Facts about Henry David Thoreau

1. 07

   Thoreau collected and cataloged over 91,000 plant and animal specimens throughout his life, creating detailed natural history records that documented New England's biodiversity.

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2. 06

   Thoreau's detailed journals spanning 47 years and comprising roughly two million words remained largely unpublished during his lifetime, only becoming widely accessible in the 20th century.

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3. 05

   Thoreau's 1858 lecture The Last Days of John Brown, delivered just days after the abolitionist's execution, defended Brown's violent raid on Harpers Ferry as a moral act against slavery.

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4. 04

   Thoreau's essay On the Duty of Civil Disobedience, published in 1849, later influenced Mahatma Gandhi's nonviolent resistance campaigns in India.

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5. 03

   In 1854, Thoreau published Walden, his philosophical masterwork chronicling his two-year experiment in simple living and self-sufficiency near Concord, Massachusetts.

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6. 02

   Thoreau was arrested in July 1846 for refusing to pay poll taxes to support the Mexican-American War, an act that inspired his essay Civil Disobedience.

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7. 01

   During his two-year experiment at Walden Pond from 1845 to 1847, Thoreau built a cabin for 28 dollars and 12 cents.

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