Tho·reau

(thə-rō′, thôr′ō), Henry David 1817-1862.

American writer. A seminal figure in the history of American thought, he spent much of his life in Concord, Massachusetts, where he became associated with the New England transcendentalists and lived for two years on the shore of Walden Pond (1845-1847). His works include "Civil Disobedience" (1849) and Walden (1854).

Tho·reau′vi·an (-vē-ən) adj.

American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fifth Edition. Copyright © 2016 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.

Thoreau

(ˈθɔːrəʊ; θɔːˈrəʊ)

(Biography) Henry David. 1817–62, US writer, noted esp for Walden, or Life in the Woods (1854), an account of his experiment in living in solitude. A powerful social critic, his essay Civil Disobedience (1849) influenced such dissenters as Gandhi

Collins English Dictionary – Complete and Unabridged, 12th Edition 2014 © HarperCollins Publishers 1991, 1994, 1998, 2000, 2003, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2011, 2014

Tho•reau

(θəˈroʊ, ˈθɔr oʊ, ˈθoʊr oʊ)

n.

Henry David, 1817–62, U.S. naturalist and author.

Tho•reau′vi•an, adj.

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Thoreau - United States writer and social critic (1817-1862)

Henry David Thoreau

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References in classic literature

Bardwell, in a way, started it by quoting from Thoreau; but it was old Trefethan, bald-headed and dewlapped, who took up the quotation and for the hour to come was romance incarnate.

And she quoted to me those very words of Thoreau that Bardwell quoted a moment ago--the ones about the day-born gods and the night-born."

I tell you I forgot it, sitting there on the edge of that swan-skin robe and listening and looking at the most wonderful woman that ever stepped out of the pages of Thoreau or of any other man's book.

And inside, wrapped in oiled silk, yellowed with age and worn and thumbed, was the original scrap of newspaper containing the quotation from Thoreau.

But there are times--and in her eyes smoldered up that hungry yearning I've mentioned--'there are times when I wish most awful bad for that Thoreau man to happen along.'

I remember every word of it, and I can give it to you.' And then she quoted Thoreau's Cry of the Human:

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However, at the request of the selectmen, I condescended to make some such statement as this in writing:-- "Know all men by these presents, that I, Henry Thoreau, do not wish to be regarded as a member of any incorporated society which I have not joined." This I gave to the town clerk; and he has it.

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And when he quoted the dear old stock nonsense out of Thoreau about being able to get intoxicated on a glass of water, I could have laughed and cried at the same time.

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Circumstantial evidence is occasionally very convincing, as when you find a trout in the milk, to quote Thoreau's example."

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Borrow was imminent after Jefferies--Borrow, Thoreau, and sorrow.

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However, as the request of the selectmen, I condescended to make some such statement as this in writing: "Know all men by these presents, that I, Henry Thoreau, do not wish to be regarded as a member of any society which I have not joined." This I gave to the town clerk; and he has it.

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After my fellowship of toil and impracticable schemes with the dreamy brethren of Brook Farm; after living for three years within the subtle influence of an intellect like Emerson's; after those wild, free days on the Assabeth, indulging fantastic speculations, beside our fire of fallen boughs, with Ellery Channing; after talking with Thoreau about pine-trees and Indian relics in his hermitage at Walden; after growing fastidious by sympathy with the classic refinement of Hillard's culture; after becoming imbued with poetic sentiment at Longfellow's hearthstone -- it was time, at length, that I should exercise other faculties of my nature, and nourish myself with food for which I had hitherto had little appetite.

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