Henry David Thoreau
A Life
- Contents
- Review Quotes
- Awards

Enclosures and Commons
The Genesis of Musketaquid
The Coming of the English
Living the Revolution
Part I
The Making of Thoreau
Chapter 1
Concord Sons and Daughters
The Early Years of John and Cynthia Thoreau
Making Concord Home
Chapter 2
Higher Learning from Concord to Harvard (1826–1837)
A Harvard Portrait
Learning to Leave Harvard
Chapter 3
Transcendental Apprentice (1837–1841)
Transcendental Self-Culture
Concord Social Culture
The Thoreau School
“There is no remedy for love but to love more”
Compensations
Chapter 4
“Not till We Are Lost” (1842–1844)
“Surely joy is the condition of life!”: New Friends, New Ventures
Thoreau on Staten Island
The Road to Walden
Part II
The Making of Walden
Chapter 5
“Walden, Is It You?” (1845–1847)
On Walden Pond: The First Season
Going to Extremes I: Thoreau in Jail
Going to Extremes II: Thoreau on Katahdin
Leaving Walden
Chapter 6
A Writer’s Life (1847–1849)
“Lectures multiply on my desk”: Thoreau Finds His Audience
“Civil Disobedience”
A Basket of Delicate Texture: Weaving Thoreau’s Week
Chapter 7
From Concord to Cosmos: Thoreau’s Turn to Science (1849–1851)
“Even this may be the year”: 1850
“The captain of a huckleberry party”
Chapter 8
The Beauty of Nature, the Baseness of Men (1852–1854)
The Hermit at Home
The Higher Law from Chesuncook to Walden
Reading Walden
Part III
Successions
Chapter 9
Walden-on-Main (1854–1857)
Illness and Recovery
“The infinite extent of our relations
Chapter 10
Wild Fruits (1857–1859)
Life in the Commons: Village, Mountain, River
“A Transcendentalist above all”: Thoreau and John Brown
Chapter 11
A Constant New Creation (1860–1862)
“The West of which I speak”: Thoreau’s Last Journey
“The leaves teach us how to die”
Acknowledgments
Abbreviations
Notes
Bibliography
insisted on his own way of seeing the world, however quirky. . . . Walls earns her keep, digging into Thoreau’s aphoristic letters and journals, finding acute reflections by his contemporaries, and drawing a wonderfully brisk and satisfying portrait. . ."
Choice Magazine: CHOICE Outstanding Academic Title Awards
Won
Phi Beta Kappa: Christian Gauss Award
Won
Los Angeles Times: Los Angeles Times Book Prizes
Won
History: American History
Literature and Literary Criticism: American and Canadian Literature
Philosophy: American Philosophy
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