About Henry David Thoreau
 Henry David Thoreau, (1817-1862) was born in Concord, Massachusetts, which was center of his life, although he spent several years in his childhood in the neighboring towns and later elsewhere. Thoreau studied at Concord Academy (1828-33), and at Harvard University, graduating in 1837. He was teacher in Canton, Massachusetts (1835-36), and at Center School (1837), resigning after two weeks. In 1835 he contracted tuberculosis and suffered from recurring bouts throughout his life.
From 1837-38 Thoreau worked in his father's pencil factory, and later in 1844 and 1849-50. He opened with his brother John a school in Concord and taught there in 1838-41 until his brother became fatally ill. From 1848 he was a regular lecturer at Concord Lyceym. He also worked as a land surveyor.
A decisive turning point in Thoreau's life came when he met Ralph Waldo Emerson in Concord. He was a member of Emerson household from 1841 to 1843, earning his living as a handyman. In 1843 he was a tutor to William Emerson's sons in Staten Island, New York, and in 1847-48 he again lived in Emerson's house.
In 1845 Thoreau built a home on the shores of Walden Point for twenty-eight dollars, and described his observations and speculations in A WEEK ON THE CONCORD AND MERRIMACK RIVERS (1849). The account was based on a trip he took with his brother in 1839. Thoreau's first book sold poorly and he remarked, "I have now a library of nearly nine hundred volumes, over seven hundred of which I wrote myself." Thoreau's most famous essay, CIVIL DISOBEDIENCE (1849), was a result of a overnight visit in 1846 in a jail, when he refused to pay his taxes in protest against the Mexican War and the extension of slavery. Later Thoreau lectured and wrote about the evils of slavery and helped fleeing slaves. In his famous statement, "the mass of men lead lives of quiet desperation," he crystallized his idea to be the one who has the courage to live, to stand against the trends of his own time.
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