Henry David Thoreau online

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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...


  • Biography
  • Books:
    • Walden; or, Life in the Woods (172 pages)
    • The Maine Woods (153 pages)
    • Cape Cod (112 pages)
    • A Yankee in Canada (45 pages)
    • A Week on the Concord and Merrimack Rivers (197 pages)
  • Major Essays:
    • Civil Disobedience (16 pages)
    • Slavery in Massachusetts (10 pages)
    • Life Without Principle (13 pages)
    • A Walk to Wachusett (10 pages)
    • A Winter Walk (10 pages)
    • Walking (21 pages)
    • Natural History of Massachusetts (14 pages)
    • The Succession of Forest Trees (10 pages)
    • Autumnal Tints (20 pages)
    • Wild Apples (16 pages)
  • Other Essays  »
  • Correspondence  »
  • Poems  »
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