Back Collected Essays & Poems

Henry David Thoreau: Collected Essays & Poems

Edited by Elizabeth Hall Witherell

“Seldom does a single book contain so much wisdom. The 27 essays collected here include such seminal works as ‘Civil Disobedience,’ ‘Walking,’ ‘Slavery in Massachusetts,’ ‘Wild Apples,’ and ‘Life Without Principle.’ All are testaments to Thoreau’s continuing influence on our lives and our thoughts.”— The Dallas Morning News

Overview
News & Views
Table of Contents

Overview

Story of the Week Henry David Thoreau, “The Landlord”
April 13, 2023

Interviews The Transcendentalists and Their World: Robert A. Gross on why Concord matters
October 5, 2022

Interviews Laura Dassow Walls: “We have misread Thoreau, tragically”
October 16, 2017

This title is out of stock and a reprint has not yet been scheduled. Sign up here to receive news about forthcoming titles and reprints.

America’s greatest nature writer and a political thinker of international renown, Henry David Thoreau crafted essays that reflect his speculative and probing cast of mind. In his poems, he gave voice to his private sentiments and spiritual aspirations in the plain style of New England speech. The Library of America now brings together these indispensable works in one authoritative volume.

Spanning his entire career, the 27 essays gathered here chart the range of Thoreau’s interests and the evolution of his thinking, particularly on nature and politics. They vary in style from the ambling rhythm of “Natural History of Massachusetts” and “A Winter Walk” to the concentrated moral outrage of “Slavery in Massachusetts” and “A Plea for Captain John Brown.” Included are “Civil Disobedience,” Thoreau’s great exploration of the conflict between individual conscience and state power that continues to influence political thinkers and activists; “Walking,” a meditation on “wildness” and civilization; and “Life Without Principle,” a passionate critique of American materialism and conformity. Also here are literary essays, including pieces on Homer, Chaucer, and Carlyle; the travel essay “A Yankee in Canada”; speeches in defense of John Brown; and works on natural history written during the last years of Thoreau’s life, such as “The Succession of Forest Trees,” “Wild Apples,” and “Huckleberries.”

Many of the poems are presented here in versions based on Thoreau’s journal and manuscripts. Poems he excerpted for A Week on the Concord and Merrimack Rivers and Walden appear in their entirety. Included are “Sic Vita,” with Thoreau’s searching characterization of himself as “a parcel of vain strivings,” and the visionary “Inspiration.”

Elizabeth Hall Witherell, volume editor, is editor-in-chief of the multi-volume critical edition The Writings of Henry D. Thoreau, based at the University of California, Santa Barbara, and published by Princeton University Press.

This Library of America series edition is printed on acid-free paper and features Smyth-sewn binding, a full cloth cover, and a ribbon marker.

Henry David Thoreau: Collected Essays & Poems is kept in print by gifts to the Guardians of American Letters Fund in honor of Martin E. Segal.
News & Views

Story of the Week Henry David Thoreau, “The Landlord”
April 13, 2023

Interviews The Transcendentalists and Their World: Robert A. Gross on why Concord matters
October 5, 2022

Interviews Laura Dassow Walls: “We have misread Thoreau, tragically”
October 16, 2017

News Museum exhibition presents Thoreau’s journal as a monument to the examined life
July 12, 2017

Story of the Week Henry David Thoreau, “A Walk to Wachusett”
July 12, 2017
Table of Contents

Essays
Aulus Persius Flaccus
The Service
Natural History of Massachusetts
A Walk to Wachusett
Sir Walter Raleigh
Dark Ages
A Winter Walk
The Landlord
Paradise (To Be) Regained
Homer. Ossian. Chaucer.
Herald of Freedom
Wendell Phillips Before Concord Lyceum
Thomas Carlyle and His Works
Civil Disobedience
Walking
A Yankee in Canada
Love
Chastity & Sensuality
Slavery in Massachusetts
Life without Principle
Autumnal Tints
A Plea for Captain John Brown
Martyrdom of John Brown
The Last Days of John Brown
The Succession of Forest Trees
Wild Apples
Huckleberries

Poems

Or buy from our partners

ISBN: 978-1-88301195-6 703 pages

LOA books are distributed worldwide by Penguin Random House

N° 124 Library of America Series

Subscribers can purchase the slipcased edition by signing in to their accounts.

Related Books

American Earth: Environmental Writing Since Thoreau LOA N°182

Aldo Leopold: A Sand County Almanac & Other Writings on Ecology and Conservation LOA N°238

William Bartram: Travels and Other Writings LOA N°84

Henry David Thoreau: A Week, Walden, The Maine Woods, Cape Cod LOA N°28

John Muir: Nature Writings LOA N°92

Library of America

CURATOR

A champion of America’s great writers and timeless works, Library of America guides readers in finding and exploring the exceptional writing that reflects the nation’s history and culture.

Learn More

PUBLISHER

From poetry, novels, and memoirs to journalism, crime writing, and science fiction, the more than 300 volumes published by Library of America are widely recognized as America’s literary canon.

Browse our books Subscribe

NON-PROFIT

With contributions from donors, Library of America preserves and celebrates a vital part of our cultural heritage for generations to come.

Support our mission

Henry David Thoreau: Collected Essays & Poems

Related Books

Get 10% off your first Library of America purchase.