This book examines, in detail, about 30 portraits of Henry David Thoreau that were done by American artists between 1854 and the present day. It becomes clear from this study that although Thoreau's features have been "used" in a bewildering variety of ways to convey a host of messages (some of which would have dismayed him), there is a remarkable consistency, and relevance for us today, in what he was trying to convey to his fellow Americans.