Walden is a book written by American transcendentalist Henry David Thoreau. The work is part personal declaration of independence, social experience, spiritual journey of discovery, satire, and self-sufficiency manual. Published in 1854, it details the Thoreau experiences over two years in a cabin he built near Walden Pond, amidst a forest of his friend and mentor Ralph Waldo Emerson, near Concord, Massachusetts.