Thoreau, Henry David
Thoreau, Henry David( 1817–62),born in Concord of a family whose French, Scottish, Quaker, and Puritan stock helps to account for his temper of mind. Just as his heritage was mixed, so his philosophy of life combined diverse strains, and he called himself “a mystic, a transcendentalist, and a natural philosopher to boot.” At heart, he was predominantly individualistic, and his great interest was “to observe what transpires, not in the street, but in the mind and heart of me!” Although his reading carried him far afield, he could truthfully say “I have travelled a good deal in Concord.” In addition to his natural education in the woods near Concord, and the ordinary preparatory schooling, he graduated from Harvard (1837), where he was primarily influenced by E.T. Channing's teaching of composition, and the knowledge of Greek and the metaphysical poets that he derived from Jones Very. His temporary residence in the home of Orestes...
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