Self-described as "a mystic, a transcendentalist, and a natural philosopher to b
oot," Henry David Thoreau dedicated his life to preserving his freedom as a man
and as an artist. Nature was the fountainhead of his inspiration and his refuge
from what he considered the follies of society. Heedless of his friends' advice
to live in a more orthodox manner, he determinedly pursued his own inner bent-th
at of a poet-philosopher-in prose and verse. Edited by noted Thoreau scholar Jef
frey S. Cramer, this edition promises to be the new standard for those intereste
d in discovering the great thinker's influential ideas about everything from env
ironmentalism to limited government.
