Henry David Thoreau lived in a cabin he built at Walden Pond from 1845 to 1847, and published Walden in 1854. It reflects on simplicity, attention, nature and the inner life, and quotes the Bhagavad Gītā, which Thoreau read by the pond. He went to the woods, he wrote in substance, to live deliberately.
Walden
Thoreau’s account of two years living simply by Walden Pond, a classic of contemplative life.
Also: Walden; or, Life in the Woods