Solitude
Osmania Degree Sem 5 from 2024-25 Solitude by Henry David Thoreau Unit 1 Prose ABOUT THE AUTHOR Henry David Thoreau (1817-1862) was an American essayist, poet, naturalist and philosopher. He was famous for having lived the principles of 'Transcendentalism, as documented in his classic work Walden. Transcendentalism was a nineteenth-century American literary, philosophical, religious and political movement with a fundamental belief in the unity of all creation and the innate goodness of people and nature. It is society and its institutions that corrupt the purity of the individual; humanity's best emerges when they are truly 'self-reliant' and independent. Thoreau was also a great champion of civil liberties as seen in his essay 'Civil Disobedience. ABOUT THE ESSAY In 1854, Thoreau published Walden; or, Life in the Woods. In eighteen chapters, Walden details Thoreau's experiences over the course of two years, two months, and two days in a cabin he built near W