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After reading “Walden: Or Life in the Woods” half a century after the novel was published, Seth Lesser was inspired to follow the example set forth by Henry David Thoreau. Seth sought to live a simple life, testing his capacity for survival and self-sufficiency. He freed himself from the mundane details of life by retreating into the woods for some time.

Into an upper middle class family of lawyers in Charleston, West Virginia, the man who would follow Thoreau was born in December 2, 1885. Seth Lesser’s family had been moving among affluent circles since the beginning of the 19th century. His family expected him to become just like his father. Mr Lesser was expected to study at Princeton, get a law degree from Harvard and marry an equally wealthy young woman from Charleston. But reading Thoreau was a life-altering even for the young Lesser.
Seth Lesser’s mind was opened to the views of the great heavyweights in literature. For him, nothing compared to Thoreau. He toyed with the idea of living a simple life, if for a while. Seth developed a thirst for understanding the world; he wanted to understand his part in shaping it. And then he just did it: he secluded himself into the woods not far from the home of his family.

A changed man was what Seth Lesser’s family saw when he returned. He shocked his entire family when he announced that he would become a published writer instead of a lawyer like his father and like everyone else in his family. Though a Thoreau Mr Lesser was not, he became enriched by his experience. Turning him into a confident man who was set on his new course was his knowledge backed by experience that he could survive on his own without the trappings of modernity.