Would Walden have been a better book if Thoreau had supplied more background information on his life? Henry David Thoreau was an  American naturalist, essayist, poet, philosopher, and a leading transcendentalist. As a transcendentalist Thoreau believed that the only reality was in the spiritual world and the only way to get rid of peoples problems was the free development of emotions. I know that that was not true. He is mainly known for his autobiography Walden. It is about his life living on Walden Pond. He wrote in his autobiography “I lived alone, in the woods, a mile from any neighbor, in a house which I had built myself, on the shore of Walden Pond, in Concord, Massachusetts, and earned my living by the labor of my hands only. I lived there two years and two months. At present I am a sojourner in civilized life again.” He said that his reason for going there was to get a business with few obstacles because he thought a business would be easy there.

Would Walden have been a better book if Thoreau had supplied more background information on his life? Well my answer is no. His autobiography is named Walden and it tells of his life on Walden Pond. It wouldn’t make sense for Thoreau to write about his whole life if the book was called Walden. Also the book was very confusing. more detail would of made it even more confusing. I have had to read a great deal of autobiography’s and Walden is the most confusing one. These are the reasons of why the answer to this question is no. If you read this book read slowly and do your best to focus on the writing style that Thoreau uses.