HENRY DAVID THOREAU (1817-1862) was an American author, poet, naturalist, historian,philosopher, and leading transcendentalist. Thoreau's books, articles, essays, journals, and poetry total over 2o volumes, among which Walden, a reflection upon simple living in natural surroundings, is best known.Thoreau's philosophy of civil disobedience influenced the political thoughts and actions of such later figures as Leo Tolstoy, Mahatma Gandhi, and Martin Luther King, Jr.