Henry David Thoreau (July 12, 1817 - May 6, 1862) was an American author, poet, philosopher, abolitionist, naturalist, tax resister, development critic, surveyor, historian, and leading transcendentalist. He is best known for his book Walden, a reflection upon simple living in natural surroundings, and his essay Civil Disobedience, an argument for individual resistance to civil government in moral opposition to an unjust state. Richard F. Fleck is author of Desert Rims to Mountains High, and also foreword writer for the WestWinds Press: Literary Naturalist Series which includes Alaska Days with John Muir and The Maine Woods. He is editor of A Colorado River Reader. At age seventy-six he remains active by climbing mountains and guiding Sierra Club hikes in Colorado and Utah. He is married to Maura and has three children and seven grandchildren. He teaches occasional classes for Colorado Heights University in retirement.