Selected texts and links about Thoreau’s life, writings, and time, including works by his contemporaries, his readings, current scholarship and other related documents
What you see here is only the beginning. This is an on-going project of the Walden Woods Project that will continue to grow so please check back often.
Please report errors to the Walden Woods Project’s Thoreau Institute Library.
Disclaimer: The views and opinions of authors in the texts or hyperlinks below do not necessarily represent those of the Walden Woods Project but are provided for the purpose of education and the dissemination of information. Reference to any product, service, publication, organization or author does not necessarily constitute or imply an endorsement, recommendation or favoring by the Walden Woods Project. All texts and hyperlinks are provided with the sole purpose of meeting the mission of the Walden Woods Project to collect and disseminate materials relating to Henry David Thoreau (1817-1862), his historical context, and his contemporary relevance to environmental and human-rights issues, as well as the work of other environmental writers and social reformers.
Have a question about Thoreau? Ask the Curator!
About Thoreau Briefly
Brief Overviews:
- Thoreau’s Life
- The Thoreau Log: A Digital Documentary Life of Henry D. Thoreau
- Thoreau as a Writer
- Thoreau’s Writings
- Social Reform
- Walden, The Place
- Thoreau and the Environment
- For Further Reading: A Select Bibliography
About Thoreau A – Z
A
- Abbott, Charles Conrad (1843-1919) — Thoreau (from Notes of the Night, and Other Outdoor Sketches)
- Ackerman, Joy Whitely — Walden: A Sacred Geography
- Adams, Raymond (1898-1987)
- Æsthetic Papers
- Albee, John (1833-1915) — Remembrances of Emerson: Excerpts on Thoreau
- Alcott, Amos Bronson (1799-1888)
- Angelo, Ray
- Art
- Gibbons, Prescott (1960- )
- Watson, Amelia Montague (1856-1934)
- The Atlantic Monthly
B
- Blake, Harrison Gray Otis (1816-1898)
- Brooks, Charles Timothy (1813-1883)
- Brooks, Paul (1909-1998)
- Brown, John (1800-1859)
- Brown, Mary Hosmer (1856-1929) — Henry David Thoreau (from Memories of Concord)
- Bussewitz, Albert W. (1912-1995) — Thoreau and the Conservation Ethic
C
- Cabot, James Elliot (1821-1903)
- Channing, William Ellery (1817-1901) — Walks with Ellery Channing (The Atlantic Monthly, July 1902)
- Childs, Christopher — Clear Sky, Pure Light: Encounters with Henry David Thoreau
- Child, Lydia Maria (1802-1880)
- Clark, Jill Morgan — Henry David Thoreau: The Darwinian Naturalist (A Project Submitted in Partial Fulfillment Of the Requirements for the Degree of Master of Liberal Studies, Rollins College, 2005)
- Cooke, George Willis (1848-1923) — The Two Thoreaus (The Independent, 10 December 1896)
- Cranch, Christopher Pearse (1813-1892)
D
- Dawes, Lewis C. (1863-1936)
- Dean, Bradley P. (1954-2006) and Ronald Wesley Hoag — Thoreau’s Lectures
- The Dial: A Magazine for Literature, Philosophy, and Religion
- Drake, William — Spiritual Ideals and Scientific Facts: Thoreau’s Search for Reality (The Western Thoreau Centenary: Selected Papers)
- Dwight, John Sullivan (1813-1893)
E
- Ells, Stephen F. (1935-2008) — A Bibliography of Biodiversity and Natural History in the Sudbury and Concord River Valley
- Emerson, Edward Bliss (1805-1834)
- Emerson, Ellen Louisa Tucker (1811-1831)
- Emerson, Ralph Waldo (1803-1882)
F
- Fields, James T. (1817-1881) — Our Poet-Naturalist
- Fleck, Richard F.
