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Henry David Thoreau (see name pronunciation; July 12, 1817 – May 6, 1862) was an American author, poet, philosopher, abolitionist, naturalist, tax resister, development critic, surveyor, and historian. A leading transcendentalist,〔Howe, Daniel Walker, ''What Hath God Wrought: The Transformation of America, 1815–1848''. ISBN 978-0-19-507894-7, p. 623.〕 Thoreau is best known for his book ''Walden'', a reflection upon simple living in natural surroundings, and his essay ''Resistance to Civil Government'' (also known as ''Civil Disobedience''), an argument for disobedience to an unjust state. Thoreau's books, articles, essays, journals, and poetry total over 20 volumes. Among his lasting contributions are his writings on natural history and philosophy, where he anticipated the methods and findings of ecology and environmental history, two sources of modern-day environmentalism. His literary style interweaves close natural observation, personal experience, pointed rhetoric, symbolic meanings, and historical lore, while displaying a poetic sensibility, philosophical austerity, and "Yankee" love of practical detail.〔''Henry David Thoreau : A Week on the Concord and Merrimack Rivers / Walden / The Maine Woods / Cape Cod'', by Henry David Thoreau, Library of America, ISBN 0-940450-27-5〕 He was also deeply interested in the idea of survival in the face of hostile elements, historical change, and natural decay; at the same time he advocated abandoning waste and illusion in order to discover life's true essential needs.〔 He was a lifelong abolitionist, delivering lectures that attacked the Fugitive Slave Law while praising the writings of Wendell Phillips and defending abolitionist John Brown. Thoreau's philosophy of civil disobedience later influenced the political thoughts and actions of such notable figures as Leo Tolstoy, Mahatma Gandhi, and Martin Luther King, Jr. Thoreau is sometimes cited as an anarchist.〔''Encyclopaedia of the Social Sciences'', edited by Edwin Robert Anderson Seligman, Alvin Saunders Johnson, 1937, p. 12. Gross, David (ed.) ''The Price of Freedom: Political Philosophy from Thoreau's Journals'' p. 8, ISBN 978-1-4348-0552-2 ("The Thoreau of these journals distrusted doctrine, and, though it is accurate I think to call him an anarchist, he was by no means doctrinaire in this either.")〕 Though ''Civil Disobedience'' seems to call for improving rather than abolishing government — "I ask for, not at once no government, but ''at once'' a better government"〔Thoreau, H. D. ''(Resistance to Civil Government )''〕 — the direction of this improvement points toward anarchism: "'That government is best which governs not at all;' and when men are prepared for it, that will be the kind of government which they will have."〔 Richard T. Drinnon partly blames Thoreau for the ambiguity, noting that Thoreau's "sly satire, his liking for wide margins for his writing, and his fondness for paradox provided ammunition for widely divergent interpretations of 'Civil Disobedience'."〔 〕 ==Name pronunciation and physical appearance== Amos Bronson Alcott and Thoreau's aunt each wrote that "Thoreau" is pronounced like the word "thorough" (pronounced ——in General American,〔(THUR-oh or Thor-OH? And How Do We Know? ) Thoreau Reader〕〔''(Thoreau's Walden )'', under the ''Pronouncing Thoreau'' sidebar.〕 but more precisely ——in 19th-century New England). Edward Waldo Emerson wrote that the name should be pronounced "Thó-row", with the ''h'' sounded and stress on the first syllable.〔A note on pronouncing the name Thoreau, at (the Thoreau Institute at Walden Woods )〕 Among modern-day American speakers, it is perhaps more commonly pronounced ——with stress on the second syllable.〔(【引用サイトリンク】publisher=Dictionary.com, LLC )〕〔Wells, J.C. (1990) ''Pronunciation Dictionary'', s.v. ''Thoreau''. Essex, U.K.: Longman.〕 In appearance he was homely, with a nose that he called "my most prominent feature."〔Thoreau, H.D. ''(Cape Cod )''〕 Of his face and disposition, Ellery Channing wrote: "His face, once seen, could not be forgotten. The features were quite marked: the nose aquiline or very Roman, like one of the portraits of Caesar (more like a beak, as was said); large overhanging brows above the deepest set blue eyes that could be seen, in certain lights, and in others gray, — eyes expressive of all shades of feeling, but never weak or near-sighted; the forehead not unusually broad or high, full of concentrated energy and purpose; the mouth with prominent lips, pursed up with meaning and thought when silent, and giving out when open with the most varied and unusual instructive sayings."〔(【引用サイトリンク】title=The Days of Henry Thoreau )〕 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「Henry David Thoreau」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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