The Thoreau You Don't Know: The Father of Nature Writers on the Importance of Cities, Finance, and Fooling Around

Robert Sullivan, the New York Times bestselling author of Rats and Cross Country, delivers a revolutionary reconsideration of Henry David Thoreau for modern readers of the seminal transcendentalist. Dispelling common notions of Thoreau as a lonely eccentric cloistered at Walden Pond, Sullivan (whom the New York Times Book Review calls €œan urban Thoreau€) paints a dynamic picture of Thoreau as the naturalist who founded our American ideal of €œthe Great Outdoors;€ the rugged individual who honed friendships with Ralph Waldo Emerson and other writers; and the political activist who inspired Martin Luther King, Jr., Mahatma Gandhi, and other influential leaders of progressive change. You know Thoreau is one of America€s legendary writers€¦but the Thoreau you don€t know may be one of America€s greatest heroes.