See the plot of land where Thoreau built his Walden cabin

Tourists flock to Walden Pond, the namesake for Henry David Thoreau's book 'Walden,' from across the globe.

Busting the myths about Thoreau's 'Walden'

This resource from The Walden Woods Project dispels some of the common myths about Thoreau's time in the woods, including that he was a hermit (he actually regularly visited friends), that he was freeloading (he paid off his debts), that "Walden" was a misrepresentation (he was forthcoming about editing his experiences), and that he was opposed to progress (he believed in practical technology).

In 2024, Walden Pond was listed as an endangered place

The National Trust for Historic Preservation listed the site of Henry David Thoreau's "Walden" experiment as one of the most endangered historic places in America due to a proposed airport expansion and the proposed development of a nearby plot of land.

Diving into the life of Henry David Thoreau

Before he went to live in the woods by Walden Pond, Thoreau (who originally went by David Henry) lived a fascinating life, opening a school with his brother, working for his father's pencil-making business, and becoming close to Ralph Waldo Emerson, who'd become a mentor figure for the aspiring writer. This deep profile explores all that and more.

How one professor uses 'Walden' to study climate change

Richard Primack, a biology professor at Boston University, uses observations on Walden Pond's ecology from Henry David Thoreau's book to inform his study of climate change, noting that "Walden" is one of the oldest datasets available in the United States.

Browse the original 'Walden' manuscripts

Henry David Thoreau began writing the book about his time living at Walden Pond in 1846, but it went through seven iterations before being published in 1854. You can look through scans of early proofs, including some of Thoreau's handwritten corrections, through the Huntington Digital Library.

Well before the publication of 'Walden,' Henry David Thoreau nearly burned down his hometown with an unruly campfire.

The political theory of Henry David Thoreau

The two years, two months, and two days that Thoreau spent living in a modest cabin at Walden Pond informed his beliefs that people should live simply, deliberately, and become self-reliant. Those beliefs were later articulated, in a political sense, in his landmark essay, "Civil Disobedience."

Why Henry David Thoreau was not a hermit

When many people think of "Walden," they think of a man who intentionally exiled himself from society. But that's inaccurate. Thoreau regularly welcomed guests and explained that he kept three chairs in his modest cabin: "one for solitude, two for friendship, three for society."

Henry David Thoreau's 'Walden' is a popular text with young people in China exhausted by the country's emphasis on achievement.

Henry David Thoreau's family's pencil-making company helped fund the transcendentalist writer's books.

Unpacking Thoreau's diet, which once included a woodchuck

The writer's diet was notoriously simple, preferring an inexpensive combination of rice and vegetables to meat, though he usually ate it when offered. In "Walden," he mentions eating a woodchuck after it got into his beans, which one Thoreau biographer said was likely true.

A prominent writer analyzes Thoreau's apparent contradictions

Some call Thoreau a monkish hermit living in the woods, while others say he's a privileged layabout who was playacting a simple life. In this essay, Rebecca Solnit argues that both of those assessments are caricatures that reduce a complex man who reckoned with complex ideas.

Read the works of Henry David Thoreau, including 'Walden' and 'Civil Disobedience,' for free.

Understanding Thoreau's critique of American work

John Kaag, a coauthor of "Henry at Work: Thoreau on Making a Living," explains how the writer is often mischaracterized as a layabout who avoided responsibilities. Kaag, though, notes that Thoreau was a jack-of-all-trades—working as a schoolteacher and a handyman, and even for his father's pencil-manufacturing company—who came to believe that relentless striving was getting in the way of authentic living.

Why Thoreau considered himself spiritual but not religious

This interview with Richard Higgins, author of "Thoreau's God," unpacks the writer's deep spirituality, which underlies his exploration of "deliberate" living. Higgins notes that Thoreau was opposed to the dogma of organized religion but took his spirituality seriously, treating July 4, 1845, when he moved to Walden Pond, as his own "spiritual independence day."

Read the poetry of Henry David Thoreau

Although primarily known for his nonfiction, the New England transcendentalist was also a prolific poet, writing verse that, like his essays, tackled nature, man, and society. The Academy of American Poets has collected 30 of his poems, which you can read for free.

William HH Murray spurred American interest in rustic retreats, characterizing them as necessary respites from the country's oppressive urban centers.

