ented a machine that ground the plumbago for the leads in the pencils into a very fine powder and developed a combination of the finely ground plumbago and clay that resulted in a pencil that produced a smooth, regular line. This invention was so successful that Thoreau pencils and leads were the direct American competition to the big German pencil manufacturer, Faber.
             Despite the popularity of his accomplishments, being a middle class pencil maker in those days was nothing extraordinary. He had no mansions. He had no trust fund. As a career writer, he had no money of his own to live off of, so he lived with his mentor and famed writer, Ralph Waldo Emerson. Oddly enough, Walden pond and the woods that inspired Thoreau's writings, were owned by Emerson. It is no mystery why exactly Thoreau's essays and thoughts were generated by Emerson. Everything he did, the property he lived on, the food he ate and the circle of friends he had, were all the products of Emerson.
             Many critics believe that Thoreau was a man driven by jealousy and confused with reality. Dr. Maxwell Hunter, a former University of Kentucky philosophy professor, explained "Thoreau was the rebel of transcendentalism. Every belief, faith, or movement has their extremists, and Henry Thoreau was just that. He
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