Henry David Thoreau

Henry David Thoreau (July 12, 1817 – May 6, 1862) was a famous American writer and philosopher at the forefront of the American Transcendentalist movement. His journey into the woods at Walden Pond, living on the banks of the pond for two years, two months, and two days (on land belonging to Emerson that Thoreau was squatting on), and his subsequent work Walden have been heralded as inspirations for rugged individualism and self-reliance. A staunch abolitionist (he assisted escaped slaves reach Canada), Thoreau was inspired to write "Civil Disobedience" after famously spending a night in jail for not paying his poll tax to demonstrate his opposition to the Mexican War. This essay was centerpiece to Mahatma Gandhi and Martin Luther King, Jr.'s, principles of peaceful resistance to oppose political injustice. These works have cemented him as one of American's greatest writers.