Thursday, June 22, 2017

SOMETHING BEAUTIFUL BOOK BLITZ & 3x paperback copies of Something Beautiful + swag


Something Beautiful 
Amanda Gernentz Hanson

Published by: Pen Name Publishing
Publication date: June 27th, 2017
Genres: Contemporary, Young Adult

Cordelia and Declan have been best friends since they were three years old. By the time they hit middle school, Cordelia—Cord, to Declan—is already feeling the blackness in her life as depression takes hold. Their mutual attraction to each other leads to a serious high school relationship, one with their foundation of friendship at the forefront. Cordelia seems to have her mental health under control. All appears to be well.
However, when Declan starts to accept his own fluid sexuality, it sets something in motion in their lives that is both beautiful and tragic as they learn to love each other for who they are.



Chapter 1—Now
October 2014
“Fresh off of her book tour, I have here an advocate who is actively involved in fighting inequality in her daily life. I give you, Cordelia Quinn!” The rally organizer steps aside, and I can finally see the crowd. I wave, and the rally organizer gives me a dazzling smile before she continues. “Cordelia Quinn is the bestselling author of The Yellow Wood, a coming-of-age story about a boy and a girl who are best friends as children but choose different paths as adults and then come together later in life. She is also an award-winning screenwriter and one of the most outspoken LGBTQ allies in publishing. Please join me in welcoming her to the podium!” The crowd breaks into thunderous applause that echoes through the cold air, and a smile pulls at the corners of my mouth.
I can’t lie—I’m nervous. I’m not good at hiding my emotions, so I’m afraid that people might be able to tell. I hate crowds, and I hate public speaking. I’ve managed to avoid it ever since I spoke at high school graduation.
“Hello, Topeka,” I begin. My voice is shaking. God, I hope no one notices.
The crowd is rumbling below me, waiting for me to say something good. I’m not even sure I have anything good to say. I’m so bad at this. But I’ve learned that being honest is usually the best way to go, so I decide to veer away from my prepared speech and try for candor.
“I’m going to admit something to you,” I say, gripping the sides of the podium to keep my hands from trembling. I can’t be trusted to hold papers or they’ll be shaking so much that I can’t read them. “I’m not a fan of public speaking, and I don’t usually speak at rallies like this one. But this issue… it’s really important to me. Those of you who have read my book know that. So, when my publicist asked me to come here and talk to you, I couldn’t really turn her down.”
The crowd cheers, and I smile and take a deep breath. With each breath, I feel more at ease, more comfortable speaking up here in front of everyone. I close my eyes for a second, trying to center myself. I see my children’s faces, and my grin widens.
“Honestly, I don’t have a lot to say,” I continue, gaining confidence. “I believe in equality. I believe in love. And I believe that the government should not tell us who we are allowed to love and marry.” At this, all I can think about are the people I left at home—the people who I love, the person I married. I’m lucky. I’ve never had to fight for those rights. “The politicians who are fighting against marriage equality are all active in their conservative churches—well, ladies and gentlemen, I find two issues with that. First, this country was founded on the separation of church and state—it’s in the First Amendment of the Constitution. What ever happened to that?”
I’m on a roll now. My hands have stopped shaking and everything.
“And second, marriage isn’t just about love. Anyone who has made that kind of commitment to someone can tell you that. There are legal rights that come with marriage that should be available to everyone, no matter who they love!”
I can’t help it. I start looking for him. He’s here. I can feel it.
And then I see him, and my face breaks open into the giddy sort of smile I wish I could contain. I knew he’d come. We’ve been apart for weeks now while I’ve been on my book tour, and I’ve missed him so much. Almost as much as I’ve missed the kids. God, I wish they were here with me.
As I make eye contact with him, an idea strikes. I decide to roll with it. “I’m very pleased to tell you that the person who inspired my book is with us tonight. I’d like to call him up here, so that you can meet the first man I ever loved—Declan MacLeod. Come up here, Dec!”
People turn to look at him as he shakes his head and starts moving toward me. I can nearly feel my body vibrating. I can’t wait to be next to him again, to feel his warm hand in mine. My smile is so big it feels like it’s going to split my face in two.
“I’m going to kill you,” he whispers in my ear as he wraps his arms around me. I want him to hold me forever, to never let go of me, to keep me safe and warm wrapped in his strong arms. But we’re in front of all of these people. He has to let go.
“No, you’re not,” I murmur back. “You’re better at this stuff than I am. Tell them something. Anything.” He starts chewing on his bottom lip as he thinks, and I throw him a sharp look. I’ve been on him about that since high school, but he always slips back into the old habit when we’re apart.
He makes his way to the podium and clears his throat. “Hello,” he starts as he waves at the crowd. “I had no idea that I was going to be speaking here tonight, so I apologize if what I say doesn’t make any sense.” He takes a deep breath and glances back at me. “As Cordelia mentioned, I’m Declan MacLeod. I grew up across the street from her in Hamden, Connecticut. Now, I spend most of my time in New York, performing on Broadway.”
The crowd is hypnotized, and I don’t blame them. I’ve been told that, together, Dec and I are hypnotic. We have an energy. I’m not sure I agree—I think he’s the one who radiates energy and charisma, whose skin feels electrifying, no matter how many times I touch it.
As I watch him look out into the crowd, I know one thing—he’s everything. He’s my reason, my why. He’s it for me. I’d be nothing without him.




