| Timeline |
| 1817 |
Henry David Thoreau born 12 July in Concord |
| 1821 |
Family moves to Boston |
| 1823 |
Family returns to Concord |
| 1828 |
Studies at at Concord Academy until 1833 |
| 1833 |
Attends Harvard |
| 1835 |
Teaches in Canton, MA until 1836; contracts tuberculosis |
| 1837 |
Graduates from Harvard; teaches at the Center School in Concord (resigns after two weeks); goes to work in father's pencil factory
|
| 1838 |
Opens school in Concord with his brother and teaches there until 1841 |
| 1840 |
Joins the household of Ralph Waldo Emerson; proposes marriage to Ellen Sewall (she declines) |
| 1843 |
Spends 6 months tutoring the children of Emerson's brother on Staten Island |
| 1845 |
March - begins building cabin at Walden Pond, moves in 4 July |
| 1846 |
July - Thoreau jailed for refusal to pay poll tax |
| 1847 |
Summer - Thoreau returns from Walden Pond |
| 1848 |
First lectures at Concord Lyceum |
| 1849 |
Resistance to Civil Government published (later known as Civil Disobedience); A Week on the Concord and Merrimack Rivers published |
| 1854 |
Walden; or, Life in the Woods published; Thoreau delivers "Slavery in Massachusetts" address |
| 1859 |
Father dies, Thoreau takes over the family business |
| 1859 |
Thoreau delivers "A Plea for Captain John Brown" address in October |
| 1862 |
Thoreau dies 6 May in Concord of tuberculosis |
| 1863 |
Excursions published posthumously |
| 1864 |
The Maine Woods published posthumously |
| 1865 |
Cape Cod published posthumously |
| 1865 |
Thoreau's letters are edited and published posthumously by Emerson |
| 1866 |
A Yankee in Canada published posthumously |
| 1895 |
Poems Of Nature published posthumously |
