Henry David Thoreau’s <i>Walden</i> is surely one of the most preeminent works of American literature, relating his real-life “experiment” of living a life of both simplicity and solitude at his cabin by Walden Pond (near Concord, Massachusetts) for two years, from 1845 to 1847. Filled with practical details of how he went about his time there, the work certainly goes far beyond that as a forum for his philosophical musings on society and culture, his love for nature, classical literature and countless other subjects, and is by many considered to be the “Bible” of what came to be known as the American Transcendentalism movement.<br>
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This anthology includes <i>Walden</i> in its entirety, along with selections from his other major books (“complete” versions of which are also available in this same series of ebooks), plus the bulk of his major published essays. In addition to Thoreau’s own writings are also included biographical essays about him, analyses and criticisms of his ideas and writings, plus an entire section about the other major authors within the American Transcendentalism movement (i.e. Emerson, Alcott, Channing, et al.), not only for further reading for those interested, but also to help provide greater context and understanding for the time and place in which Thoreau lived.
