Chapter Henry D. Thoreau of Index by Simonds History of American Literature

and comment in his journal. He never married, he lived simply and unconventionally in his own independent way. Probably because of exposure -- for he gave little heed to the elements -- he developed consumption, and died in his forty-fifth year, at his home in Concord.

The ground of Thoreau's more recent popularity has been well summarized by Professor Trent: --

Present Place in Literature.

"The years have favored him more than they have any of his friends in The Dial group. Mankind has returned more and more to nature, and at the same time has shown a preference for the minute, semi- scientific, semipoetic treatment of her which Thoreau was supereminently qualified to give, over the rhapsodical, pantheistic treatment illustrated in the writings of Emerson and other transcendentalists, American and British."¹

Authorities.

The life of Thoreau in the American Men of Letters Series is by F. B. Sanborn; a more serviceable biography is that by Henry S. Salt, in the Great Writers Series. Thoreau: His Home, Friends, and Books, by Annie Russell Marble, is a more intimate relation. A Biographical Sketch by Emerson is prefixed to Thoreau's Miscellanies.