Henry David Thoreau

BY HENRY

	Henry David Thoreau’s Walden, first published in 1854, is a reflection on the simple life, a celebration of self-reliance and introspection, and an account of a year spent in a hand-built cabin on the shores of Walden Pond in Concord, Massachusetts. Now available in many editions, it’s an American classic.
	“If the law is of such nature that it requires you to be an agent of injustice to another, then I say, break the law.” In his essay Civil Disobedience, originally published in 1849, Thoreau argues that the individual conscience should not be overruled by government. His beliefs have since influenced such prominent public figures as Mahatma Gandhi and Martin Luther King. Everyone should read it.
	See Civil Disobedience from the Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy.
	The Writings of Henry David Thoreau has information on Thoreau’s books, journals, and correspondence, samples of Thoreau’s (terrible) handwriting, online journal transcripts, and more.

FICTIONAL HENRY

	In Rebecca Rupp’s Octavia Boone’s Big Questions About Life, the Universe, and Everything (Candlewick, 2010), Octavia is struggling to come to terms with belief after her mother leaves the family to join the fundamentalist Redeemers. With the help of her best friend Andrew (whose big questions are about everything from time travel to alien jellyfish), Octavia finally comes to terms with her relationships, concluding – with Henry David Thoreau – that “The universe is bigger than our views of it.” For ages 9-14.
	In Robin Vaupel’s My Contract with Henry (Holiday House, 2003), four eighth-grade English students, as part of a class project, build a cabin in the local woods and set out to emulate Henry David Thoreau. In the process, they learn a lot about themselves and their values, and eventually galvanize the community into action when the woods is sold to developers. For ages 11-14.
	In Cal Armistead’s Being Henry David (Albert Whitman & Company, 2013), a  teenaged boy wakes up in Penn Station with no memory, ten dollars, and a copy of Thoreau’s Walden. He names himself Henry David and heads for Concord, Massachusetts, hoping to discover his past at Walden Pond – though it’s clear that something in his past is frightening. For ages 13 and up.
	Henry David Thoreau: detective? In B.B. Oak’s Thoreau at Devil’s Perch (Kensington, 2013), Thoreau – in company with Dr. Adam Walker and Walker’s feisty and intelligent cousin, Julia Bell – investigates the murder of a young black man whose body has been found at the foot of a cliff called Devil’s Perch. The first of a series. For teenagers and adults.