Editing Henry David Thoreau (section)

===Tuberculosis and death===
Thoreau contracted [[tuberculosis]] in 1835 and suffered from it sporadically afterwards. In 1860, following a late-night excursion to count the rings of tree stumps during a rainstorm, he became ill with [[bronchitis]].<ref>{{Cite book|last=Richardson|first=Robert D. Jr.|title=Faith in a Seed: The First Publication of Thoreau's Last Manuscript|publisher=Island Press|year=1993|editor-last=Dean|editor-first=Bradley P.|location=Washington, D.C.|pages=17|chapter=Introduction}}</ref><ref>[https://www.walden.org/Library/About_Thoreau's_Life_and_Writings:_The_Research_Collections/Thoreau,_the_Man About Thoreau: Thoreau, the Man] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160620045648/http://www.walden.org/Library/About_Thoreau%27s_Life_and_Writings%3A_The_Research_Collections/Thoreau%2C_the_Man |date=June 20, 2016 }}.</ref><ref>[http://thoreau.eserver.org/wfchron.html Thoreau Chronology] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170620133904/http://thoreau.eserver.org/wfchron.html |date=June 20, 2017 }}.</ref> His health declined, with brief periods of remission, and he eventually became bedridden. Recognizing the terminal nature of his disease, Thoreau spent his last years revising and editing his unpublished works, particularly ''The Maine Woods'' and [[Excursions (anthology)|''Excursions'']], and petitioning publishers to print revised editions of ''A Week'' and ''Walden''. He wrote letters and journal entries until he became too weak to continue. His friends were alarmed at his diminished appearance and were fascinated by his tranquil acceptance of death. When his aunt Louisa asked him in his last weeks if he had made his peace with God, Thoreau responded, "I did not know we had ever quarreled."<ref>{{cite book|first=Simon|last=Critchley|title=The Book of Dead Philosophers|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=ME-6IKs4a2sC&pg=PA181|page=181|location=New York|publisher=Random House|date=2009|isbn=978-0307472632|access-date=June 20, 2015|archive-date=August 27, 2021|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210827194251/https://books.google.com/books?id=ME-6IKs4a2sC&pg=PA181|url-status=live}}</ref>

[[File:Grave of Henry David Thoreau.jpeg|thumb|Grave of Thoreau at [[Sleepy Hollow Cemetery (Concord, Massachusetts)|Sleepy Hollow Cemetery]] in Concord]] [[File:David Henry Thoreau.jpg|thumb|Geodetic Marker at Thoreau's gravesite]]
Aware he was dying, Thoreau's last words were "Now comes good sailing", followed by two lone words, "moose" and "Indian".<ref>{{cite web|url=http://writersalmanac.publicradio.org/programs/2008/05/05/|title=The Writer's Almanac|publisher=American Public Media|access-date=June 1, 2017|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170708225006/http://writersalmanac.publicradio.org/programs/2008/05/05/|archive-date=July 8, 2017|url-status=dead}}</ref> He died on May 6, 1862, at age 44. [[Amos Bronson Alcott]] planned the service and read selections from Thoreau's works, and Channing presented a hymn.<ref>{{cite book |last=Packer |first=Barbara L. |year=2007 |title=The Transcendentalists |location=Athens, Georgia |publisher=University of Georgia Press |page=272 |isbn=978-0-8203-2958-1}}</ref> Emerson wrote the eulogy spoken at the funeral.<ref>{{cite magazine|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=NWACAAAAIAAJ&pg=PA239|last= Emerson|first= Ralph Waldo |title=Thoreau|magazine=The Atlantic|date= August 1862|pages=239–}}</ref> Thoreau was buried in the Dunbar family plot; his remains and those of members of his immediate family were eventually moved to [[Sleepy Hollow Cemetery (Concord, Massachusetts)|Sleepy Hollow Cemetery]] in Concord, Massachusetts.