Grow Wild Card

Henry David Thoreau (1817 – 1862) was an American naturalist, essayist, poet, and transcendentalist philosopher. He had great faith in nature, and precious little in the institutions of mankind. Though an idealist, he put his ideas into practice, most notably withdrawing from society for two years to write his masterpiece, Walden, or Life in the Woods. An ardent abolitionist, he was jailed for refusing to pay taxes in protest of slavery (and the invasion of Mexico). Thoreau's ideas about civil disobedience influenced many later activists, including Mahatma Gandhi, and Martin Luther King Jr.