Henry David Thoreau, 12 July 1817 - 6 May 1862
THOREAU'S LIFE AT WALDEN POND
In late March 1845 Thoreau went to Walden Pond, a sixty-two acre body of water, a few miles from his parents' home in Concord, Massachusetts, and selected a spot to build a cabin. The site he picked was on land belonging to his close friend Ralph Waldo Emerson; he and Emerson had already discussed Thoreau's plan to live on the land which Emerson had recently purchased. By July 4th of that same year, the cabin was substantially complete and Thoreau moved to the pond. The experiment had begun.
I went to the woods because I wished to live deliberately, to front only the essential facts of life, and see if I could not learn what it had to teach, and not, when I came to die, discover that I had not lived. (Walden, p. 90)
Considering the failure of A Week, publishers were not enthusiastic about Walden, and plans for its publication were postponed. Over the next five years, through seven drafts, Walden evolved from a sometimes shrill justification of Thoreau's unorthodox lifestyle into a complex, multi-layered account of a spiritual journey.
I wanted to live deep and suck out all the marrow of life. (Walden, p. 91)