- Frothingham, Octavius Brooks (1822-1895) — Transcendentalism in New England (from Transcendentalism in New England: A History)
- Fuller, Margaret (1810-1850)
- Fuller, Richard Frederick (1824-1869) — The Younger Generation in 1840 (The Atlantic Monthly, August 1923)
G
- Gibbons, Prescott (1960- ) — Walden Pond Series
- Gleason, Herbert Wendell (1855-1937) — Herbert W. Gleason Photographs (The Writings of Henry David Thoreau) 1906
- Gohdes, Clarence L.F. (1901-1997) — Elizabeth Peabody and Her Æsthetic Papers (from The Periodicals of American Transcendentalism)
- Goodwin, Parke (1816-1904) — Organization (Æsthetic Papers, 1849)
H
- Harding, Walter (1917-1996)
- Hawthorne, Nathaniel (1804-1864) — Hawthorne Writes About Thoreau
- Higginson, Thomas Wentworth (1823-1911)
- Amos Bronson Alcott (from Contemporaries. Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 1899)
- Lydia Maria Child (from Contemporaries. Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 1899)
- Ralph Waldo Emerson (from Contemporaries. Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 1899)
- Thoreau (from Short Studies of American Authors)
- A Visit to John Brown’s Household in 1859 (from Contemporaries. Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 1899)
- Wendell Phillips (from Contemporaries. Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 1899)
- Hoag, Ronald Wesley and Bradley P. Dean — Thoreau’s Lectures
- Hoar, Elizabeth (1814-1878)
- Hooper, Ellen Sturgis Hooper (1812-1848)
- Hosmer, Gladys Eleanor Holden (1887?-1970) — Remarks on Thoreau, Concord, and Walden
I
- Indians
- Henry Thoreau and John Muir Among the Indians by Richard F. Fleck (Archon Books, 1985; with errata and addendum, 2009)
- Selections from the “Indian Notebooks” (1847-1861) of Henry D. Thoreau, Transcribed, with an Introduction and additional material, by Richard F. Fleck
J
- James, Henry (1843-1916) — The American Scene: Concord
- Jones, Samuel Arthur (1834-1912)
- Joyce, Kristina
K
L
- Lane, Charles (1800-1870) — The Consociate Family Life
- Langton, Jane (1922-2018) — Two Uncollected Talks — The Uses of New England Ecstasy • The War in Vietnam, the First Parish in Lincoln, Me, and Henry Thoreau
- Lowell, James Russell (1819-1891)
M
- Mac Donnell, Kevin — Collecting Henry David Thoreau by Kevin Mac Donnell
- McCurdy, Michael (1942-2016) — Clear Sky, Pure Light: Encounters with Henry David Thoreau
- Metzger, Charles R. — Thoreau and Whitman: A Study of Their Esthetics (University of Washington Press, 1961)
- Mountains
N
O
P
- Peabody, Elizabeth Palmer (1804-1894)
- Perkins, Stephen H. — Abuse of Representative Government (Æsthetic Papers, 1849)
- Photography
- Gleason, Herbert Wendell (1855-1937)
- Hosmer, Alfred Winslow (1851-1903)
- Portfolio of Cartes de Visite
- Pratt, Minot (1805-1878) — A Biographical Sketch of Minot Pratt by Ray Angelo
Q
R
- Reed, Sampson (1800-1880) — Genius (Æsthetic Papers, 1849)
- Ricketson, Daniel (1813-1898) — A Sketch of Henry D. Thoreau
- Ripley, Sophia (1803–1861) — Woman (The Dial, January 1841)
- Robbins, Roland Wells (1908-1987)
- Rose, Edward J. — “A World With Full and Fair Proportions”: The Aesthetics and the Politics of Vision (The Western Thoreau Centenary: Selected Papers)
S
- Sanborn, Franklin Benjamin (1831-1917)
- Sattelmeyer, Robert — Thoreau’s Reading: A Study in Intellectual History With Bibliographical Catalogue
- Schofield, Edmund A. (1938-2010)
- Shanley, J. Lyndon (1910-1996) — Transcription of the First Version of Walden
- Sherwood, Mary (1906-2001)
- Stearns, Frank Preston (1846-1917) — Sketches from Concord and Appledore: An Excerpt
T
- Taylor, J. Golden — Thoreau and the Integrity of the Individual (The Western Thoreau Centenary: Selected Papers)
- Thoreau, Sophia (1819-1876)
- Thoreau’s Contemporaries On Thoreau
- Torrey, Bradford (1843-1912)
- Thoreau as a Diarist (The Atlantic Monthly, January 1905)
- Thoreau’s Attitude Toward Nature (The Atlantic Monthly, November 1899)
U
V
- Very, Jones (1813-1880)
W
- The Walden Woods Project Archives
- Ward, Samuel Gray (1817–1907)
- Watson, Amelia Montague (1856-1934)
- The Western Thoreau Centenary: Selected Papers
- Wheeler, Charles Stearns (1816-1843)
- Wheeler, Ruth (1890-1973) — A Thoreau Herbarium
- Whitman, Walt (1819-1892)
- Wilson, William Dexter (1868-1900)
- Wilkinson, James John Garth (1812-1899) —Correspondence (Æsthetic Papers, 1849)