Henry David Thoreau 1817—1862

Abstract Thoreau was born on his maternal grandmother’s farm, on verginia Road, in Concord, Massachusetts, on July 12, 1817, the third child of John and Cynthia (Dunbar) Thoreau. On October he was christened David Henry Thoreau, named after an uncle who had died in Concord in July. Not until the mid-1830s did he identify himself as Henry David Thoreau. Like much else about this private man, so candid about his principles yet guarded about himself, the reason for the change of name is unclear. Perhaps Thoreau switched his first and middle names to affirm a measure of independence from his family and to signify the new person he had become through his Harvard education and friendships with Ralph Waldo Emerson and other Transcendentalists. Some of his Concord neighbors saw his change of name as rebellious and downright foolish. But “Henry” was what Thoreau’s family had called him since birth, and there is no evidence that they objected to his decision.