Amanda Gernentz Hanson has been writing stories since the third grade, when she entered a five-page story about talking dogs into a local youth arts contest. She is an instructional designer by day and an everything else by night. Amanda is a proud Latina who earned her Bachelor’s degree in Chemistry from Hope College and her Master’s degree in Technical Communication from Minnesota State University. You can find her on the internet at browneyedtwentysomething.com, diverseladybookproject.tumblr.com, and on Twitter and Instagram @amandamariegh. If you see her in the wild, she probably has a book in her purse.

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Review of THE BELLE of TWO ARBORS

The Belle of Two Arbors
by Paul Dimond, Marcia Buhr Grimes (Poetry By)
Published April 4th, 2017 by Cedar Forge Press
Paperback, 696 pages

Born at the turn of the twentieth century in Glen Arbor, near the dunes of Northern Michigan, young Belle is the first child of a gruff stove works boss and a crippled mother who weaned Belle on the verse of Emily Dickinson. When a natural disaster results in her mother’s death and nearly takes the life of her younger brother Pip, Belle creates a fierce, almost ecstatic farewell song. Thus begins her journey to compose a perfect Goodbye to Mama.

At 21, Belle ventures south to Ann Arbor for university, with teenaged Pip in tow. There, she befriends Robert Frost, Ted Roethke and Wystan Auden and finds that her poetry stands alongside theirs, and even with that of her hero, Dickinson. Her lyrics capture the sounds, sights, and rhythms of the changing seasons in the northern forests, amidst the rolling dunes by the shores of the Great Lake.
Despite the peace she finds, Belle also struggles in both homes. Up north, she battles her father who thinks a woman can’t run the family business; and clashes against developers who would scar the natural landscape. In Ann Arbor, she challenges the status quo of academic pedants and chauvinists.

Belle’s narrative brings these two places to life in their historic context: a growing Midwestern town driven by a public university, striving for greatness; and a rural peninsula seeking prosperity while preserving its natural heritage. Through the Roaring Twenties, the Great Depression, World War II, and the Post-War Boom, Belle’s story is hard to put down. Her voice and songs will be even harder to forget.

PURCHASE

The book starts with a Publishers’ Note who wrote: “Now, Dear Reader, you will decide whether Belle’s voice should join the others, she helped sing into the world.” Which is an impossible task since no poetry of hers is used in the book. The poetry used as Belle’s was written by Martha Buhr Grimes, and at no point is it ever explained to the reader why Belles was not used since the poetry had been found in 1953 after her death, leaving that a mystery.
I found great delight in reading this book. At first, I was slightly suspicious of the 696 pages, wondering if the author could keep the plot stimulating enough to hold my attention throughout the entire book. Well, I had no reason for concern because the whole read was fascinating, although a few topics were left open. I assume for each reader's individual interpretation. The plot kept me interested as the story progressed through many generations with unrequited love, death, and scandals. These are just a minute peek of what to look forward to. This story held me in its clutches till the end.