Explore a collection of famous literary maps, including original images from 'Treasure Island,' 'The Swiss Family Robinson, ' and 'Walden.'

Take a virtual tour of Mark Twain's Connecticut mansion.

See Harvard’s early history through Indigenous voices

Founded in 1636, Harvard University grew alongside English colonization in Wampanoag lands. In this online exhibit, the Peabody Museum of Archaeology and Ethnology highlights Indigenous voices, interpreting objects such as eel traps and grass baskets.

Taliesin offered Frank Lloyd Wright an oasis away from gossip and scrutiny

After a public affair that damaged his reputation, Frank Lloyd Wright built a hideaway for himself and his mistress. This grand Wisconsin structure is now a National Historic Landmark after experiencing two major fires, each followed by major renovations.

Watch a video about Greenfield Village, Henry Ford's recreation of an ideal American town

Henry Ford designed Greenfield Village, an open-air museum with restorations of historic buildings, that represented Ford's idealization of what a simple American life should look like. Among the most notable buildings in the village are Ford's childhood home and a recreation of the one-room country schoolhouse Ford attended through the sixth grade.

The long-tail influence of Thoreau's 'Civil Disobedience'

His essay "Civil Disobedience" laid out both a practical and a moral plan for resisting unjust governments, inspiring civil rights leaders like Mahatma Gandhi and Martin Luther King Jr., as well as anti-war anarchists like Emma Goldman and literary figures like Leo Tolstoy.

Henry David Thoreau, the transcendentalist writer and philosopher, was inspired by the philosophical ideas of yoga.

Wisconsin left a deep impression on Frank Lloyd Wright and his work

Born and raised in Wisconsin, Frank Lloyd Wright openly adored his home state’s “pastoral” landscapes, red barns, and down-to-earth residents. Wright also referenced the state as a huge inspiration for his design style.

A map of Wampanoag territory in the 17th century

Around the time of the first Thanksgiving, the Wampanoag lived in a broad swath of New England, including Cape Cod and the islands ringing it. This map shows the historic territory of the tribe, complete with the native and contemporary names of towns and villages.

Ralph Waldo Emerson celebrated Walt Whitman, then regretted it

Emerson famously praised the first edition of Whitman’s “Leaves of Grass,” which Whitman used to promote the collection. In doing so, Whitman effectively created the modern book blurb, though he did so without Emerson’s permission, leading to a prolonged, passive beef between the two.

Read Thoreau's 'Civil Disobedience'

The essay—originally delivered as a lecture and inspired by a night in jail for failing to pay a poll tax—argued that citizens should nonviolently resist unjust government policies, including slavery. Read the entirety of the essay for free.

King sets many of his stories in Maine

In the process, he has created a few fictional towns. This extensive travelogue by a superfan explores the writer's favorite haunts, pinpointing specific details from and inspirations for King's fiction. Helpfully, it also provides plenty of photos, allowing you to venture through King's haunted version of the state without ever leaving the comfort of your home.

Machu Picchu before it was a tourist attraction

The Machu Picchu we know today is familiar thanks to its neatly manicured plazas, lovingly preserved stone buildings, and ever-present hordes of tourists. But that’s not what Hiram Bingham saw when Melchor Arteaga led him to the site in 1911. Back then, it lay covered by centuries of tropical overgrowth.

Thoreau's 'Civil Disobedience' was largely a protest against the Mexican-American War

Henry David Thoreau refused to pay taxes that funded what he saw as an unjust war waged to expand slavery. His act of protest inspired his famous essay "Civil Disobedience," a foundational text for nonviolent resistance.

Inside Warren Buffett's real estate portfolio, which includes more than just his primary Omaha residence

The Oracle of Omaha is known for living in the same house since 1958—but what exactly does that house look like? This article takes a look inside that house, plus a few other properties in Buffett's real estate portfolio. Explore Warren Buffett's homes here.

Read the only surviving eyewitness account of the first Thanksgiving

Edward Winslow’s short 1621 letter offers the only firsthand account of the first Thanksgiving, describing celebratory gunfire that drew Wampanoag leader Massasoit and 90 men—initially fearing conflict—before the gathering turned into shared feasting.

The front lawn became an American ideal in the 20th century.

