Henry David Thoreau
Core works and topics Civil Disobedience Herald of Freedom The Last Days of John Brown Life Without Principle Paradise (to be) Regained A Plea for Captain John Brown Reform and the Reformers Remarks After the Hanging of John Brown The Service Sir Walter Raleigh Slavery in Massachusetts Thomas Carlyle and His Works Walden A Walk to Wachusett A Week on the Concord and Merrimack Rivers Wendell Phillips Before the Concord Lyceum The Writings of Henry D. Thoreau Thoreau Society
Related topics Abolitionism Anarchism Anarchism in the United States Civil disobedience Concord, Massachusetts Conscientious objection Direct action Ecology Environmentalism History of tax resistance Individualist anarchism John Brown Lyceum movement Nonviolent resistance Ralph Waldo Emerson Simple living Tax resistance Tax resisters Transcendentalism The Night Thoreau Spent in Jail Walden Pond
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The Writings of Henry D. Thoreau is a project that aims to provide, for the first time, accurate texts of the complete works of American author Henry David Thoreau, including his journal, personal letters, and writings for publication. Since the project was founded in 1966, Princeton University Press has published 18 of its volumes. It is based at the University of California, Santa Barbara Library, and has been directed by Elizabeth Witherell since 1980. The project has in the past been funded by the National Endowment for the Humanities (NEH) and the National Trust for the Humanities, and is now funded by UC Santa Barbara. ^[1]

There were already editions of Thoreau's works until the title The Writings of Henry David Thoreau in 1893 (10 volumes), 1899, 1900, and 1906 (20 volumes).

Progress

The project has published 18 volumes:^[2]

When complete, the project will comprise 30 volumes. The remaining 12, now in progress, contain works that are either unpublished or that have previously been incorrectly or incompletely transcribed:^[3] Correspondence (third volume), Poems, Nature Essays (2 volumes), and Journals 9-16.

Online journal transcripts

Images of the sixteen manuscript volumes Thoreau kept from 1854 through 1861 are available online by the courtesy of the Morgan Library & Museum. Links to these transcripts can be found on the project's website. ^[4]

Award

In June 2003, NEH designated the Thoreau Edition a "We the People" project, citing Thoreau's important influence on American history and culture.^[5]