Certainly I heard about Henry Thoreau long ago, and for some time it was for me only the general popular understanding that he was long time ago the great hero of the American history and the founding father of some special kinds of American and world literature, nothing more. I did not put a lot of efforts towards reading his working or just asking about what he was all about. I remember when I was young; however, I used to go to the public libraries where I saw most of his works shelved.
One of my real heroes was and still is Andrew Carnegie, I read his books and books about him. For example, I was quite impressed when I heard the story, how some church pastor wrote him a letter and asked him to provide their church with the musical church instrument, namely organ, because their constituency, he wrote, though they strongly believe in God, they were not too active in going to church and were not supporting it financially in due measure. Mr. Carnegie decided to buy and send them with the installation services a very good church musical organ, and it was a great success. The people from the local community started to go to the church in great numbers, newspapers wrote a lot about this case. But soon other churches followed the example and at the end of the day Mr. Carnegie had to buy about 6 thousands similar musical instruments for many churches around the world. In the world today, it is not easy to find people who are ready to dedicate part of their wealth to churches. I believe Mr. Carnegie was the real hero who can inspire the lives of any person.
But once suddenly my hero Andrew Carnegie was linked to Henry Thoreau in a very meaningful way, so now they both teach me their life lessons together, supporting each other. It happened when I read some book on the Rockefellers’ dynasty, suddenly in this book I met the quotation from the Henry Thoreau: “philanthropy is almost the only virtue which is sufficiently appreciated by mankind” (Collier 65). After that I started really respect the depth of many Henry Thoreau sentiments, because, for example, he foresaw the future significance of American philanthropy for the whole world half a century before it was first developed by such figures as Andrew Carnegie and Rockefellers.
So when I happened to read some articles from the volumes of “The Annals of America” published by Encyclopedia Britannica, I was not at all surprised to read about Henry Thoreau’ overall significance in the introduction to Ralph Emerson’s speech which was given at Harvard in 1837. It is well-known that Ralph Emerson was a friend and a teacher to Henry Thoreau and that his speech named “The American Scholar” was sort of a response to the general wide-spread accusation of American intellectuals by European thinkers that they provided nothing new and valuable to the world at large.
Henry Thoreau’s name appeared in that introduction on the first place within the list of several middle of the 19th century American thinkers and writers that soon started to be greatly appreciated by the world at large.
Now I am really ready to meet with Henry Thoreau again and again, and try to search with his assistance new meanings in my life. I want to read as many books as possible that will make me learn more about Henry Thoreau.
Works Cited
Collier, Peter. Horowitz, David. The Rockefellers. An American Dynasty. New York: A Signet Book New American Library, 1976. Print.
