Among his lasting contributions are 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. Thoreau's books, articles, essays, journals, and poetry total over 20 volumes. A leading transcendentalist, Thoreau is best known for his book Walden, a reflection upon simple living in natural surroundings, and his essay Resistance to Civil Government (also known as Civil Disobedience), an argument for disobedience to an unjust state. ”Īfter reading this ode to color, I am inspired to paint a few more sketches of this season’s apples.Henry David Thoreau ( J– May 6, 1862) was an American author, poet, philosopher, abolitionist, naturalist, tax resister, development critic, surveyor, and historian. Others, again, are sometimes red inside, perfused with a beautiful blush, fairy food, too beautiful to eat. Painted by the frosts, some a uniform clear bright yellow, or red, or crimson, as if their spheres had regularly revolved, and enjoyed the influence of the sun on all sides alike,–some with the faintest pink blush imaginable,– some brindled with deep red streaks like a cow, or with hundreds of fine blood-red rays running regularly from the stem-dimple to the blossom-end, like meridional lines, on a straw-colored ground,–some touched with a greenish rust, like a fine lichen, here and there, with crimson blotches or eyes more or less confluent and fiery when wet,–and others gnarly, and freckled or peppered all over on the stem side with fine crimson spots on a white ground, as if accidentally sprinkled from the brush of Him who paints the autumn leaves. It will have some red stains, commemorating the mornings and evenings it has witnessed some dark and rusty blotches, in memory of the clouds and foggy, mildewy days that have passed over it and a spacious field of green reflecting the general face of Nature, - green even as the fields or a yellow ground, which implies a milder flavor, - yellow as the harvest, or russet as the hills. “It is rare that the summer lets an apple go without streaking or spotting it on some part of its sphere. You can tell by how expansive he is that he has really looked closely at them: I especially like Thoreau’s observations about the colors of apples.

Wild apples henry david thoreau