Major Essays
Thoreau's major reform essays, walking essays, and natural history essays.
Major essays by Henry D. Thoreau:
- A Walk to Wachusett »
An essay about a journey Thoreau took with Richard Fuller, from Concord to the summit of Mount Wachusett located in Princeton, Massachusetts. (10 pages) - A Winter Walk »
An essay that deals with relationship with nature. It describes a walk taken by Thoreau during the winter. (10 pages) - Autumnal Tints »
Thoreau's classic essay about nature. Autumnal Tints eloquenty describes the colors of New England fall. (20 pages) - Civil Disobedience »
An essay, also known as Resistance to Civil Government, about the relationships between individual citizens and their government. (16 pages) - Life Without Principle »
An essay in which Thoreau condemns the American social system and lays out his program for righteous living. (13 pages) - Natural History of Massachusetts »
Natural History of Massachusetts is a half book review, half natural history essay, consisting of revised passages from Thoreau's journal. (14 pages) - Slavery in Massachusetts »
An essay based on a speech Thoreau gave at an anti-slavery rally at on July 4, 1854, after the reenslavement in Boston, Massachusetts of fugitive slave Anthony Burns. (10 pages) - The Succession of Forest Trees »
An essay in which Thoreau analyzes aspects of forest ecology and urges farmers to plant trees in natural patterns of succession. (10 pages) - Walking »
Walking is an essay on experiencing the natural world, focusing on relationship between nature and civilization. (21 pages) - Wild Apples »
An essay about history and variations of the wild apple species. Thoreau's love letter to wild apples. (16 pages) - Other Essays »
A Plea for Captain John Brown, Paradise (to be) Regained, Reform and the Reformers, Sir Walter Raleigh, The Highland Light, Aulus Persius Flaccus, Dark Ages, Herald of Freedom, Night and Moonlight...