Civil Disobedience, Solitude & Life Without Principle by Henry David Thoreau

That equaled those made by the German company, Faber, whose pencils set Thoreau pencils were the first produced in America

He also improved the method of assembling Of the finely ground plumbago and clay that resulted in a pencil that Plumbago for the leads into a very fine powder and developed a combination Manufacturing pencils in the 1820s, and Thoreau used his talent as anĮngineer to improve the product. He soon found, however, that he would have to earn his living in some other way.įor a steady income, he relied on two sources: the family pencil business and He had begun keeping a journal in 1837 and had probably started writing poetry earlier than that he also wrote and published essays and reviews. Thoreau knew himself to be a writer from the time he graduated from Harvard. His keep as a handyman while he concentrated on his writing. However, and when he and John had to close their school in 1841 ThoreauĪccepted an offer to stay with neighboring Emerson's family and earn He had already begun to think of himself as a writer, Of teaching, first at the district school and then in a school he opened He returned to Concord after his graduation in 1837 and took up the profession He was never happy about the teaching methods used at Harvard- Ralph Waldo Emerson is supposed to have remarked that most of the branches of learning were taught at Harvard, and Thoreau to have replied, 'Yes, indeed, all the branches and none of the roots' (Walter Harding, The Days of Henry Thoreau, 51)-but he did appreciate the lifelong borrowing privileges at Harvard College Library for which his degree qualified him. Modern languages were voluntary, and Thoreau chose to take Italian, French, German, and Spanish. He also took courses in mathematics, English, history, and mental, natural, and intellectual philosophy. Harvard put heavy emphasis on the classics-Thoreau studied Latin and Greek grammar or composition for three of his four years. His expenses, at that time about $179 a year. That their brother should go to Harvard College, as had his grandfatherīefore him, they contributed from their teaching salaries to help pay Siblings, Helen and John, Jr., were both schoolteachers when it was decided Took in boarders for many years to help make ends meet. In 1823 the family movedīack to Concord where John established a pencil-making concern that eventuallyīrought financial stability to the family. John moved his family to ChelmsfordĪnd Boston, following business opportunities.

Where his father, John, was a shopkeeper. Henry Thoreau was born in 1817 in Concord, By Elizabeth Witherell, with Elizabeth Dubrulle

Civil Disobedience, Solitude & Life Without Principle by Henry David Thoreau