From Boston.com - By Alex Beam </p>Of course I have had my problems with Henry David Thoreau. Who hasn't? Schnorrer, misfit, mama's boy, he never sought to be popular and succeeded magnificently. Over the years I have called him a "misanthrope, a slob, and a loser," "a world-class mooch," and a "tree-hugging pyromaniac." I am in fine company. Upon first meeting him, Walt Whitman called Thoreau "a very aggravated case of superciliousness."


Whitman later changed his mind. I, too, have been warming to the old coot. ("It is never too late to give up your prejudices," Thoreau wrote, encouragingly.)read more



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