Henry David Thoreau's Legacy

Biography of Henry D. Thoreau Henry David Thoreau is an American who has an legacy that goes on forever from his extraordinary writings. Thoreau’s writings varied different genres. This ability of writing with a different variety of genres gave an positive affect or touched many people in a way that had driven them to do something great. Therefore , his contributions to the world of literature are numerous his works touched a world wide audience. which makes his reputation great as a writer. Consequently , Thoreau has earned a reputation as an inspiring writer.

To begin , Thoreau’s background led to his reputation as a inspiring writer. According to Student’s Encyclopedia of Great American Writers: 1830 to 1900,”Henry David Thoreau was
born on July 12 , 1817 in Concord, Massachusetts” (Paragraph 2). Thoreau went to two different schools one was Concord Academy , in which he stood out from his friends or what they called him the odd child . They named him “The judge” or “the fine scholar with the big nose” (Paragraph 3). Even though his family wasn't the common rich person he was rather poor he scraped up enough money to go to Harvard University graduated in 1834 (Paragraph 2) . Thoreau started writing essays and even after he graduated he he improved them with the help of Emerson,Harvard is where Thoreau met Emerson his great friend where after he graduated he lived with him for two years and wrote the book “Walden” . According to Encyclopedia of world Biography,Thoreau met one of his best friends at Harvard who plays a big role in his life “Ralph Waldo Emerson, Henry stayed with him for two of years of his life” (paragraph 6). Waldo characterized Thoreau as a “stoic , resourceful, and ingenious person; who had a soft side but was only shown with kids” (paragraph 6). This also helped him create the story about Walden , nature , and it was one of the two out of seven writings published. ending his early life paragraph and Transitioning into his later years . Also , Thoreau’s background led to his reputation as an inspiring writer . According to Student’s Encyclopedia of Great American Writers:1830 to 1900, “Thoreau never married , lived with Emerson , his wife , and four children” (Paragraph 4). Thoreau had many jobs but his main one was a teacher at Concord Public Grammar school ;“Thoreau didn't stay to teach there long because he didn't agree in whooping kids” (paragraph 7). John and Henry also built a school and taught different subjects but the school didn’t last long because of his brother John’s death (paragraph 6). Henry moved to Staten Island for another job position after John’s death . Henry published two out of seven books: “Walden” and “Civil Disobedience” (paragraph 1) . Going on through his life after coming back home he went to work at his family pencil business again. He later got into science : “botanical , geological, agrarian, zoological , and ecological studies” (paragraph 13) . Thoreau says while approaching his death “I would've wrote about natural history”(Paragraph 13) . Thoreau died from

additionally , Thoreau’s reputation was led by his writing . According to Student’s Encyclopedia of Great American Writers : 1830 to 1900 , “Henry inspired great people like Mohandas Gandhi” (Paragraph 1) . Gandhi was influenced by one of Thoreau’s famous essays “Civil Disobedience” (Paragraph 1) . Because of his peaceful rebel book it made people become countless idealist which they wanted to experiment with life after Thoreau’s book “Walden” and “civil Disobedience” which is one of the reason why he had a more so great reputation . Emerson; philosopher also liked Henry’s works because it reminded it of himself and how much he related to Thoreau (paragraph 5). The criticism he got was very positive

To begin , Thoreau’s Background also led to his genre by his writings .
According to Student’s Encyclopedia of Great American Writers : 1830 to 1900 , “one of his main genre’s is expository essays, “a week on the Concord, and Merrimack Rivers” (paragraph 7) . These two essays are an expository , novelette because it was intended to deeply explain the places he traveled and nature he lived in for two years and technical detail of surroundings . A novelette because he Thoreau had intended feelings for nature , traveling and his brother John Jr. before his brother John’s death he took him on a trip which occurs in “a week on the concord and Merrimack rivers” (Paragraph 7) . This death greatly affected him and he went into depression but he never stopped writing , he used writing as a way to pull his self through . His other main genre was reflective essays two more essays were “The Dial” ( paragraph 9) and “Civil Disobedience” (Paragraph 11) . “ Civil Disobedience” was made from deep thought and his experience from not paying taxes because he didn't support slavery. Thoreau didn't exactly refer to himself as an abolitionist or anything of that matter he was just himself and had his own beliefs. “The Dial” was another deep characterized essay but this one had a series of essays into this also most was about nature because thats what most of his interest was based off of . People also was inspired by these two because they didn't loved his dedication for deep detailed writings , idealist wanted to try living in nature for
this.

Also , Thoreau’s subject matter/theme also led to his inspiring writings . According to Student’s Encyclopedia of Great American Writers:1830 to 1900 , “Thoreau wrote about how he didn’t agree with the government actions by not paying taxes and spending a night in jail” (paragraph 10) . This subject was mostly important because this had other people coming out with ways to get rid of injustice of how the government is treating people . He didn't like how he was forced to do certain things he didn't support . Therefore he built his self a cabin so he didn't have to pay taxes to support slavery (Paragraph 11) . “Aim above (commonly understood) morality . Be not simply good - be good for something” (Stern 76). Personal journey , after his brothers death Thoreau took a trip to get himself together and then returned . the second theme is heroism he showed this he fought to perceive injustice in a peaceful way which inspired others to do the same . One subject matter would be education , that was the most important to him even then he wrote small entries of essays and started to get noticed then taught people what he knew . Writing was also important to him , he wrote about everything from descriptive to expository essays .