Henry David Thoreau

Canoeing in the Wilderness

• Broschiertes Buch

Produktbeschreibung

The chief attraction that inspired Thoreau to make this canoe trip was the primitiveness of the region. Here was a vast tract of almost virgin woodland, peopled only with a few loggers and pioneer farmers, Indians, and wild animals. No one could have been better fitted than Thoreau to enjoy such a region and to transmit his enjoyment of it to others. For though he was a person of culture and refinement, with a college education, and had for an intimate friend so rare a man as Ralph Waldo Emerson, he was half wild in many of his tastes and impatient of the restraints and artificiality of the ordinary social life of the towns and cities. He liked especially the companionship of men who were in close contact with nature, and in this book we find him deeply interested in his Indian guide and lingering fondly over the man's characteristics and casual remarks. The Indian retained many of his aboriginal instincts and ways, though his tribe was in most respects civilized. His home was in an Indian village on an island in the Penobscot River at Oldtown, a few miles above Bangor. Thoreau was one of the world's greatest nature writers, and as the years pass, his fame steadily increases. He was a careful and accurate observer, more at home in the fields and woods than in village and town, and with a gift of piquant originality in recording his impressions. The play of his imagination is keen and nimble, yet his fancy is so well balanced by his native common sense that it does not run away with him. There is never any doubt about his genuineness, or that what he states is free from bias and romantic exaggeration.

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Produktdetails

• Verlag: Binker North
• Seitenzahl: 82
• Erscheinungstermin: 1. August 1916
• Englisch
• Abmessung: 229mm x 152mm x 5mm
• Gewicht: 134g
• ISBN-13: 9781989708606
• ISBN-10: 1989708609
• Artikelnr.: 58037069

Autorenporträt

Henry David Thoreau (1817-1862) was an American philosopher, naturalist, and writer, best known for his book Walden, a reflection on simple living in natural surroundings, and his essay "Civil Disobedience," which argues for individual resistance to civil government in moral opposition to an unjust state. Born in Concord, Massachusetts, Thoreau studied at Harvard University, where he developed interests in literature, philosophy, and the natural world. Upon his return to Concord, he became associated with the Transcendentalist movement, engaging with influential figures like Ralph Waldo Emerson, who became his mentor and lifelong friend. Emerson's ideas on individualism and nature deeply influenced Thoreau's work.Thoreau's experiment in simple living began in 1845 when he built a small cabin on Emerson's land by Walden Pond. For two years, he lived there, observing nature, cultivating self-sufficiency, and reflecting on the human condition, experiences he later chronicled in Walden. This work, published in 1854, explores themes of self-reliance, spirituality, and the philosophy of natural living, becoming a seminal text in both environmental literature and American thought. Thoreau's advocacy for living with purpose, minimalism, and a connection to nature has left a lasting influence on generations of readers.In his later years, Thoreau continued to write on a wide range of topics, including history, philosophy, and abolitionism. His commitment to social justice was further demonstrated in "Civil Disobedience," written after his brief imprisonment for refusing to pay taxes in protest against slavery and the Mexican-American War. This essay inspired future activists worldwide, including Mahatma Gandhi and Martin Luther King Jr., in their struggles for civil rights. Although Thoreau died relatively young from tuberculosis, his works continue to inspire discussions on individualism, ecological consciousness, and the pursuit of a meaningful life.