85th Thoreau Society Annual Gathering

Living Well: Thoreau, Health, and Flourishing

“Nature is but another name for health,” Thoreau wrote in “Huckleberries,” an essay he left unpublished at his death at age 44 from tuberculosis. Thoreau celebrated health even as he battled his final illness. He found ways to flourish in spite of a body, and a society, that was anything but well. In our own time, when civic and natural ailments are both chronic and acute, what can Thoreau, and his time, show us about the conditions that promote flourishing—physical, mental, spiritual, social, ecological—as well as the conditions that hinder or prevent it? How can we be well in a troubled world? How can we live well in troubled times? For the 2026 Annual Gathering, we will explore some of the many aspects of health in Thoreau’s world and ours.