Thoreau, Henry David (1817-1862)

BIOGRAPHICAL NOTE

Henry David Thoreau was born on 12 July 1817 and died of tuberculosis at the premature age of 44 on 6 May 1862. Best known for his environmental writings and contributions to natural history, Thoreau is also known as a prominent Transcendentalist along with Ralph Waldo Emerson and A. Bronson Alcott. Louisa May Alcott's poetic eulogy, "Thoreau's Flute," was published in The Atlantic Monthly (September 1863). Ethical civil disobedience, Abolition, and his practical philosophy of  simple living in nature feature in his writings. The Socialist movement in Victorian England was heavily influenced by Thoreau; the animal rights and vegetarian reformer Henry Salt published a landmark biography in 1890 (which remains in print) and in 1890 he published an edition of Thoreau's Anti-Slavery and Reform Papers, followed in 1895 by Selections from Thoreau.

Thoreau states clearly in Walden and A Yankee in Canada that he eats a primarily veg*n diet, proposing in his Journals that nuts, and acorns in particular, are the primal food for humans. He is not a sentimentalist and is often clear-eyed in his discussion of killing and eating animals, but he is equally clear that meat-eating entails cruelty. He holds a reverence for the natural world and  clearly believes that the land, planet, and animals should be neither exploited nor mistreated. There are many instances in his descriptions where Thoreau adopts a non-human animal point of view or addresses an animal on the basis of equality. Where he discusses domestic animals, it is often in terms of how they are treated by men; wild animals are revered in his writings and their disapprearance due to the destruction of habitats by encroaching US "civilization" is a cause for lament. Thoreau values Temperance and frugality, and his references to diet are often  located in this moral context. He eats fish or meat occasionally when circumstances demand, as when he explores the Maine Woods, but this is a matter of expediency. For Thoreau, the visual beauty of the natural world of plants and animals provides spiritual and imaginative nutrition that is infinitely more valuable than physical nutrition gained by killing.

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Last updated on April 19th, 2024

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