ABSTRACT
Henry David Thoreau gravitated towards philosophical anarchism. When Thoreau graduated from Harvard College in 1837 he had to begin earning his living and so became a teacher in the Concord public school. The removal to New York was to give Thoreau the opportunity of finding a place for himself as a writer. The details of Thoreau’s two years and two months of solitary life at Waiden Pond are to be found in the book which spread his fame to the ends of the earth. Thoreau had proved to his own satisfaction that no man needed to be a slave to work. In his quest for economic freedom Thoreau developed a profound hostility to authoritarianism. A night in jail served Thoreau as an opportune springboard; being the man he was, he was bound to give expression to his anti-authoritarian views sooner or later.