“You and Pip are both crazy enough to see miracles in the smallest drop of water or a single atom and in the biggest Great Lake or greater universe.”Oh, phaw,” Frost retorted, “you’re just trying to avoid a good argument.” He looked to Mrs. Frost. “Is it okay if we leave it that Pip should look for signs of intelligent life in space, and I’ll keep looking for it here on earth?”.”Yes, Mrs. Frost replied, “but don’t you think Pip’s odds may be better?”       
I learned a plenitude of information regarding how wealthy people lived in the 1920’s plus I feel more proficient in the paraphernalia for example: pince-nez a pair of eyeglasses with a nose clip instead of earpiece although I could go on for pages I think this one example will do. Additionally, I think I spent as much time researching anything I found interesting as I did reading the book itself. Consequently, causing me to get a little behind with other obligations, oops. Likewise, by reading this book I became informed about other famous poets mostly Robert Frost. Never in any other situation would I have been as engrossed in his life's circumstances, hence the author made the experience feel as if it was coming straight from R. Frost himself. Therefore, the author made the entire book seem genuine. I would like to mention how impressed I was on the physical endurance of the characters. These were no slackers doing everything to the extreme no matter what it concerned, unless at the time you suffered from the grippe. Consequently, I assume people in that day, mostly consisted of that nature which is astounding.

“You should hear the Director of Women’s Physical Education talk though: “The social position of women does not permit any physical exploitation or unladylike competition”"...Doctor Margaret Belle says, “Participation in varsity athletics can disrupt the functioning of the female reproductive system.”
Finally, even back then Belle and her family were highly conscious of the environment, eventually learning how to change the family stove business from coal to gas, saving the Sleeping Bear Dunes from destruction and also helping in regenerating forest land from the logging industry in Leelanau County.  
Go pick up a copy or order from above because this is not a story you will want to miss. When you do let me know so we can chat about it.


Sleeping Bear Dunes in the 1920's
ROBERT FROST AT THE HOUSE ON PONTIAC TRAIL WHERE HE AND HIS FAMILY LIVED DURING ONE OF HIS FELLOWSHIPS AT U-M. THE HOUSE WAS LATER RELOCATED TO GREENFIELD VILLAGE IN DEARBORN.






Since birth, Paul Dimond has shared his time between Ann Arbor, home of the University of Michigan, and Glen Arbor amidst Sleeping Bear Dunes National Lakeshore in northern Michigan.

Prior to researching and writing The Belle of Two Arbors, Paul Dimond served as the Director of the Lawyers Committee for Civil Rights Under Law, tried several major race case that divided the U.S. Supreme Court and served as the Special Assistant to President Clinton for Economic Policy. He has also practiced law, chaired a national real estate firm and continues to spend his time between the two Arbors. He is an alumni of Amherst College and the University of Michigan Law School. Visit his Website.



I hope you enjoyed this review. If you did leave me a comment below👇

Monday, June 19, 2017

Review of Terrence: A Short Story + a GIVEAWAY of paperback copy of Terrence’s Story and an Amazon $25.00 gift card!



Terrence: A Short Story 
Alice Rachel

(Under Ground, #0.8)
Publication date: May 15th, 2017
Genres: Dystopian, New Adult, Romance

Bullying is nothing new to Terrence Young. The teasing and harassment are constant. His family is less than understanding as well. To them, Terrence chose to be gay and complicate their lives. Their little rejections sting and cut him deeply.
But when the Deviance Act is passed, Terrence’s life takes a turn for the worse overnight. Under the new law, a mere look, a simple touch, or a small kiss in public could mean death. Terrence attempts to hide his orientation to survive. That is until a gang attacks him in a bar and Chase Martinez interferes.
Chase is gorgeous, kind-hearted, and he’s a rebel in the Underground—all qualities that attract Terrence so much there is no stopping the fall. Loving Chase might be dangerous, but Terrence is done living in fear and letting others dictate what is right for him.
*The author pledges to donate 100% of sales revenue from “Terrence: A Short Story” to The Ally Coalition

Terrence is part of a group of a short story collection called The Under Gound Series. This story is a little over halfway through the collection. Therefore, in the beginning, the author gives you descriptions of organizations and places that are explained in previous stories and also tells who the characters are from the other books which is very helpful. This is longer than any other short stories that I have read with one hundred and fifty-four pages. Consequently, I found it strange how the main plot is constructed out of a bunch of short stories. Whereas, the book was not hard to follow it didn’t contain much depth having more of a meager intensity. Though I found the story to be mediocre it incorporated some intriguing creativity within how society works, including the abhorrent laws that the people live under. Also, I give Alice Rachel a thumbs up for how tastefully she handled the intimacy parts and did not write anything graphic. Furthermore, one of my biggest pet peeves is when the ending is left wide open and of course, that was the case. Nevertheless, if a reader starts at the beginning of The UNDERGROUND series and reads "straight" through instead of reading one out of sequence you potentially could enjoy this series.


Author Bio:
Alice Rachel is the author of the YA Forbidden Romance/ Dystopian Romance Series "Under Ground."
Her time is divided between teaching French, writing, reading, drawing, and spending time with her hubby and guinea pigs.
Alice loves talking to readers, so send her a message...


