In the spring of 1845, Henry David Thoreau built a wooden hut on the shores of Walden Pond outside Concord, Massachusetts, intending to devote himself--for a time--to a simple life. The product of his two-year stay there was this volume of classic essays--one of the great books of American letters and a masterpiece of reflective philosophizing. Accounts of his daily life are interwoven with musings on the virtues of self-reliance and individual freedom, on society, government, and other topics--all expressed with clear-headed wisdom and remarkable beauty of style. Unabridged republication of the work published by Ticknor and Fields, Boston, 1854. Introductory note. 1 line illustration. 1 map.