Reality & Walden Pond

Henry David Thoreau is one of the most studied writers in American literature--not for fiction, but for a nonfiction collection about his stay at Walden Pond.

Henry David Thoreau was born on July 12, 1817--he would be known as an American writer, poet, philosopher and naturalist. There's no small debate about how realistic his stay at Walden Pond was--the book has been one of the most studied works in American literature classrooms, along with Thoreau's other essays and poems, (Civil Disobedience is just one of the popular/memorable ones).

In Walden, he writes, "Let us first be as simple and well as Nature ourselves, dispel the clouds which hang over our brows, and take up a little life into our pores. Do not stay to be an overseer of the poor, but endeavor to become one of the worthies of the world."