New Delhi, May 20 -- Henry David Thoreau, born in Concord, Massachusetts, in 1817, became one of America's most influential writers, philosophers, naturalists and reformers. A central figure in New England Transcendentalism, he is best known for Walden, his 1854 reflection on simple living, labour, self-reliance and nature, based on his two-year stay near Walden Pond from 1845 to 1847. He also wrote the essay later known as Civil Disobedience, which influenced later movements of nonviolent resistance and moral protest. Britannica describes Walden as both a philosophical work on labour and individualism and an influential piece of nature writing.

"It is not enough to be industrious; so are the ants. What are you industrious about?"- Henry...