Henry David Thoreau

Henry David Thoreau was an American author, philosopher, and naturalist best known for Walden and Civil Disobedience.

Born in 1817, he graduated from Harvard and became a key figure in the Transcendentalist movement.

Thoreau's writings, spanning over 20 volumes, covered topics such as simple living, nature, and civil rights.

His two-year experiment living in a cabin at Walden Pond inspired his most famous work.

Thoreau's philosophy of nonviolent resistance influenced later figures like Gandhi and Martin Luther King Jr. He was also an abolitionist and tax resister, famously spending a night in jail for refusing to pay taxes in protest of slavery and the Mexican-American War.

Thoreau died in 1862, leaving a lasting impact on literature, philosophy, and environmentalism.