This edition includes: Biography: Thoreau by Ralph Waldo Emerson Books: A Week on the Concord and Merrimack Rivers Walden (Life in the Woods) The Maine Woods Cape Cod A Yankee in Canada Canoeing in the Wilderness Essays Natural History of Massachusetts A Walk to Wachusett A Winter Walk Walking Night and Moonlight The Highland Light Collected Letters Henry David Thoreau (1817-1862) was an American essayist, poet, philosopher, abolitionist, naturalist, surveyor, and historian. A leading transcendentalist, Thoreau is best known for his book Walden, a reflection upon simple living in natural surroundings, and his essay Civil Disobedience, an argument for disobedience to an unjust state.