The Milky Way, the Pond, and the Meaning of Life: Thoreau on Solitude and Melancholy

"“These are the times in life — when nothing happens — but in quietness the soul expands,” the artist Rockwell Kent wrote as he was finding himself on the solitary shores of Alaska, contemplating the relationship between wilderness, solitude, and creativity while immersed in the writings of the Transcendentalist philosopher and poet Henry David Thoreau (July 12, 1817–May 6, 1862). Since its publication on August 9, 1854, Thoreau’s _Walden_ (_public library_ | _public domain_) has gone on to inspire generations with its purehearted ethos, its prayerful passion for the living world, and its singular lens on how human nature is annealed by communion with the rest of nature. Henry David Thoreau (Daguerreotype by Benjamin D."

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