从1845年7月4日到1847年9月6日，梭罗独自生活在瓦尔登湖边，差不多正好两年零两个月。瓦尔登湖不仅为梭罗提供了一个栖身之所，也为他提供了一种独特的精神氛围。
1846年2月，梭罗按计划前去康科德城讲课。梭罗准备了一个“我自己的历史”（The History of Myself）的课题。没想到讲座受到观众的热烈欢迎。在这次讲座的启发下，梭罗将自己的讲课提纲加以整理，又经过了很长一段时间的写作，终于完成了Walden，or Life in Woods（《瓦尔登湖，又名林中生活散记》）这部传世的名著。《瓦尔登湖》出版于1854年，这是19世纪美国文学非小说著作中*受读者欢迎的书籍。目前，此书已出现了两百多个版本，并被译成许多种文字。

《瓦尔登湖(英文版)》是公认的*受读者欢迎的非虚构作品。1845年，时年28岁的梭罗在环境优美的瓦尔登湖丛林中度过了两年简朴的隐居生活，思索人生、人与自然的关系，以及现代人在都市生活中所遇到的困窘。这段隐居生活的结果便是这部简单而馥郁、孤独而芬芳的散文集《瓦尔登湖》。此时正值爱默生所倡导的超验主义运动高涨，一时涌现出麦尔维尔、霍桑为代表的一批优秀作家，以学徒、助手身份住在爱默生家里的梭罗凭借这部薄薄的《瓦尔登湖》侧身于这批大作家之林，而毫不逊色。
在美国文学中，在中国，这本书也一直有着稳定的读者群，正如著名作家徐迟所言，当你在内心恬静之时阅读此书，你会觉得它“语语惊人，字字闪光，沁人心脾，动我衷肠”。

Not long since, a strolling Indian went to sell baskets at thehouse of a well-known lawyer in my neighborhood. "Do youwish to buy any baskets？" he asked. "No, we do not want any,"was the reply. "What！" exclaimed the Indian as he went out thegate, "do you mean to starve us？" Having seen his industriouswhite neighbors so well off that the lawyer had only to weavearguments, and, by some magic, wealth and standing followed,he had said to himself: I will go into business; I will weavebaskets; it is a thing which I can do. Thinking that when hehad made the baskets he would have done his part, and then itwould be the white man's to buy them. He had not discoveredthat it was necessary for him to make it worth the other's whileto buy them, or at least make him think that it was so, or tomake something else which it would be worth his while to buy.I too had woven a kind of basket of a delicate texture, but I hadnot made it worth any one's while to buy them. Yet not theless, in my case, did I think it worth my while to weave them,and instead of studying how to make it worth men's while tobuy my baskets, I studied rather how to avoid the necessity ofselling them. The life which men praise and regard as successfulis but one kind. Why should we exaggerate any one kind at theexpense of the others？