Walden or Life in the Woods is an autobiographical narrative by Henry David Thoreau, an American author,
transcendentalist,
philosopher, and a naturalist. He is known for Walden, published in 1854.
The book describes a two-year period, from March 1845 to September 1847, during which the author retired from the town of Concord to live alone in a cabin at nearby Walden Pond within a woodland owned by his friend, mentor, and fellow writer Ralph Waldo Emerson, near Concord, Massachusetts. This was Thoreau's own experiment in Transcendentalism, in which he sought to put into action a discipline of self-reliance, where the
individual spirit thrives in its detachment from the society.
Much of the book was derived from the journals Thoreau kept during his stay. Comprising 18 essays, it creates a sense of the multiple dimensions of himself. His writings are poetically evocative, at times complicated, and he even engages in allegories. Other passages narrate about various animals and plants in the area. Some sections also describe his visits to a Canadian woodcutter and an Irish family, a trip to Concord and his bean field. He reflects the simple living in natural surroundings.