Remembering Henry David Thoreau

Henry David Thoreau is one of the most widely read and influential figures ever – his work revealing the astounding range, artistry, and depth of a true American original. He revolutionized the way we look at ourselves, with his conceptually brilliant theories of nature, civil rights, democracy, work and individualism. 



In this unique collection, Philip Dossick presents a select compilation of Thoreau’s most brilliant works, from relatively obscure gems to his better-known classics, including the complete text to Walden.* Also included are some of the most moving tributes to Thoreau, written after his untimely death at age 44, by such luminaries as novelist Robert Louis Stevenson and Ralph Waldo Emerson. 


Thoreau’s idiosyncratic prose style, along with his deep resonance of thought and his observations about life and death, love and nature, and solitude and society, have firmly established him as one of America’s greatest artists.


*With Walden, Thoreau’s immortality is assured.

—Robert Frost



HENRY DAVID THOREAU (1817–1862) was an American author, poet, philosopher, abolitionist, naturalist, and historian. He is best known for Walden, a reflection upon simple living in natural surroundings, and his essay, Civil Disobedience, an argument for disobedience to an unjust state. Among his lasting contributions are his writings on natural history and philosophy, where he anticipated the methods and findings of ecology and environmental history, two of the foundational sources of modern-day environmentalism. His literary style mingles natural observation, personal experience, incisive rhetoric, symbolic meanings, and historic lore, while displaying a poetic sensibility, and love of practical detail. 


PHILIP DOSSICK is the New York Times critically acclaimed writer and director of the motion picture The P.O.W. He has written for television, including the outstanding drama, Transplant, produced by David Susskind for CBS. His most recent books include Aztecs: Epoch Of Social Revolution, Sex And Dreams, Mark Twain In Seattle, The Naked Citizen: Notes On Privacy In The Twenty-First Century, Lurid Tales & Classic Oddities, Raymond Chowder And Bob Skloot Must Die, Tales of Edgar Allan Poe, Remembering Henry David Thoreau, The Deposition, Vincent Van Gogh: Madness And Magic, Oscar Wilde: Sodomy and Heresy, Abraham Lincoln: 5 Speeches that Changed America, Lenny Bruce: The Myth of Free Speech, Times That try Men's Souls: Henry David Thoreau and Thomas Paine on Slavery and Civil Disobedience, Master and Protégé: Ezra Pound and T.S. Eliot, Ghost Dance Prophets: Wovoka, Lincoln, and Franz Boas, Voces de Libertad, Arrested! United States vs. Susan B. Anthony Regarding a Woman's Right to Vote, and The Outline of History, Volumes I and II by H.G. Wells.