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Wednesday, June 14, 2017

New Edition of WALDEN AND CIVIL DISOBEDIENCE from Penguin Classics released just in time for Henry David Thoreau’s 200th birthday!


A wonderful new edition of Walden and Civil Disobedience just in time for Henry David Thoreau’s 200th birthday and with a new introduction by Kristen Case.

By Penguin Classics
336 pages

Kristen Case of The University of Maine, Farmington, provides an introduction that focuses on Thoreau as a writer, and considers his philosophy related to such modern movements as Occupy Wall Street and Black Lives Matter. Case also bucks the idea of Thoreau as a misanthropic hermit by stressing the importance of “neighbors” and “neighboring” in both texts.  

A transcendentalist classic on social responsibility and a manifesto that inspired modern protest movements

Critical of 19th-century America’s booming commercialism and industrialism, Henry David Thoreau moved to a small cabin in the woods of Concord, Massachusetts in 1845. Walden, the account of his stay near Walden Pond, conveys at once a naturalist’s wonder at the commonplace and a transcendentalist’s yearning for spiritual truth and self-reliance. But Thoreau's embrace of solitude and simplicity did not entail a withdrawal from social and political matters. Civil Disobedience, also included in this volume, expresses his antislavery and antiwar sentiments, and has influenced resistance movements worldwide. Both give rewarding insight into a free-minded, principled and idiosyncratic life.

For more than seventy years, Penguin has been the leading publisher of classic literature in the English-speaking world. With more than 1,800 titles, Penguin Classics represents a global bookshelf of the best works throughout history and across genres and disciplines. Readers trust the series to provide authoritative texts enhanced by introductions and notes by distinguished scholars and contemporary authors, as well as up-to-date translations by award-winning translators.

PURCHASE

Q&A:
With Kristen Case & Jeffrey S. Cramer, editor of
THE PORTABLE THOREAU

Why are you interested in WALDEN AND CIVIL DISOBEDIENCE?

JC: I’m interested in Thoreau’s writings because he compels me to ask the questions I do not necessarily want to hear. Since the answers change, not only from generation to generation but for each individual from year to year, Thoreau’s writings are texts to which we return, texts constantly reflecting our own evolution. His writings are vital and relevant because the society about which he wrote is not distant from us in either time or in mind. Thoreau wrote to and about his contemporaries, and we are his contemporaries as long as we continue to think as his neighbors did. Thoreau’s works remain, and will remain, contemporary as long as we read but fail to comprehend, study but fail to learn.
KC: I’m interested in these texts for so many reasons–but if I had to pick the central one I suppose it would be because Thoreau is a model for me as a writer: someone who uses words not just to explain or express already finished thought but also to launch himself and his readers into new thinking. I admire his commitment to being at the unfinished edge of thought; to allowing his finished thoughts to give way to something more provisional; to stay with the difficult, the new, the unsettling.  This courage is evident in all of his writing.

By Thoreau’s terms, what does it mean to be a good neighbor?

JC: A good neighbor — different from being a good friend — “will feed me if I should be starving, or warm me if I should be freezing, or pull me out of a ditch if I should ever fall into one,” but that is unrelated to what makes a good friend, “one who incessantly pays us the compliment of expecting from us all the virtues.” Friends “cherish each other’s hopes. They are kind to each other’s dreams.” This is the ultimate interpersonal relationship for Thoreau.

KC: For Thoreau, being a good neighbor, like being a good citizen, involves recognizing that acting or speaking in the interest of the common good sometimes necessitates dissent from common assumptions or commonly held views. His willingness to dissent, to confront, to provoke, is, in my view, anyway, less a mark of his distance from his neighbors than a measure of his true neighborliness. For him being a good neighbor also involved redefining who counts as a neighbor: animals, plants, and ghosts, as well as marginalized human inhabitants of Concord were neighbors to him. His sense of his own relatedness to all kinds of others is really palpable in Walden. I think this is best illustrated by his saying that “Not till we are lost, in other words, not till we have lost the world, do we begin to find ourselves, and realize where we are and the infinite extent of our relations.” When we “find ourselves,” we find ourselves in relation to others, and finally to everything in the world.

How does a citizen respond to unjust laws?

