Henry David Thoreau (Magill’s Survey of American Literature, Revised Edition)
Biography
Many of Henry David Thoreau's writings are autobiographical, for he thought that the poet's noblest work was his life. Thoreau was born on July 12, 1817, in Concord, Massachusetts, the third of four children of John and Cynthia Thoreau. The family name is French, and Henry's paternal grandfather was a Protestant emigrant from Jersey, an island in the English Channel. His maternal grandfather was a Congregationalist minister. Thoreau was baptized David Henry but later reversed his first two names. His father, a quiet, subdued person, after failing as a shopkeeper,...
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