Walden, written by Henry David Thoreau, was first published in 1854. Walden details Thoreau's experiences over the course of two years, two months, and two days in a cabin he built near Walden Pond, amidst nature & ecology, lakes & ponds, and woodland owned by his friend and mentor Ralph Waldo Emerson, near Concord, Massachusetts. The book compresses the time into a single calendar year and uses passages of four seasons to symbolize human development. Henry David Thoreau reflects upon simple living in natual surroundings. The work is part personal declaration of independence, social experiment, voyage of spiritual discovery, satire, and to some degree, a manual for self reliance. Henry David Thoreau was considered a transcendentalist, his work of writings encompasses social sciences, political science, civil rights, and humanities.