under CC BY-SA 4.0.
- #wikipedia
- #event
1840· 2 entries
When he was 23, he proposed to eighteen-year-old Ellen Sewall, but she refused him, on the advice of her father
Text from Wikipedia, available under CC BY-SA 4.0.
- #wikipedia
- #event
Writes in his journal: "My friend is the apology for my life
Text from Wikipedia, available under CC BY-SA 4.0.
- #wikipedia
- #event
1837· 1 entry
Thoreau joined the faculty of the Concord public school, but he resigned after a few weeks rather than administer corporal punishment
Text from Wikipedia, available under CC BY-SA 4.0.
- #wikipedia
- #event
1835· 2 entries
And suffered from it sporadically afterwards
Text from Wikipedia, available under CC BY-SA 4.0.
- #wikipedia
- #event
Took a leave of absence from Harvard, during which he taught at a school in Canton, Massachusetts, living for two years at an earlier version of today's Colonial Inn in Concord
Text from Wikipedia, available under CC BY-SA 4.0.
- #wikipedia
- #event
1817· 1 entry
Born 1817-07-12.
Text from Wikipedia, available under CC BY-SA 4.0.
- #wikidata
- #birth