How Did Henry David Thoreau Contribute To Transcendentalism

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Henry David Thoreau’s life of solitude was heavily influenced by Transcendentalism. Thoreau was born on July 12, 1817. According to Thoreau himself, he would rather live in nature by himself, than live in the human community. “For Thoreau, living outside of the human community is the complement to living immersed in nature” (The Gale Group 329). He then went to college at Harvard and then went to be a teacher at Center School, but then quit after two weeks because he didn't believe in corporal punishment. He then went on to make his own school, in 1838, with the help of his brother (Oakes 1). After working at his brother’s school, Thoreau then went on to be one of the leading writers about Transcendentalism. He wrote essays,poems, and books about Transcendentalism. His most famous work being Walden. Though Henry David Thoreau lived in isolation, his writings about nature heavily influenced and changed the public's view of Transcendentalism and Romanticism.
The idea of Transcendentalism was already around however, Thoreau was one of the leading writers in this genre. “Transcendentalism took root in New England in the mid-1830s in …show more content…
In 1845, Thoreau built a house on the shores of Walden Pond in Concord, Massachusetts. He then lived there and was never seen for 26 months. When he finally came back to civilization, he had a rough draft of Walden. “On Independence Day in 1845, he took up residence on Walden Pond in a small hut he had built for himself from a recycled building. He emerged after 26 months (including the time spent on a trip to the Maine Woods) with a draft of his first book…” (Randall 1). His stay at Walden Pond gave him a deeper meaning about life. Walden Pond then became somewhat famous, as different Transcendentalist writers visited the pond almost weekly. The people that visited were: Emerson, who brought some of his writer friends with him, Cranch, Margaret Fuller, and
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