ately successful in Thoreau's lifetime, his experiment in the wilderness did spark interest in young people. The book inspired people to follow his example and go to a lonely spot and wonder the world and find their place in it. For many, Walden served as a touchstone. Thoreau said that he went to the pond to write a book in memory of his brother, John, who had died three years earlier. Thoreau also stated, "I went to the woods because I wished to live deliberately, to front only the essential facts of life, and see if I could not learn what it had to teach, and not, when I came to die, discover that I had not lived (Walden p. 90). At Walden Pond, Thoreau worked on A Week, but he also became attracted to the Walden Woods and began making observations in his journal of them. He also began collecting materials to write lectures. By the time he left Walden Pond, Thoreau had combined lectures and notes from his journal to compile into his first draft of his book A Week. A Week was not very well excepted by the public though. After the failure of A Week, publishers postponed the publication of Walden. Eventually, Walden was published and was moderately successful, and it did make Thoreau popular. Walden consisted of the journal entries he had written. It also consisted of things he learned while he was in the woods. Walden also evolved from a sometimes shrill justification of Thoreau's unordinary lifestyle into a complex account of a spiritual journey. Thoreau's experiences were great attributes in his writing. Henry David Thoreau was a wonderful writer. He had many excellent qualities, but the best and most important were his devotion to nature and his writing, his feeling of individualism, and his experiences that were used to make his literature more lifelike. He used nature as his main theme in his writing. He felt that independence would help him be a better writer. He also experienced many things in order to make his writing filled wit...