JC: First by non-participation in, and withdrawing support of, that which is unjust. Thoreau was long an advocate for individual resistance to deal with political issues but he also understood that there are situations when withholding support is not the same as actively participating in righting a wrong. “Even voting for the right is doing nothing for it,” he said. In some way he is making the same distinction theologians make between sins of commission and those of omission. It was no longer simply a refusal to commit wrong that was action enough, but that by omitting to actively work against, in this case, slavery, you were supporting it. “Action from principle,” he wrote, “changes things and relations; it is essentially revolutionary, and does not consist wholly of anything which was. It not only divides states and churches, it divides families; aye, it divides the individual, separating the diabolical in him from the divine.” So in today’s world we find it necessary to go beyond non-participation and find ways to keep injustice in front of our eyes and never lose sight of what we’re trying to do to make this a better and more equitable world for all.

KC: First of all, good citizens, in Thoreau’s sense, look unflinchingly at their own complicity with unjust laws. “Civil Disobedience” calls first and foremost for a kind of self-discipline that involves looking very closely at the extent to which one wittingly or unwittingly upholds or participates in injustice. And then, in the wake of that recognition, one begins the slow, difficult, idiosyncratic work of trying to create what he calls a “counter friction” within the spaces of one’s complicity. To personally resist complicity with injustice. I don’t think he saw any one formula for this kind of resistance; he saw it as an absolutely personal, almost artistic achievement. This is what he means by “Make your life a counter-friction to stop the machine.”

Why do graduates come to Thoreau? Why do we look to him when we are at a crossroads?

JC: Readers approach seminal texts looking for answers but Thoreau is different. He may offer his solutions to his life’s predicaments but he knows that his answers are not answers for everyone, nor does he want them to be. People, whether they are aware of it or not, do not go to Thoreau for answers — they go for questions. They go to be challenged. They go to be provoked and stimulated. When he says that he wants to “brag as lustily as chanticleer in the morning, standing on his roost, if only to wake my neighbors up,” we are his neighbors. We’re the ones who need awakening. We’re the ones with our eyes on our screens, with our ears blocked with ear-buds, with our thoughts distracted by noise. We’ve lost the ability to be alone with our thoughts. Thoreau is a writer against whom we should try ourselves because he forces us to ask the questions we do not necessarily want to hear.  To put it simply, he makes us think.

KC: People look to Thoreau whenever the question of what to do with one’s life arises because of his particular courage in facing that question, of facing it, as it were, all the way down. What IS life? What are we doing here? What’s the best way to spend a day or a life? Facing these question is hard and takes courage, and answering them well involves all of our ingenuity and intelligence. Thoreau modelled those qualities in a way that transcends his particular life choices. So for me he’s a model for how to face (and keep facing) the question, more than a source of answers.

How might Thoreau respond to climate change? Additionally, how did Thoreau understand the lessons of the natural world and how do those lessons still apply today?

JC: He wouldn’t respond to climate change, in part because change is what happens, and in part because Thoreau did not exist in a time when it was conceivable that man could cause damage to such an extent that it could threaten our existence. The natural world offers us a sense of eternity and continuance, but it also offers us a constant flux. He reminds us: “Is not the world forever beginning & coming to an end…?” To place this 19th century writer in our 21st century world and try to surmise what he would say or do is impossible. We may hope that he would respond to the crisis of climate change in the same way he responded to issues of slavery in his day but there is no way to predict. No reader of “Civil Disobedience” could have predicted the supporter of John Brown who would say, “I do not wish to kill nor to be killed, but I can foresee circumstances in which both these things would be by me unavoidable.” In fact, one of Thoreau’s most inspiring characteristics is his necessity to continually re-examine even those concepts that we would now categorize as wholeheartedly “Thoreauvian.”

Thoreau wanted “to regard man as an inhabitant, or a part and parcel of Nature,” reminding us that human life is passing within nature. We are not something discrete, something outside of nature, but, as Thoreau said, “part and parcel.” It is when we think of ourselves as something unique that has somehow evolved away from nature that we begin to think we can control it or that we’re in charge. We need to no longer think of mankind as something special or chosen. “The poet says the proper study of mankind is man. I say study to forget all that,” Thoreau wrote, “—take wider views of the universe.” Only when we look beyond ourselves do we begin to realize where and what we are.

KC: Well, I think he’d be devastated to learn how little progress we’ve made in coming to see ourselves, as he did, as part of the world, in deep relation with our non-human neighbors. He would absolutely object, not only to our abuse of the natural world, but to the assumption of our separateness that underlies and justifies that abuse. And yes, his ideas about how to really get to know a place or a plant or a season are absolutely relevant to the ongoing project of coming into a less violent relation with the natural world. He’s one of our most compelling writers about what it means to get to know oneself and one’s neighborhood, which for him are part of the same enterprise.

