Henry David Thoreau, `Walden or Life In The Woods

These days  I am reading this book, although I should say “re reading” it since this is the second time that I have been absorbed by  it.

`Walden´ is the story of a man who decides to spend two years and two months alone in a cabin next to a pond in Concord , Massachusetts. He built the cabin himself and lived the life of simplicity. In this book Thoreau wrote about his philosophy of life, politics, and nature, and by doing so, he  turned into one of the great American writers. Although `Walden´ enjoyed only moderate success in his life, his experience living alone in a hut next to a pond would be determinant  in the years to come.

Thoreau explored Walden, the woods and recorded his observations on nature in his Journal . He entertained visitors and made regular trips to town; friends and neighbors began to inquire about his life at the pond. What did he do all day? How did he make a living? Did he get lonely? What if he got sick? By the time he left the pond on September 6, 1847, he had combined his lectures on life at Walden with more notes from his journal to produce the first draft of a book which he hoped to publish shortly after.

`Walden´ is a work of narrative prose which often reaches poetic heights. It deals with life and the realization of one’s potential, while at the same time it develops what might be described as a religious vision of the human being and his position in the universe.

Walden was published on August 9, 1854. Two thousand copies were printed, selling for $1 each one . Unlike Thoreau’s first book, `Walden´ enjoyed moderate success from the first, and it continued to sell reasonably well after Thoreau’s death in 1862. But in the 1870s and 1880s, critics attacked Thoreau’s character and style of life, accusing him of irresponsibility. It was not  until much later that the book reached a larger audience. This happened thanks to the unconditional help of his friend Emerson, another  North American writer. This book has inspired naturalists, environmentalists and writers.