On July 12, 1817, American poet, abolitionist, businessman, and Transcendentalist philosopher Henry David Thoreau was born. He is perhaps best known, today, for his book of meditations on the simple life, Walden, and his influential essay on civil disobedience.
This birthday marks the Thoreauvian Bicentennial. The occasion is especially important to environmentalists and libertarians, both of which Thoreau was.