This article is about a book by
Henry David Thoreau. For other uses of the name, see
Walden (disambiguation). Walden (first published as Walden; or, Life in the Woods) by
Henry David Thoreau is one of the best-known
non-fiction books written by an
American. Published in 1854, it details Thoreau's sojourn in a cabin near
Walden Pond, amidst woodland owned by his friend and mentor
Ralph Waldo Emerson, near
Concord, Massachusetts. Thoreau lived at Walden for two years, two months, and two days, but Walden was written so that the stay appears to be a year, with expressed seasonal divisions. Thoreau did not intend to live as a hermit, for he received visitors and returned their visits. Instead, he hoped to isolate himself from society in order to gain a more objective understanding of it. Simplicity and self-reliance were Thoreau's other goals, and the whole project was inspired by
Transcendentalist philosophy.
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