(1817-1862) US author. One of the most influential figures of 19th-century US literature, he is best known for his vigorous defense of individualism and the simple life. His work Walden, or Life in the Woods 1854 stimulated the back-to-nature movement, and he completed some 30 volumes based on his daily nature walks. His essay Civil Disobedience 1849, prompted by his refusal to pay taxes, advocated peaceful resistance to unjust laws and had a wide impact, even in the 20th century.
Thoreau was born in Concord, Massachusetts, and graduated from Harvard. His friend the transcendentalist Ralph Waldo Emerson encouraged him to write and offered him land near Walden Pond on which to set up his experiment 1845–47 in living a life close to nature, requiring little manual labor and allowing him time to write.
Thoreau’s other works include A Week on the Concord and Merrimack Rivers 1849 and, published posthumously, Excursions 1863, The Maine Woods 1864, Cape Cod 1865, and A Yankee in Canada 1866.