Henry David Thoreau

Henry David Thoreau (1817-1862) is most famous as a natural philospher and author of the book 'Walden' and his essay 'Civil Disobedience.' He wrote many essays, articles and journals exploring the relationship between man and his natural environment and is considered to be an early environmental thinker. Example's of his daily journal entries probably written in pencil can be found at The Blog of Henry David Thoreau.

In addition to being a famous author and pencil user, Henry David Thoreau also worked with his family business as an early U.S. pencil manufacturer based in Concord, MA. Much has been written about his involvement in the pencil business.

The University of Houston's College of Engineering presents, Thoreau's Pencils, an interesting story about Thoreau's involvement in making pencils from their radio series 'Engines of our Ingenuity' which covers the machines that make our civilization run, and the people whose ingenuity created them.

This article titled, 'The Machine in the Wetland' details Thoreau and his father's efforts to construct a specialized 7-foot high chamber to assist in the grinding and sorting of the finest particles of graphite to make the cores.

Thoreau was not the only Concord, Massachusetts area pencil manufacturer in the early 19th century and this article titled, 'Concord's Sharp Pencil Makers Write Themselves into History' published in Concord Magazine covers some of the others including William Monroe and Ebenezer Wood.

For a more in depth discussion, Henry Petroski's seminal book 'The Pencil: A History of Design & Circumstance' devotes a whole chapter to Thoreau and his pencil making.

For more information about his life, visit the Henry David Thoreau Wikipedia Page.