Of Interest
About Thoreau: A Brief Chronology
1817 Born, David Henry Thoreau, 12 July in Concord, Massachusetts, to John and Cynthia (Dunbar) Thoreau
1828-33 Attended Concord Academy
1833-37 Attended Harvard College
1837 Taught briefly at Concord Center School (public)
1838-41 Conducted a private school, Concord Academy, with his elder brother John
1839 Went on boating excursion on Concord and Merrimack rivers with his older brother John, which formed the basis of Thoreau's first book, A Week on the Concord and Merrimack Rivers
1840 Poems and essays published in The Dial
1841-43 Lived with Ralph Waldo Emerson and his family in Concord
1842 Brother John cut himself while stropping a razor and died of lockjaw; “Natural History of Massachusetts” published
1843 “A Walk to Wachusett” and “A Winter Walk” published; tutored
William Emerson’s children on Staten Island, New York
1844 With Edward Hoar, accidentally set fire to a part of Walden Woods
1845-47 Lived at Walden Pond
1846 Traveled to Maine woods; spent one night in jail for refusing to pay poll tax, which formed the basis for his essay, "Civil Disobedience"
1847-48 Lived in Emerson household while Ralph Waldo Emerson lectured in England
1848 Began lecturing professionally; “Ktaadn and the Maine
Woods” published 
1849 A Week on the Concord and Merrimack Rivers and “Resistance to
Civil Government” published; traveled to Cape Cod; older sister
Helen died, apparently of tuberculosis
1850 Traveled to Cape Cod and Quebec
1853 Traveled to Maine woods; portions of “A Yankee in Canada” published
1854 Walden; or, Life in the Woods and “Slavery in Massachusetts” published
1856 Surveyed Eagleswood Community near Perth Amboy, New Jersey
1857  Traveled to Cape Cod and Maine Woods; “Chesuncook” published
1858  Traveled to White Mountains in New Hampshire
1859  Father John died; “A Plea for Capt. John Brown” published
1860  “The Succession of Forest Trees” published
1861  Traveled to Minnesota with Horace Mann, Jr., in effort to regain health
1862  Died 6 May in Concord, Massachusetts, of tuberculosis

 

Benjamin D. Maxham daguerreotype of Thoreau, 18 June 1856 (From The Writings of Henry David Thoreau, 1906)

A lake is the landscape’s most beautiful and expressive feature. It is earth’s eye; looking into which the beholder measures the depth of his own nature. — Walden

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