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Hello quote I went to the woods because I wished to live deliberately, to front only the essential

facts of life, and not when I came to die discover that I had not lived. I wanted to live deep and suck out all the

marrow of life. Thus wrote the American writer and philosopher Henry David Thoreau

in his seminal work Walden published in 1854. A fierce opponent of slavery, a champion of the

simple life, a lover of nature and an enemy of the modern, thorough has become emblematic

of one version of American values.

His work has been an inspiration to politicians and writers alike from Martin Luther King to Gandy,

Yates and Tolstoy.

Yet in many ways Thorough remains a mystery, a man of contradictions who advocated self-sufficiency,

but was happy now and then to let others including his mother to do his washing and cook his meals.

With me to discuss Thoreau and an American idol, I'm Kathleen Burke, Professor of Modern and

Contemporary History at University College London, Stephen Fender, Honorary Professor in English,

also at University College London and Tim Morris Lecturer

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