“This first-hand acquaintance with Thoreau and his friends lends an authority to Sanborn's writings, and… he was able to put into print many details of Thoreau's life that would otherwise have been lost.” — Walter Harding, A Thoreau Handbook

“Under a government which imprisons any unjustly, the true place for a just man is also a prison.”

This personal biography is a great insight into the life of a great man. Journalist, abolitionist, philosopher, and poet, Henry David Thoreau lived a fascinating life surrounded by great figures, including Ralph Waldo Emerson.

As a lifelong abolitionist, Thoreau delivered many lectures that attacked the Fugitive Slave law. His most famous work, Civil Disobedience, has been the basis of many protest movements all around the world, influencing the political manifestos of figures like Leo Tolstoy, Gandhi, and Martin Luther King Jr.

Frank B. Sanborn’s biography is informal and affectionate, coming from a man who knew Thoreau and moved in his circles. It relies not on Thoreau’s reputation, but on the words of his friends, family, and Thoreau’s own personal letters.

This biography is a chance for readers to get an idea of the man behind the myth, perhaps more than any academic biography could. Far from the dry accounts of his life, Sanborn’s Henry David Thoreau is a biography with heart.

Frank B. Sanborn (1831 –1917) was an American journalist, author, and reformer. A memorialist of American transcendentalism, Sanborn wrote early biographies of many of the movement's key figures.