Thoreau And Transcendentalism

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Thoreau became exposed to the reality of life at a relatively young age. His father made pencils in a small shop, while his mother took in boarders. During the bleak winter of 1842, Henry lost his beloved brother John Thoreau, Jr. to a terrible case of lockjaw brought on by a slight, but unattended wound. His death profoundly affected Henry who then resolved to eulogize his brother's death in a book based on a vacation the two had taken on the Concord and Merrimack Rivers. By July 1845, Henry left civilization to live in a cabin he had built on the shore of Walden Pond, where he proceeded to write his tribute to his brother's life, A Week on the Concord and Merrimack Rivers. However, the work which developed as a result of Henry's experiences at Walden Pond, entitled Walden, proved to be more original and exciting than Henry's first book.
After graduating from Harvard in 1837, Thoreau met his acquaintance and mentor Ralph Waldo Emerson. It was Emerson who first introduced Henry ...

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