"
This book did not prove popular, and almost three fourths of the edition
were left on his hands. This unfortunate venture caused him to say, "I have
now a library of nearly nine hundred volumes, over seven hundred of which
were written by myself."
_Walden_ is the book by which Thoreau is best known. It is crisper,
livelier, more concise and humorous, and less given to introspective
philosophizing than _The Week_. _Walden_, New England's _Utopia_, is the
record of Thoreau's experiment in endeavoring to live an ideal life in the
forest. This book differs from most of its kind in presenting actual life,
in not being mainly evolved from the inner consciousness on the basis of a
very little experience. He thus states the reason why he withdrew to the
forest:--
"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. I did not wish to live what was not life, living is so
dear."
[Illustration: FURNITURE FROM THOREAU'S CABIN, WALDEN POND]
His food during his twenty-six months of residence there cost him
twenty-seven cents a week.
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