Henry D. Thoreau (1817–1862) was an American Transcendentalist writer and naturalist who is best known for his book Walden and the essay “Civil Disobedience.” Jeffrey S. Cramer is the editor of The Portable Thoreau, Walden: A Fully Annotated Edition, and I to Myself: An Annotated Selection from the Journal of Henry D. Thoreau, among other books.