Henry David Thoreau He spent his life in voluntary poverty, enthralled by the study of nature. Two years, in the prime of his life, were spent living in a shack in the woods near a pond. Who would choose a life like this? Henry David Thoreau did, and he enjoyed it. Thoreau wasn’t just a regular every day philosopher, but instead was a great transcendentalist. He believed in spiritual life of solitude, the simplicity that every man should live by, and materialism. Thoreau’s stay was a noble experiment in three ways. First, Thoreau was intent upon resisting the debilitating effects of the industrial revolution. The Walden experiment allo