A guide to the poetry of Walt Whitman

The resource allows you to explore over 100 of Whitman’s essential works, from the iconic “Leaves of Grass” through poems you’ll recognize from pop culture, like “When I Heard the Learn’d Astronomer” and “O Captain! My Captain!”

Stonehenge was part of a much larger prehistoric landscape

Long before Stonehenge was built, the Salisbury Plain was already dotted with ceremonial sites, burial mounds, and large-scale earthworks. These landscape maps reveal a densely inhabited region shaped by sophisticated prehistoric communities with ambitious public projects.

Explore William Faulkner's fictional Mississippi county

Faulkner famously set his stories and novels in Yoknapatawpha County, a fictional slice of Mississippi based on his home county of Lafayette. This collaboration between an International Team of Faulkner Scholars and technologists at the University of Virginia allows readers to explore maps of the fictional county, pinpointing the locations of Faulkner's texts and visualizing the genius of one of America's greatest writers.

Fallingwater is one of the world’s most famous houses

Fallingwater, a country house set atop a waterfall, is arguably Frank Lloyd Wright’s most celebrated work. Legend has it that the initial drawings of the house were hurriedly sketched in just three hours after Wright’s client surprised him with a phone call and announced he wanted to see the plan’s progress.

President Abraham Lincoln was inspired by a novel to create the holiday

A writer and abolitionist from New Hampshire, Sarah Josepha Hale was instrumental in cementing many of the Thanksgiving traditions we celebrate today. Her 1852 novel "Northwood, a Tale of New England," described a feast with a roasted turkey, stuffing, plum pudding, and pumpkin pie. She wrote dozens of editorials and letters to politicians campaigning for the day to become a national holiday. In 1863 she was finally successful in convincing President Lincoln to make it official.

The Appalachian Trail was originally envisioned as a utopian project to inspire more Americans to live in rural areas.

Read the original, utopian manifesto for the Bauhaus movement

In "Program of the Staatliche Bauhaus in Weimar," Walter Gropius' 1919 manifesto, the architect imagined his Bauhaus school as a "guild of craftsmen" where architects, painters, and sculptors could be freed from the class-oriented pretensions of the art world and learn to make works that would benefit humanity.

Meet a 90-year-old who built his own hobbit-inspired house

A retired carpenter built himself a kind-of Hobbit house, and is living comfortably off the grid at 90 years old, tourists notwithstanding. Learn how he did it with this video.

Twain ruthlessly criticized other writers

The writer was known for lambasting popular writers of his time, including Jane Austen and Robert Louis Stevenson. One of his most famous takedowns is “Fenimore Cooper’s Literary Offences,” an essay that simultaneously mocks Cooper’s popular adventure tales and satirizes the pretentiousness of literary criticism. Remarking on Cooper’s novel “The Deerslayer,” Twain wrote, “its conversations are—oh! Indescribable; its love-scenes odious; its English a crime against the language.”

Whitman spent in his final years in Camden, New Jersey

There, he continued revising “Leaves of Grass” and enjoyed the city’s booming industrialization, spurred in part by the headquarters for Campbell’s Soup, until he died in 1892.

Frank Lloyd Wright's landscape design relied on abstractions

Wright was interested in finding abstract patterns in nature and attempted to match those patterns through the landscaping on his properties. He also often introduced foreign plants into his gardens, a choice that some experts say was a commentary on American identity and aesthetics.

Lincoln Logs, the popular children's toy, was designed by John Lloyd Wright, son of architect Frank Lloyd Wright, who was inspired by his father's foundation of Tokyo's Imperial Hotel.

The US senator who found a city in the sky

Dr. Hiram Bingham, a Yale graduate and explorer, is credited with rediscovering Machu Picchu in 1911. Financially supported by his marriage to the Tiffany jewelry heiress, Bingham ventured into the Peruvian Andes in search of the lost Inca city of Vilcabamba. Instead, guided by local farmer Melchor Arteaga, he stumbled upon the awe-inspiring ruins of Machu Picchu.

Hear the story of the early American environmentalists who shaped the public lands we enjoy today.

Take a virtual tour of a Usonian home

Wright's Usonian homes might have been more economical, but they didn't lack any of the inventive design of his other projects. That's evident throughout this tour of one of the homes in Pleasantville, New York's Usonia community.