Thoreau (1817-62) was an American essayist, poet, and philosopher. A leading transcendentalist, he is best known for his book Walden, a reflection upon simple living in natural surroundings, and for his essay Civil Disobedience (originally published as Resistance to Civil Government), an argument for disobedience to an unjust state. His books, articles, essays, journals and poetry amount to over 20 volumes and his literary style interweaves close observation of nature, personal experience, pointed rhetoric, symbolic meanings, and historical lore, while displaying a poetic sensibility, philosophical austerity and attention to practical detail. This collection of his nature poems, selected and edited by American author and reformer Franklin Benjamin Sanborn together with English writer and social reform campaigner Henry Stephens Salt, was first published in 1895.
