about the quoted person:american author and free-thinker. Henry David Thoreau was born on July 12, 1817, in Concord, Massachusetts. he spent the majority of his time walking in and around the town of Concord, although he did make a few journeys to other places.

January 11, 1842, thoreau's brother, John Jr., died of lockjaw. It was his brother's death which prompted him to decide to go to Walden Pond to work on a book, A Week on the Concord and Merrimack Rivers, which would be a tribute to John Thoreau Jr. He stayed at Walden Pond for two years, two months and two days. thoreau left his nearby town of Concord to live at Walden Pond on July 4, 1845, Independence Day. Some have speculated that this date represents his personal declaration of independence from society. Others have pointed out that July 4th was the day before his brother's birthday. in walden he completed his first work, A Week on the Concord and Merrimack Rivers and the first draft of his uniquely work, Walden; or Life in the Woods. 'Walden', as it is more commonly and popularly known, is Thoreau's response to a multitude of questions he received as a result of living in his small cabin in the woods at Walden Pond. problems with paying taxes prompted him to write what became one of his most famous essays, "On the Duty of Civil Disobedience." It is in "Civil Disobedience" that he asks all of us to question our actions and the actions of our state.

Thoreau has had great impact on the lives of some of America's greatest leaders. President John F. Kennedy, Martin Luther King, Jr., and Supreme Court Justice William O. Douglass were all influenced by Henry David Thoreau's thoughts.

Thoreau left his cabin at Walden Pond on September 6, 1847. His book, Walden, was published several years and seven versions later in 1854. As the writer got older, his attentions turned more towards the observing and recording of natural history in Concord. he died May 6th 1862, after suffering of a prolonged case of tuberculosis, a disease which had plagued him throughout most of his adult life.