As Don Henley writes in his new Introduction to Walden, “we can find answers to at least some of our problems by looking at an old way of thinking—the ideas and writings of Thoreau.” Henry David Thoreau’s thinking was reinforced starting just a few days short of his twenty-eighth birthday when he built a cabin on the shore of Walden Pond and began one of the most famous experiments in living in American history. Originally he was not, apparently, intending to write a book about his life at the pond, but nine years later, in August of 1854, Houghton Mifflin's predecessor, Ticknor and Fields, published Walden; or, a Life in the Woods. At the time the book was largely ignored, and it took five years to sell out the first printing of two thousand copies. It was not until 1862, the year of Thoreau's death, that the book was brought back into print. Since then It has never been out of print. Published in hundreds of editions and translated into virtually every modern language, it has become one of the most widely read and influential books ever written, not only in this country but throughout the world.

This edition features spectacular color photographs by Scot Miller that capture Walden as vividly as Thoreau's words do. The book is published in association with the Walden Woods Project, which is dedicated to preserving the lands Thoreau wrote about. Proceeds from the sales of the book will be donated to the Walden Woods Project.