Designed to appeal to the book lover the Macmillan Collector's Library is a series of
beautifully bound pocket-sized gift editions of much loved classic titles. Bound in real cloth
printed on high quality paper and featuring ribbon markers and gilt edges Macmillan
Collector's Library are books to love and treasure. Henry Thoreau is considered along with
Edgar Allan Poe Ralph Waldo Emerson Walt Whitman and Nathaniel Hawthorne as one of the
leading figures in early American literature and Walden is without doubt his most influential
book. It recounts the author's experiences living in a small house in the woods around Walden
Pond near Concord in Massachusetts. Thoreau constructed the house himself with the help of a
few friends and one of the reasons why he moved into it was in an attempt to see if he could
live independently and away from society. The result is an intriguing work which blends natural
history with philosophical insights and includes many illuminating quotations from other
authors. Thoreau's wooden shack has won a place for itself in the collective American psyche a
remarkable achievement for a book with such modest and rustic beginnings.
