Henry David Thoreau spent two years, two months, and two days living alone in a cabin by Walden Pond, Massachusetts (1845–1847) — and turned the experiment into Walden; or, Life in the Woods (1854).

Its argument, stripped down: most of what people spend their lives earning, they don't actually need. "I went to the woods because I wished to live deliberately."

A retreat of one person, from society, toward self-sufficiency and attention.