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The Thoreau Society has been celebrating its Annual Gathering since its founding in 1941. Thoreau Society members and enthusiasts from around the world gather in Concord each year around the time of Thoreau’s birthday on July 12.

Our Keynote speakers have featured a diverse group of individuals, all inspired by Thoreau in some way, such as Joyce Carol Oates, Arun Gandhi, and Edward O. Wilson. Milestones marked by Annual Gatherings include the discovery of the Walden cabin by Roland Robbins in 1944, the first open house of the Thoreau Institute in 1998, and the celebration of the 200th Anniversary of Thoreau’s birth in 2017.

Thank you for a fantastic 84th Annual Gathering!

2024: Thoreau’s REVOLUTIONS

In 2025, amid the multi-year celebration of the 250th anniversary of the American Revolution, the Annual Gathering explored Thoreau’s efforts to understand the political, social, cultural, economic, and spiritual revolutions that shaped his world, and his efforts to foment revolution in his own time.

Explore the 2025 Annual Gathering Program

Read about the 2025 Annual Gathering Presenters

Watch the 2025 Annual Gathering Recordings

Highlights included:

  • Keynote Speaker Camille T. Dungy on “Against Solitude: Rethinking Thoreau”
  • Featured opening night speaker Peter Wirzbicki
  • Sneak Preview of the forthcoming Henry David Thoreau documentary and a discussion with the directors. 
  • Performance of “Thoreau” movement from Charles Ives’s Second Pianoforte Sonata (Concord, Mass., 1840–60)
  • And over 75 presentations exploring the theme of Thoreau’s Revolutions.

Watch the “Rethinking Revolution” Panel

Did you miss the first panel of the Annual Gathering on June 14? Watch the recording here or on our Youtube channel where more recordings from the Annual Gathering are available.

Previous Annual Gatherings

2024: thoreau & RESILIENCE

In 2024, the Annual Gathering examined Thoreau and resilience writ large — nature’s resilience, Thoreau’s pursuit of cultural and political resilience, the resilient individual who was Thoreau, and the resilience of Thoreau’s legacy in our own times.

Explore the 2024 Annual Gathering Program

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Highlights included the following:

Dana S. Brigham Memorial Keynote Lecture: “Thoreau’s Threshold: Temporal Imagination as Public Good”

The Durable Texts: Editing Thoreau

A Conversation: Personal Stories of Thoreauvian Resilience

2023: thoreau and the politics of extinction

Explore the 2023 Annual Gathering Program

2021: Thoreau and Diversity: People, Principles, and Politics

Explore the 2021 Annual Gathering Program

2019: Engineering Thoreau: Nature, Technology, and the Connected Life

Explore the 2019 Annual Gathering Program

2018: Thoreau’s Ecological and Cultural Vision for a Tolerable Future

Explore the 2018 Annual Gathering Program

2017: thoreau bicentennial

Explore the 2017 Annual Gathering Program

2016: Finding the Extraordinary in the Ordinary: Thoreau as Proto-Ecologist, Reformer, and Visionary

Explore the 2016 Annual Gathering Program

2015: Thoreau’s Sense of Place

Explore the 2015 Annual Gathering Program

2014: Thoreau’s Creative Genius: Connecting the Arts, Sciences, and Higher Law

Explore the 2014 Annual Gathering Program

2013: Henry D. Thoreau: Mystic, Transcendentalist, and Natural Philosopher to Boot

Learn more about the 2013 Annual Gathering

2012: Celebrating 150 Years of Henry David Thoreau’s Life, Works, and Legacy

Learn more about the 2012 Annual Gathering

2011: Henry David Thoreau’s Environmental Ethos: Then & Now

Learn more about the 2011 Annual Gathering

2010: Henry David Thoreau & New England Transcendentalism: Then & Now

Learn more about the 2010 Annual Gathering

2009: Social Awareness: Thoreau and the Reform Movement

Learn more about the 2009 Annual Gathering

2008: The Individual and the State: The Politics of Thoreau in Our Time

Learn more about the 2008 Annual Gathering

2007: Simplify, Simplify: Thoreau’s Timeless Message

Learn more about the 2007 Annual Gathering

2006: Mountains, Seashores, Moonlight: Thoreau’s Exploration of Wildness

Learn more about the 2006 Annual Gathering

2005: Thoreau: Nature, Science, and Higher Laws

Learn more about the 2005 Annual Gathering

2004: Walden: Of Its Time, For Our Time

Learn more about the 2004 Annual Gathering

2003: thoreau and the emerson influence

Learn more about the 2003 Annual Gathering

2002: The Spiritual and Political Mind of Thoreau

Learn more about the 2002 Annual Gathering

2001: 60th Anniversary of the thoreau society

Learn more about the 2001 Annual Gathering

Get news from the Thoreau Society and learn about ways you can help preserve Thoreau Country as part of our common heritage and as the embodiment of Thoreau’s landmark contributions to social, political, and environmental thought.

The Thoreau Society®, Inc.
341 Virginia Road, Concord, MA 01742
P: (978) 369-5310
F: (978) 369-5382
E:  info@thoreausociety.org

Educating people about the life, works, and legacy of Henry David Thoreau, challenging all to live a deliberate, considered life—since 1941.

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Any views, findings, conclusions, or recommendations expressed do not necessarily represent those of the National Endowment for the Humanities.

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