Page from Henry David Thoreau’s manuscript draft of Walden.
Photograph by Robert Kato

Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862)
Page from manuscript draft of Walden; or, Life in the Woods
ca. 1845–1854
Henry David Thoreau Collection, Henry W. and Albert A. Berg Collection of English and American Literature 

Page from manuscript draft of Walden; or, Life in the Woods

“How many a man has dated a new era in his life from the reading of a book!” exclaims Henry David Thoreau in this manuscript page for Walden, first published in 1854. Thoreau wrote his Transcendentalist treatise on the merits of simple living and self-reliance while living in semi-isolation in a cabin near Walden Pond in Concord, Massachusetts. Walden achieved moderate success during Thoreau’s lifetime, but has subsequently come to be regarded as one of the most influential works of American literature. The text shown here comes from the third chapter, an essay on “Reading” and the importance of literature.

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