Simplify, Simplify and Other Quotations from Henry David Thoreau

Sampling from Walden, "Civil Disobedience," The Maine Woods, and Henry David Thoreau's abolitionist and nature writings, letters, and other texts, Kevin P. Van Anglen distills the intellectual's immense, creative, clever, and surprisingly progressive thought into 750 quotations, offering a concise and straightforward introduction to his profound philosophy. Addressing subjects ranging from English literature, the act of reading, and the art of love to independence, ecology, and democratic government, Thoreau was a true original writing at a time of burgeoning American exceptionalism, and his incomparable insight continues to thrill readers from all generations and backgrounds.

K. P. Van Anglen is the author of The New England Milton: Literary Reception and Cultural Authority in the Early Republic and an editor of The Writings of Henry D. Thoreau. He is also the coeditor of Environment: An Interdisciplinary Anthology. He currently teaches English and American literature at Boston University and serves as an editor of the journal Religion and the Arts.