First published in 1854, Walden is a book of Henry David Thoreau, anddetails his experience of living two years, two months and two days, in a cabin that he built near Walden Pond, amidst woodland owned by his friend and mentor Ralph Waldo Emerson, near Concord, Massachusetts.During this time Thoreau gained a more objective understanding of society through personal introspection. simple living and self-sufficiency .