Henry David Thoreau - Conservationist, Visionary, and Humanist :: Biography Biographies Essays

hydrogen David Thoreau - Conservationist, Visionary, and Humanist         He spent his behavior in voluntary poverty, enthralled by the study ofnature.  Two years, in the prime of his life, were spent living in a shackin the woods near a pond.  Who would choose a life ilk this? Henry DavidThoreau did, and he enjoyed it.  Who was Henry David Thoreau, what did hedo, and what did others think of his work?         Henry David Thoreau was born in Concord, Massachusetts on July 12,1817 (Thoreau 96), on his grandmothers farm.  Thoreau, who was ofFrench-Hugue non and Scottish-Quaker ancestry, was baptized as David HenryThoreau, but at the age of twenty he lawfully changed his name to HenryDavid.  Thoreau was raised with his older sister Helen, older sidekick John,and younger sister Sophia (Derleth 1) in genteel poverty (The 1995 GrolierMultimedia cyclopedia 1).  It quickly became evident that Thorea u wasinterested in literature and writing. At a young age he began to showinterest writing, and he wrote his counterbalance essay, The Seasons, at thetender age of ten, while attending Concord academy (Derleth 4).         In 1833, at the age of sixteen, Henry David was accepted to HarvardUniversity, but his parents could not afford the cost of tuition so hissister, Helen, who had begun to teach, and his aunts offered to help.  Withthe assistance of his family and the beneficiary currency of Harvard he wentto Cambridge in August 1833 and entered Harvard on September first.  HeThoreau stood well-nigh to the top of his class, but he went his own way too much(prenominal) to reach the top (5).         In December 1835, Thoreau decided to leave Harvard and tackle toearn a living by inform, but that only lasted nigh a month and a half(8).  He returned to college in the deliver of 1836 and graduated on Augus t 16,1837 (12).  Thoreaus years at Harvard University gave him one grand gift,an introduction to the world of books.         Upon his return from college, Thoreaus family found him to be less promising to accept opinions as facts, more argumentative, and inordinatelyprone to shock multitude with his own independent and unconventional opinions.During this time he discovered his dark desire to be a poet (Derleth 14),but most of all he wanted to live with freedom to think and act as hewished.         Immediately after graduation from Harvard, Henry David applied fora teaching position at the public school in Concord and was accepted.However, he refused to flog children as punishment.  He opted instead to