The Writings of Henry David Thoreau: Reform Papers.

The selections from the polemical writings of Thoreau that make up Reform Papers represent every stage in his twenty-two years of active writing. Consequently, they are a microcosm of his literary career, allowing the reader to achieve a full sense of Thoreau’s evolution as a writer and thinker. The volume opens with “The Service,” one of the best examples of Thoreau’s early style and interests, and contains ten other essays as well.


Reform Papers:

• The Service


• Paradise (To Be) Regained


• Herald of Freedom


• Wendell Phillips Before Concord Lyceum


• Resistance to Civil Government


• Slavery in Massachusetts


• A Plea for Captain John Brown


• Martyrdom of John Brown


• The Last Days of John Brown


• Life without Principle


• Reform and the Reformers