Sir Walter Raleigh (Biographical Sketch by Henry David Thoreau)

Sir Walter Raleigh by Henry David Thoreau has been reconstructed from notes he wrote for an 1843 lecture and drafts of an article he was preparing for The Dial. It was first published in 1850.

Metcalf writes in his introduction that he knew of three drafts of this essay, and he drew on all three of them to construct the version he prepared. He hinted that there may have been an additional fourth draft that had yet to surface.

The essay praises Sir Walter Raleigh as a flawed but heroic figure,...