Who is Henry David Thoreau from Selected Writings of Ralph Waldo Emerson and what is their importance?

Henry David Thoreau was a friend and fellow traveler with Emerson in the transcendentalist movement. Thoreau is perhaps best known for his book, Walden Pond, in which he describes building himself a shack in the woods away from civilization where he can live in constant contact with nature. Thoreau built his cabin on part of Emerson's property in Massachusetts. Undoubtedly, Thoreau's influence can be seen in the beatnik philosophy of living an uninhibited lifestyle with few possessions like a creature of nature, and certainly in the "tune in, turn on, drop out" lifestyle of the 1960s that produced communes, co-ops and other forms of alternative living apart from the mainstream of society. A pathological inversion of this ethos can be seen in the story of Ted Kazynski, the so-called "unibomber" who lived in a secluded cabin and mailed explosive devices to his former university associates.