-- Buell on Henry David Thoreau and his influence as a leading figure in the American Transcendentalist movement, author, and environmentalist. --
Recorded 27 September 2023 at Massachusetts Historical Society.
Henry David Thoreau was a leading figure in the American Transcendentalist movement and the era of US literary emergence. He achieved worldwide renown as an essayist, social thinker, naturalist, environmentalist, and sage. Thoreau's Walden, an autobiographical narrative of his two-year sojourn in a self-built lakeside cabin, is one of the most widely studied works of American literature. Thoreau also stands as an icon of modern American environmentalism, the father of American nature writing, a forerunner of modern ecology, and a harbinger of individual spirituality incorporating Eastern wisdom and philosophy. However, Thoreau is also a controversial figure. Scholars have regularly offered conflicting assessments of the significance of his work, the evolution of his thought, even the facts of his life. Thoreau scholar Lawrence Buell gives due consideration to all these aspects of Thoreau's art and thought, framing key issues and complexities in historical and literary context.
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