Thoreau Summary and Analysis

Perhaps the best-known nonconformist of his age, Henry David Thoreau was a "willing hermit" who lived as close as possible to his beliefs out of a genuine sincerity, Emerson says. Always an individualist, Thoreau once designed a highly superior pencil that won the acclaim chemists and businessmen but never had it produced because he saw no point in repeating himself. Thoreau was, according to Emerson, happiest in nature and simply walking through the woods near Walden Pond, which was on Emerson's property. Thoreau's book of the same name is a perennial of American literature and his values have inspired both dropouts and tree-huggers. Emerson concludes: "No truer American existed than Thoreau."