Walden, by Henry David Thoreau

Building the Green Economy, Intellectual Property Preserve ::

When Henry David Thoreau published Walden, a narrative of his experiences and meditations near Walden Pond, in the densely wooded hill country of Massachusetts, it was a breakthrough treatise on the role of human industry and individual will in terms of the natural environment. Thoreau infused an explanation of day to day existence with a transcendental consciousness of the value of the natural world around him, and explored the manner in which human civilization is both habitually divorced from and irrefutably dependent upon that environment.

The Massachusetts Department of Conservation and Recreation explains:

In 1845, Thoreau went to live and work at Walden Pond. He stayed for two years, keeping a journal of his thoughts and his encounters with nature and society. Over the next few years, Thoreau wrote and rewrote (seven drafts in all) Walden; or Life in the Woods, one of the most famous works in American literature. Published in 1854, this classic has never been out of print and is still read by people all over the world.

Indeed, the book is considered by some a foundational text in the eventual springing up of a vast conservation movement, popular environmentalism, and later efforts to bring the federal government and the rule of law into the work of ensuring that human civilization does not thoughtlessly plunder the resources of the natural environment, on which it depends for survival. The text is as relevant now as ever to giving us perspective as to how to move forward in a human-affected geological epoch.

Joseph Eugene Robertson @ July 17, 2008