Walden Background & Extension info

A Timeline for Henry David Thoreau

July 12, 1817

David Henry Thoreau is born in Concord, Massachusetts. (His first names are later switched.)

1823

Thoreau’s father takes over his brother’s pencil factory in Concord. (Thoreau worked at the pencil factory on and off during his lifetime and even invented a new and superior kind of pencil.)

1833

Thoreau enrolls at Harvard University, where he takes many more courses than required.

1837

Thoreau meets Emerson when the latter gives his speech “The American Scholar” at Harvard.

They become friends and Thoreau joins the Transcendentalist group around Emerson.

1838

Thoreau begins teaching; Louisa May Alcott is one of his students.

1840

Thoreau begins to contribute to the new Transcendentalist magazine, The Dial.

1845–47

Thoreau lives at Walden Pond and begins to write his memoir of the experience.

1848

Thoreau spends a night in jail after refusing to pay his taxes. (A relative bails him out.) He writes his essay “On Civil Disobedience.”

1849

Thoreau publishes A Week on the Concord and Merrimack Rivers about a rafting trip with his brother, who is recently deceased. The book is unsuccessful and sells few copies.

1850

Thoreau hides fugitive slaves at his home in Concord.

1854

Walden is published and is well-received by the public.

1859

Thoreau writes a speech in defense of the captured abolitionist John Brown.

1862

Thoreau dies of tuberculosis at age 44. Ralph Waldo Emerson gives his eulogy.

1864

Thoreau’s book The Maine Woods is published after his death.