Walden, one of America's classic works on non-fiction, gets a fresh examination from a faith-based, and meditative perspective. Thoreau and the Trancendentalists tried to achieve a balance in their lives between work and leisure, nature and civilization, society and solitude, spiritual aspirations and moral behavior. This guide helps one "walk" through Walden again and find its soul while expanding your own.

The writing of Henry David Thoreau is as full of life today as it was when he published Walden one hundred years ago. In seeking to understand nature, Thoreau sought to "lead a fresh, simple life with God." In 1848 a seeker named Harrison Blake, yearning for a spiritual life of his own, asked the then-fledgling writer for guidance. The fifty letters that ensued, collected here for the first time in their own volume by Thoreau specialist Bradley P. Dean, are by turns earnest, oracular, witty, playful, practical— and deeply insightful and inspiring, as one would expect from America's best prose stylist and great moral philosopher.

Thoreau - philosopher, essayist, hermit, tax protester and original thinker - led a singular life. This biography includes contributions of his relationship with 19th cent authority and concepts of the land.

"I believe Emerson is best understood as a spiritual guide and a spokesperson for an alternative American spiritual tradition. I have tried to make his message accessible and relevant to contemporary religious seekers." - Barry M. Andrews Includes resources for further study and reflection. "To finish the moment, to find the journey's end in every step of the road, to live the greatest number of good hours, is wisdom." - from "Experience" by Ralph Waldo Emerson Though we may debate whether Ralph Waldo Emerson is primarily a poet, an essayist or a philosopher, for Barry Andrews, he is above all a spiritual teacher. His fiery genius ignited not only Thoreau but also Whitman, Fuller and many others. Though his life was riddled with loss, including the deaths of his first wife, two brothers and his first son, this remarkable man produced dozens of inspirational essays and poems and became the most widely quoted author in America today. Andrews' commentary shows a new generation of Americans how Emerson's spiritual journey joined an open heart with a critical mind. This will appeal to readers who consider themselves spiritual though not necessarily religious.

Now in paperback, this thrilling, meticulous biography by naturalist and historian Kevin Dann fills a gap in our understanding of Henry Thoreau, one modern history's most important spiritual visionaries by capturing the full arc of his life as a mystic, spiritual seeker, and explorer in transcendental realms. This acclaimed, epic biography of Henry David Thoreau sees Thoreau's world as the mystic himself saw it: filled with wonder and mystery; Native American myths and lore; wood sylphs, nature spirits, and fairies; battles between good and evil; and heroic struggles to live as a natural being in an increasingly synthetic world. Above all, Expect Great Things critically and authoritatively captures Thoreau's simultaneously wild and intellectually keen sense of the mystical, mythical, and supernatural. Other historians have skipped past or undervalued these aspects of Thoreau's life. In this groundbreaking work, historian and naturalist Kevin Dann restores Thoreau's esoteric visions and explorations to their rightful place as keystones of the man himself.

Boldly reconfigures Walden for contemporary ethics and politics by recovering Thoreau's theological vision of environmental justice.

A Literary Guide to the Mountains of New England Commentary by William Howarth Walking with Thoreau features Henry David Thoreau's writings on nine New England mountains. William Howarth's illuminating commentary, printed alongside Thoreau's text, allows the presentday hiker to retrace Thoreau's footsteps up some of New England's most popular mountain destinations.

A champion of the human spirit, Henry David Thoreau is a true American mystic. Walden, which celebrated its 150th anniversary in 2004, continues to be one of the most familiar and widely published books in America. Thoreau's writings have also coined countless colloquialisms that have become commonplace in our language, among them, "men live lives of quiet desperation" and "he hears a different drummer." Though he was not religious in any conventional sense, Thoreau entreated all those he touched to wake up, find their own way of living, and experience oneness with nature and society. In True Harvest, Barry Andrews, a noted Thoreau scholar and leading authority on the Transcendentalist movement, has collected the most provocative of these entreaties in a 365-day format of short readings. The passages are drawn from the whole of Thoreau's published works including his journals, letters, books, essays, and lectures and they reflect a wide range of topics - nature, society, politics, philosophy, ethics, education, religion, and social justice. This daybook will inspire readers to look for the spiritual throughout the year and in life's daily experiences. In addition, True Harvest is designed to help readers use Thoreau's sentiments as a daily spiritual practice'one that promotes a life of simplicity, conscious living, and quiet contemplation.

Throughout history, some books have changed the world. They have transformed the way we see ourselves - and each other. They have inspired debate, dissent, war and revolution. They have enlightened, outraged, provoked and comforted. They have enriched lives - and destroyed them. Now Penguin brings you the works of the great thinkers, pioneers, radicals and visionaries whose ideas shook civilization and helped make us who we are. Thoreau's account of his solitary and self-sufficient home in the New England woods remains an inspiration to the environmental movement - a call to his fellow men to abandon their striving, materialistic existences of 'quiet desperation' for a simple life within their means, finding spiritual truth through awareness of the sheer beauty of their surroundings.

American Transcendentalism is often seen as a literary movement—a flowering of works written by New England intellectuals who retreated from society and lived in nature. In Transcendentalism and the Cultivation of the Soul, Barry M. Andrews focuses on a neglected aspect of this well-known group, showing how American Transcendentalists developed rich spiritual practices to nurture their souls and discover the divine. The practices are common and simple—among them, keeping journals, contemplation, walking, reading, simple living, and conversation. In approachable and accessible prose, Andrews demonstrates how Transcendentalism's main thinkers, Emerson, Thoreau, Fuller, and others, pursued rich and rewarding spiritual lives that inspired them to fight for abolition, women's rights, and education reform. In detailing these everyday acts, Andrews uncovers a wealth of spiritual practices that could be particularly valuable today, to spiritual seekers and religious liberals.