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Written after July 29, 1850, in his Journal, vol. 3, p. 97 For years I marched as to a music in comparison with which the military music of the streets is noise & discord. I was daily intoxicated and yet no man could call me intemperate. Written July 16, 1851, in his Journal, vol. 3, p. 306 I would rather sit on a pumpkin and have it all to myself, than be crowded on a velvet cushion. Walden, p. 37 I am of the nature of Stone. It takes the summer’s sun to warm it. Written December 21, 1851, in his Journal, vol.

12. Journal, vol. 1, p. 132. 13. Journal, vol. 1, p. 158. 14. Walter Harding, The Days of Henry Thoreau, p. 102. 15. , p. 104. 16. The Correspondence of Henry David Thoreau, p. 47. 17. A Week on the Concord and Merrimack Rivers, p. 292. 18. Alan French, Old Concord (Boston: Little, Brown, 1915), p. 12. 19. Ibid. 20. Moncure Conway, “Thoreau,” p. 192. 21. The Correspondence of Henry David Thoreau, p. ) 22. “A Plea for Captain John Brown,” in Reform Papers, p. 133. 23. “Resistance to Civil Government” in Reform Papers, p.

12. St. Nicholas vol. 9, no. 3 (January 1882): 254. 13. “Paradise (to be) Regained” in Reform Papers, p. 21. 14. “Life without Principle” in Reform Papers, p. 172. 15. Journal, vol. IX, p. 352. 16. Cape Cod, p. 151. 17. Daniel Ricketson, Daniel Ricketson and His Friends: Letters, p. 57. 18 “About Our ‘American Diogenes,’ ” p. 7. This page intentionally left blank A THOREAU CHRONOLOGY 1817 1818 1821 1822 1823 1828 1829 1833 1835 1836 1837 1838 Born, David Henry Thoreau, July 12, third of four children—Helen (1812–1849), John (1815–1842), and Sophia (1819–1876)—to John and Cynthia (Dunbar) Thoreau in Concord, Massachusetts Family moves to Chelmsford, Massachusetts, where father opens a grocery store Grocery store closes; family moves to Boston, where father works as a schoolteacher Visits Walden Pond for the first time Family moves back to Concord, where father begins making pencils; family takes in boarders Enrolls in Concord Academy, as does his brother, John, where they study geography, history, and science, as well as French, Latin, and Greek Attends lectures at the Concord Lyceum Enrolls in Harvard College To earn money, teaches in Canton, Massachusetts, during winter term Leaves Harvard temporarily owing to illness Graduates from Harvard; begins Journal; friendship with Emerson begins Goes to Maine for the first time to search for a teaching position; gives first lecture, on “Society,” at Concord Lyceum; elected secretary and curator of the Lyceum; opens small private school before taking over the Concord Academy in September xliii xliv A THOREAU CHRONOLOGY 1839 John joins Thoreau at Concord Academy as a teacher; meets Ellen Sewall, to whom both he and John will propose and by whom both will be rejected; takes boat trip with John on the Concord and Merrimack Rivers to Concord, New Hampshire 1840 The Dial first published, for which Thoreau will be a contributor and sometime editor; learns surveying 1841 Concord Academy closes owing to John’s poor health 1842 John dies of lockjaw, January 11; meets Hawthorne; climbs Mount Wachusett; publishes “Natural History of Massachusetts” in the Dial 1843 Tutors William Emerson’s children on Staten Island, New York; publishes “Paradise (To Be) Regained” in the United States Magazine and Democratic Review 1844 Accidentally burns three hundred acres of woodland, causing more than two thousand dollars’ damage; helps build the family’s “Texas” house in the southwest portion of Concord 1845 Builds and moves into small house at Walden Pond, July 4; begins writing A Week on the Concord and Merrimack Rivers 1846 Begins writing Walden; spends night in jail for nonpayment of poll tax; climbs Katahdin in Maine 1847 Lectures on “A History of Myself,” an early draft of Walden, at Concord Lyceum; leaves Walden Pond on September 7, moving in with the Emerson family while Emerson is in Europe; collects specimens for Louis Agassiz at Harvard 1848 Publishes “Ktaadn” in Sartain’s Union Magazine; lectures on “The Relation of the Individual to the State” (“Civil Disobedience”) A THOREAU CHRONOLOGY xlv 1849 Publishes A Week on the Concord and Merrimack Rivers; publishes “Resistance to Civil Government” (“Civil Disobedience”) in Elizabeth Peabody’s Aesthetic Papers; sister, Helen, dies of tuberculosis; travels to Cape Cod for the first time 1850 Family moves to house on Main Street, Concord, where Thoreau will live for the remainder of his life; goes to Fire Island, New York, at Emerson’s request, to search for the remains and papers of Margaret Fuller who died in a shipwreck; travels to Canada 1852 Publishes excerpts from Walden in Sartain’s Union Magazine 1853 Publishes parts of “A Yankee in Canada” in Putnam’s Monthly; travels to Maine for the experiences that will be the basis for “Chesuncook” 1854 Publishes “Slavery in Massachusetts” in Anti-Slavery Standard, The Liberator, and the New York Tribune; publishes Walden, or Life in the Woods; lectures in Philadelphia 1855 Grows throat beard, also known as Galway whiskers, early in the year; publishes parts of Cape Cod in Putnam’s Monthly; receives gift of forty-four volumes of Asian literature from Thomas Cholmondeley 1856 Surveys in Perth Amboy, New Jersey; meets Walt Whitman in Brooklyn 1857 Meets John Brown; grows full beard; makes final trip to Maine 1858 Publishes “Chesuncook” in Atlantic Monthly; travels through the White Mountains and climbs Mount Washington, July 2–19 xlvi A THOREAU CHRONOLOGY 1859 Father dies; becomes financially responsible for his family; delivers the first public support of John Brown in “A Plea for Captain John Brown” 1860 Reads Charles Darwin’s Origin of Species; catches a cold that turns into bronchitis, precipitating his tuberculosis 1861 Visits Minnesota for his health in May, returning unimproved in July; visits Walden Pond for the last time in September; begins revising his writings for posthumous publication 1862 Dies, May 6, of tuberculosis; buried, May 9, in New Burying Ground, Concord, and later moved to Sleepy Hollow Cemetery The QUOTATIONS This page intentionally left blank THOREAU DESCRIBES HIMSELF Fig.