Why do you think Thoreau is having a sort of renaissance and resonating with people in this historical moment?

JC: Any time the world is in distress and fluctuation, people look for something solid on to which they may hold on — religion, philosophy, heroes, science. Thoreau, for many, suggests fairly concrete ways in which we can make the world a better place. His sense that there are higher laws or ideals that supersede civil law is paramount. His criticism of how we walk through life asleep and make decisions without thinking strikes a nerve. We are reminded of the importance of deliberation and mindfulness. And because a careful reading of Walden shows it to be not a book about a man living in the woods but a book about a man living.

Thoreau questioned the individual’s role and obligations, not to society only, but to himself: how should he live, how should he interact with his neighbors, how should he obligate himself to the laws, not of the society within which he lived, but to those laws which were higher than those of the land: moral or religious principles, or laws of conscience, that take precedence over the constitutions or statutes of society. As we find ourselves in such a divisive and short-sighted world, we search for something more universal, something that transcends our limited vision. Thoreau offers a sure and impassioned voice in the midst of our angst and struggling.

KC: We’re seeing an increasing recognition of political resistance as a moral imperative, which is exactly the theme of “Civil Disobedience.” This historical moment–in which immigrants and the poor are actively persecuted, and in which white supremacy is openly advocated at the highest levels of power-feels a lot like Thoreau’s moment in the decades before the Civil War, in which slavery was increasingly something that could not be ignored, toward which one could not be neutral. Many people who, like Thoreau, would prefer to “stay out of politics” are finding that they can’t. Thoreau offers one model of how to face that moment.

For you, personally, what is the most important lesson to take away from Thoreau in this time?

JC: We must follow our own path. We must be content to be who and what we are, not wish to be other, and, as Thoreau said, “Obey your calling rather, and it will not be whither your neighbors and kind friends and patrons expect or desire, but be true nevertheless, and choose not, nor go whither they will call you.” Or, as Thoreau put it so simply, “If I am not I, who will be?”

KC: For me the central lesson is always to keep asking questions. Don’t let the question of how to live become settled by habit, routine, or received answer. Actively make your life. For me this means not conceiving of life as a problem to solve (with a job or a house or a particular kind of family arrangement, for example) but trying to choose every day the right way to be in the life in which you find yourself: in your relationships, in your work, in your politics, in your habits, recognizing that what’s right today may not be right tomorrow, and that what’s right for you may not be right for your neighbor. Keeping these questions open is really hard work; it's a lot easier to just keep doing what you always do without thinking too much about it. But reading Thoreau encourages me to keep trying.



Henry David Thoreau (born David Henry Thoreau) was an American author, naturalist, transcendentalist, tax resister, development critic, philosopher, and abolitionist who is best known for Walden, a reflection upon simple living in natural surroundings, and his essay, Civil Disobedience, an argument for individual resistance to civil government in moral opposition to an unjust state.
Thoreau's books, articles, essays, journals, and poetry total over 20 volumes. Among his lasting contributions were his writings on natural history and philosophy, where he anticipated the methods and findings of ecology and environmental history, two sources of modern day environmentalism.
In 1817, Henry David Thoreau was born in Massachusetts. He graduated from Harvard University in 1837, taught briefly, then turned to writing and lecturing. Becoming a Transcendentalist and good friend of Emerson, Thoreau lived the life of simplicity he advocated in his writings. His two-year experience in a hut in Walden, on land owned by Emerson, resulted in the classic, Walden: Life in the Woods (1854). During his sojourn there, Thoreau refused to pay a poll tax in protest of slavery and the Mexican war, for which he was jailed overnight. His activist convictions were expressed in the groundbreaking On the Duty of Civil Disobedience (1849). In a diary he noted his disapproval of attempts to convert the Algonquins "from their own superstitions to new ones." In a journal he noted dryly that it is appropriate for a church to be the ugliest building in a village, "because it is the one in which human nature stoops to the lowest and is the most disgraced." (Cited by James A. Haught in 2000 Years of Disbelief.) When Parker Pillsbury sought to talk about religion with Thoreau as he was dying from tuberculosis, Thoreau replied: "One world at a time."
Thoreau's philosophy of nonviolent resistance influenced the political thoughts and actions of such later figures as Leo Tolstoy, Mohandas K. Gandhi, and Martin Luther King, Jr. D. 1862.

"Thank's Penguin"